Now That You Have a Data System, How Do You Use It? story by peter krause + photos as credited acquisition systems have come a long way since 970s, when th 1g up in the inks. Today's GPS-based technology is more ey started showin, poweeful, more elizbleand more attainable. The icky par is understanding Bu and gload infor fF ehose wavy lines rpeting the data has become easier. Speed tion displayed! lor-coded track maps allows for quick nolo parisons, Sensors and wiring looms are necessary because everything is self-contained. Pe loaded templates allow observant drivers to coach them Driver inputs are recorded accurately enough to plenty of areas for improvement—if you know where to Took. Done forget, che most powerful tool is worthless if you dant know how to use it Frustrated users ref these devices as expensive lap timers. Others post aw video to the Web before their brakes, get cold, rarely overlaying speed, fiction circle or lp times. \ pher 4 youte looking for—and Few simple features everytime out makes i easy to identify weaknesses in your driving, Understanding ese simple X-Y graphs and looking at a properly driven riesion circle can yield a lot of insight. (For Further read: ing on the subjece, be sure to check out “Making Sense of Squiggly Lines,” now available from Motec USA West sguru Chris Brown.) nethod for optimizing drives begins wich reviewing theirdata,jettsoning the 80 percent af it char demon their good skills, and identi whar's keeping them from making a big leap forward in performance. [lke co harvest the low-hanging fruit first. T use velocity (speed) and distance (positon) along with ental sl Aer that, we move on to perfecting that crucial transition betwen brah nd selecting proper comer entry speed Finally, we explore haw soon to apply the eheotte wher ‘exiting a comer and how long to keep it planted before the Speed vs. istance To begin, let's usea simple speed vs. distance graph. The speed trace indicates both minimum and maximum speeds, which helps determine gearing. It also provides the rare at which speed rises and fal ‘When setting up thiskind of graph, plot distance instead of time on the x-axis, Distance is much more consistent when formance between cars and drivers, regardless of hcr lap times. Diseance ‘compating relative p ‘occu, while time shows how long they las Reading the graph is easy: As speed increases, che trace rises, Lower geass will produce a steeper climb. The speed ‘car approaches terminal velocity trace flattens ourwhen climbs hill, or maincains steady-state trode, Then there's braking; ‘The harder the beak falls, Coasting? The trae lowers Teeally, the trace should be times, Anything else means time was wast the more sharply the trace ty 5 falling tall course had a very long corne Grassroots Motorsports 109> LEM LS (Clean Up Acceleration-to-Brake Transitions fread left.o right, every point inthe average graph can represent a distance of car lengths. When transitioning from fall acceleration to sanding on the brakes, che goal is to doitin the shortest diseance possible. Ifyou use up too much real esate going from che gas othe brake, you'e giving up valuable ticks of the clock. Countless drivers are convinced they ton the gs righe up tothe brake poine, but lazy, Aattened or gently curved “peaks tel the rel story. Speed should rise to a sharp point and then drop like a stone, indicating the braking zone, Here isa proper approach to Turn | at VIR (black erace) and one that needs more commitment in the transition (red trace) yaaEEnexe ‘Approach toT1 Improve Braking Technique: When applying brakes, make sure youre “drawing” a downward trace that linear and nearly vertical. This is especially important if you need to lose alo of speecl—say, more than 30 mph. If your downward trace isn linea, i¢ means that your brake pedal pressure was inconsistent, Remember, you work save any time by [king the ear co ba. Tell what eo do. Proper release of the brake is important, too. Be careful that you dont life yout foo prematutely when entering slower comer —one youd than 60 mph. This will result in a © (se the red trace in Graph 2 fra “double dip” (lke the blue tace in Graph 2) through comer entry Douit Oveilow the Turns: Thanks othe