I am going to be trying out some GPS tracking kit at this weekend's trackday to see if it will map the racing line of the track (assuming I manage to find it). It will allow the car to be tracked online in realtime via a web page and give speed and other information. It was developed by my old boss and we are both keen to see how it performs at higher data rates. If possible I will post up a link to the page with a login and you'll be able to follow me round on the map ans track for the next few days!

 

Always trying out cool new stuff, aren't you Simon?! I'm really looking forward to this one!!

Oh, and Matt from PTCrew says "hi".

 

Well, life would be boring otherwise and this stuff was a 'freebee' so I thought I would give it a try Since I had the console in bits whilst playing with the yaw sensor slotted the tracker in and went for run this evening and then checked out the log. It looks really cool as it plots you on Google Maps.



Here's a rough plan of the tomorrow's track at Bruntingthorpe (same track as the videos, not sure why the 747 isn't in the middle like normal.) They do change it a bit with cones on the long back straight to stop people bouncing off the rev limiter in top gear in the screamers; I only get up to 5th in the Crossfire about 110-115 just past the apex of the 'elbow' in the centre of the pic. Here's a video of a not particularly fast lap from a while back to help visualize it. Video Lap



Yes, I really must catch up with Matt too, its been a while since I spoke with him. I still drop in on the 'Crew every now and then to see what's going on.

 

Very cool new toy! Would that be accurate enough for a person to, say, see if they are running a consistent line around the course? If so, that would be a VERY good tool to use in conjunction with in car video.

Cheers!

 

You're obviously on my wavelength TimeLord! That is exactly what I have planned. The test I did this evening showed several lines I took through some roundabouts quite well so hopefully it will be accurate enough on the track. We are keen to see how it works out since it was not originally developed for such a fast data rate. I also want to sync it to the logged OBD data - throttle position etc. If it looks promising I may see if it can be developed further into a proper racing data acquisition system. The guy that programmed it will probably be in the passenger seat tomorrow if I can persuade him to operate a laptop at 100 mph.
Also got the ESP/TC completely disabled and running on less than perfect tyres and brakes for this session so it should be 'interesting'.

 

Just watched the video, really cool , WOW you get around a lot of cars in that slow lap...and with no gloves tough guy...keep up the good work.

 

OMG!!! You put the steering wheel back on the wrong side of the car!!!

And you MUST turn the stereo down some... that must really be distracting.

Excellent fun you're having there... take some video of the track with the new tracking toy in place... love to see it compared to the data. Should be 'Brilliant!'.

Cheers!

 

At the risk of embarrassing woody a little here, I've seen videos of his track days before he had the Crossfire, meaning he was tracking a PT Cruiser and still passing cars all over the place!! And the PT he was driving was a Euro spec 150 HP (thereabouts) 2.0L, NOT the 220 HP 2.4L US spec PT GT!!! Simply put, the man can drive!!

 

Your too kind Mike :BLUSH:

You are obviously thinking of this:
PT at brunt low res.

But forgot about these:

PT Oops! Hitting 5th instead of 3rd
Xfire Oops! Failing to warm up the brakes!

TimeLord: here's one where I have the wheel on the 'right' side.
911 at Brunt

 

Great videos, I love the sound of squealing tires...

 

That's an extremely fast track... reminds me of California Speedway...

Buttonwillow only lets us barely get over 100 mph on the front straight... everything else is technical.

Now I'm really gettin the itch to go again... I'm gonna pull out my DVDs of my old sessions and get prepped for Buttonwillow in October... Wheee!!!

 

I've been using one of these for autocross...pretty neat.

http://www.race-technology.com/dl1_8_936.html

The software is more road-racing oriented than autox, so it's a little awkward to do the analysis, but interesting. I'm only using the accelerometer and GPS data at this point, but the thing will handle a ton of other inputs...would be cool to add stuff like throttle position, yaw sensor, wheel speed sensors, etc.

 

They changed the configuration slightly today on the back straight and I think it is even faster, but its now harder on the brakes as a result! The instructors say that 'elbow' is flat in anything they have ever driven there. I actually make quite a bit of ground on the big boys there when the have a little lift (some even brake, which you definitely don't want to do there!) Its annoying because they out drag you out of the last bend down the straight then they baulk you at the 'elbow' and you end up having to lift and get caught by the guy behind. I'm am convinced your SRT would be almost uncatchable around here; more power, more brakes, tighter suspension etc.

Looking forward to the videos of Buttonwillow.

 

Very valuable tools IMHO Simon, I demo'd one of these at the track a few weeks ago but decided to save my pennies for other toys... http://www.maxqdata.com/

Let us know how it worked for you...

 

I've not had chance to look at the data yet. It was quite funny because the guy that programmed it wanted to come along for a ride but didn't know how to find the track, so he tracked me on the internet and found me! When he arrived he even told me which village I'd been out to at lunchtime to fill up with fuel. If it all works out OK I will see if I can persuade them to do a special track version for us - the guy sits next door to me in the office!

NoCones: One of the Carrera 2 guys had some of that kit fitted - very useful stuff.

 

I'd pony up for that little box in a second... along with a proper high speed data acquisition box... add that to my cameras and I get a really cool and useful way to review my runs.

Thanks for all your 'work' in this area...

 

I've just had a word with the Mark at ActiveTrack to see what data was logged. The way I was operating the system I did not pick up the start and finish triggers properly so could not instantly overlay the plot on the map. We have the raw data though and it should just be a question of putting some event tags in to the data table. I've also discussed hooking up to the OBD port to combine that data. The big issue will be resolution, I think it would be fine for the likes of us, but I don't think the F1 boys would be impressed.

Whilst messing with the ESP (it was great not to have that kicking in) I also realized that we may be able to tap into the steering angle and brake pressure sensors. This is when the system starts to become really powerful because you are monitoring driver input as well as what the car is doing.

 

That's some of the input I had in mind as well. I don't care so much what the car is doing, I want to compare what I'm doing to the car as it moves around the track.

The big point I need to work on is my braking distance, I either brake too early or to late. And I tend to use the habit from the street of coasting just a bit before slamming the brakes. This will be the main thing I work on at Buttonwillow in October.

Cheers!