cfets of aerodynamics, fist connersand slow comets wil yield dfleren oped ve distance "allys” beck to power produces Vshaped curve Tuan 1a VIR (shown in Graph 3) produces a V-shaped trace. Lie Jacke Suva sys she goals to apy che choad ony when youesure Fer comers—ones you can take at 70 mph or more—produce low tao cover more pound in sine: Bakes ae eased gently and hore quceed progres ely on thre ums Br factors poe gent slopeson the pap, Tum 10 at VIR yc a nie Ushaped ace IF your transitions back to power in fst comer produce V-shaped traces, you probably oveslowing and saying onthe rakes oo lng. T10 17 ‘Acceleration and Braking vs, Distance Next, selece the trace thar shows acceleration/baking or longieudinal srload vs. distance. According to standard engineering practice, these graphs depice acceleration forces rising above the horizontal zeroraxis and braking forces dipping below. The greater the deceleration rate, he farther che trace falls under that line Tragview and TragStudio graphs, on the other hand, display the vertical measures in the opposite direction, Braking forces rise above the horizontal axis, while acceleration forces dip below No road racing car ean accelerate as quickly as i can slow, so focus on using your vehicle to its maximum poteatil in all respects. The most common area for improvement —and one that yields huge benefis when ddone properly—is slowing the car. Lee's continue with our tps ‘Stop Short: Ta slow your car efficiently, apply the brakes to she poine ‘of maximum deceleration over the shortest distance possible. The trace should reach peal values steeply Longer braking zones should produce a trace that stays ata igh evel and then tails off ar the end on a flat and level eack-—Hike the black. Our author, Peter Krause (on right), is an expert at helping drivers condense mountains of raw data into nuggets fof wisdom that can lower lap times. GPS data logging systems are incred ily powerful, bu ike any capable 1001, they yield when the user has a bit of trainingtrace in Graph 4. With mast drivers, as their eyes gee bigger, they press harder on the pedal (See the red erace in Graph 4.) Some drivers are not consistent with their pedal pressure when they heel and toe, and this is shown by the blue tace in Graph 4, i i oo Shift Quickie Without mashing che gearbox, save ime by shi more qu. The andar yeh box tse keno rove has 0135 second a shown by de black ace in Graph 6 ‘Most driver take longer than that some a ong at 0.8 second (ed tricein Graph 6). Wich dog ring, nonsyncho gearbor, the shift may be hardly noticeable, as shown bythe Blac tac Graph 5 Sep oanmaseaeie ‘hing fr Tt - eps One Teeunpons A, Dont Lif Meni life o breaths off the throtle by looking ata longnidinal vs disance gph. Oveteying graphs can help you target "When studying this ace, be sure o consider how sterngsrub can slow lower-powered ear ast goes up ail. The black tac in Graph 6 chows a driver who isa through the Uphill Bes ax VIR (Turns 9). Amore conservative driver stars wit longer ifs red tac in Graph 6) and finisher wih shorter nes (blue trace in Graph 6) (ateral gLoad vs Distance ‘A lateral g-load vs. distance graph can reveal the true measure of your cornering technique. Lets ic the books fora minuce. A 1987 data requisition device called the gAnalyst came with a great booklee written by journalse and Indy 500 racer Pat Bedard, Grassroots Motorsports 112 Init, Bedard explained optimal cornering technique and showed how carly curn-in ave turn-in and ragged turns could be detected in the g-load data. Those lessons sil hold true roday The black trace in Graph 7 shows what happens when a driver euras in too carly at VIR' Turn 4, We can seea gentle ise in lateral loading, chen a big increase, then an ebb. Ths results from the driver “crabbing in’ —that is, leaving the outside ofthe road too early, taking a shallow entry angle, and then having co tusn the wheel subscandaly to negotiate che corner. TThe blue trace in Graph 7 shows a driver who has good discipline but still needs some work. The late curnin is properly executed, but perhaps too much track is available ar the exit. The data shows an absence of lateral loading, chen a quick building of fores early in the corer, and finally along ebb. ‘Wane co see the turn taken correctly? The red trace in Graph 7 shows 2 driver who preserves cosner entry speed and allows for the longest, most, productive duration of cornering g-loads, Friction Cirle The friction cree illustrates che forces acting on the car as wel as its transitions between braking and cornering. When it comes to grip, keep this in mind: You ean use 100 percent of your tires grip while braking accelerating or comering, Asking the ear co change ies state in mulkiple ways ac once—for example, braking while turing into a comer—tequires you to divide that 100 percent of avilable grip between inputs. Your goal iso comeas close as possible ro maximum grip while performing any combina. sion ofthese tasks on track, Every data review program can display these forees on in an X-Y graph Each doc in Graph 8 is a sample of g-load measurements collected over time, The red circles indicate the 1.25g (inner) and 2.5g (outee) points, ‘The peak value for grip obviously depends on the tie, but inthis case anything over 1.25g i very good. ‘When a driver doesnt use all ofthe available grip ina transition, the dots will form 2 condensed convex shape becween maximum braking and cornering, This is shown in che left half of Graph 8 ‘When the ties traction limit is used more eficienty—remember were crying wo use 100 percent af the tires grip —the sample dot stare ro extend cowards our circular ideal. This is showin inthe right half of Graph 8 ice po sme 3259 Frain Gros Fating Acoma | (Cenotanal | hy Papnsiase = comering Later gs ‘ieee CODD Site by Side "Now that we can read and interpret the data, how can we use it? One way is to focus on the dets-T measurements, also called time slip or time gap measurements,e104, ES Lets say we want to compare two different drivers, and they happen odie simile cas—Spee Miaus, [gay Sea STENT =] | Spec Race Fords or whatever. Were ater | SS eeaoIe reneesin technique. Inourexample, Driver || pm Black = 20175 the sed trace in Graph 9) is losing time a eel Hog Pen Wiebke acrmtelngeeatons: | Welluse the speed vs, distance feature and overlay i he two laps. Then well selec the delt-T feature mm | The eo lines tell the whole story Ignoring che somal, temporary peaks and valleys around braking |) [_™1 z a Lind 1] ones, the difference between the two lines shows | there tmeis gained erlom: Wecan xensooman_| f a aati 2571107 broking t | fon their specific daa co find out who's maximizin rien “Al. rote and using al of che track. i braking » oy J 28716 braking | Putting Your Best Lap Forward 35 T14 broking } [Now we can use this data for one more d puting cogether the best lap possible and measuring driver consistency. Most data acquisition sofware rakes this easy thanks toa feature ypically called ideal lap, theoretieal hes lap or best rolling lap, This feature combines the b segments from a session to form a lap of the driver's great- Most GPS data «st hits. That best-of lapis then compared co the divers acral best lap. A few data system an extremely quisition systems include lta-T feature software packages will even allow the users to graph the difference between the ewo, but most shHOwS exactly where time was lost in & will a lease show the best theoretical time and che best actual time -omparison between two laps. In the case A quick waming, though: Physics often prevents a driver from achieving the best theoretical of two drivers sharing the same car, the ap, a8 going faster through one segment may compromise the next, However, the spread between slower driver can take cues from the faster the theoretical best lap and che actual best lap should be relatively narrow. one to get up more quickly The best pro drivers are generally within 0300.7 second oftheir theoretical best times. The best ama ‘eur divers come within 05 00.9 second, while most accomplished drivers ae off by 0.7 to 1-1 seconds. your gap is any wider chan thac during a session, it may be time to the fundamentals—and get back to a ye @ leading va added dealer for Tagrmate, Video fc ae ir- Fe 8 a ST ae PON © True 1080p HD Video @ Multi-car Playback Crisp Color Touchscreen @ Gauges and Shift Lights Deg Cm Nee Bede Red PRR TAerL Lee yed BRU tel