orthojoe

ApexPro Digital Track Coach Review



I've always been a sucker for electronic gadgets and toys. There is a new product out there for track day people designed to help us learn how to become better drivers called to ApexPro Digital Track Coach. I had never heard of the product until Clark from Apex Performance told me about it recently and suggested that I test out the product. The checked out the website, and it seemed interesting, but the website didn't really give a ton of information and left me with a lot of questions.

https://www.apextrackcoach.com/

The premise of the device is very simple. It's an LED bar that shows how much more you have to go in terms of the limit of the car when it comes to traction/grip. If the bar is totally green, you are at the limit. If there is red, you are not there. From what I gather, the device is an accelerometer that calculates Gsum and can figure out what the max Gsum is for your car at any point on the track. Gsum is the combination of Gs from multiple different axes. Your tires can only handle so many Gs before they break loose and this device can tell you how far you are away. It's not a simple constant number, either. That 'max' will change based on weather, track conditions, tires, and each corner of a track. You can see what the limit is while you are driving with the LED lights and you can review afterwards on an app which displays the track and how you did on each corner. It also gives you a total 'score'. The unit also acts as a lap timer, which I've found to be accurate. I've only seen a few hundreths of a second time disparity between the apex unit and my AiM solo DL. A neat feature is that your lap times will live stream to a server so anyone who is interested can download the app and watch your times roll off live as you drive.

Getting the device setup is super simple. You just mount the device however you want. They supply a magnetic mount that attaches with adhesive. I've found attaching it to a solid suction cup mount allows better visualization while driving. If you mount it on the steering column like I did on the GT3, you can't see while the steering wheel is turned. After you mount the unit, just turn it on, and then use your app to connect to the unit so it can stream/collect the data/times. It needs to be calibrated when you first mount it using the app. One thing that wasn't addressed is a battery indicator. You have no idea how much battery life is left in the device and how long it needs to be charged. That being said, I left it on an entire day and the battery didn't go dead.

Here is a video of the device running in my GT3:


You can see that the steering wheel blocks the view
This is the data summary of my laps that the app displays:

Attachment 1353289

Here is a video of the device running in my GT4. Way off pace of my best time for various reasons, but gives you a good idea of what the device does.


The suction cup mount is much easier to see
This is the data summary of one of my laps:

Attachment 1353290

Based on what I see here, it appears that most of my time improvement potential seems to be in braking.
If you look at the video, I've calculated Gsum from my SoloDL data using racestudio2 math channel, I and displayed it on a bar gauge for you to compare to the ApexPro unit. I use Gsum to determine how well I am executing a corner. This is a VERY useful tool to see how you are doing at the corners and braking. For those of you who have interest in learning how to calculate and read Gsum, the apex pro will basically do it for you. The interesting thing is how the Apex track coach can determine what the Gsum limit is for each corner since it will be different based on the camber/elevation/tires/conditions/etc.
So the real question that every wants to know is, 'Will this device make me faster??'
The answer is, yes, but you have to use it properly. I think the best way to take advantage of this device is reviewing video of you driving which includes the device in the camera view so you can see points where you can go faster. It is difficult to pay attention to the device while you are driving.
I think that if data logging and interpretation is a foreign concept to you, then this is a great device for you.
If you are a data geek, then that data you are sifting through Aim Solo and Vbox data has just as much to offer and more.
If you are novice, intermediate, or slower advance driver, I think the device can be very helpful. This is a much better tool to spend money on rather than a harry’s laptimer that most people start off with.
If you are a seasoned, fast driver, I think you'll find that most of the cornering is green and your butt will tell you if you can go faster just as well as the lights can. There's also the issue that if you are driving near 10/10ths, you aren't going to be look at lights.

This unit has the most value if you are running video that shows your driving as well as the lights. Most people aren’t going to be able pay attention to the lights in the middle of a corner they are trying their best to manage. Reviewing afterwards on video is akin to reviewing the Gsum meter I calculate and display in my videos. Again, if you're not a video/data nerd, then this device will bypass the hurdle of learning how to do what I do with my videos.

Lots of cool stuff coming out for track days these days. The ApexPro unit is something that can be useful for a lot of people. If you're interested, contact/PM Clark-ApexPerformance. Here is a link to their website:

http://www.apexperformance.net/APEX-Pro_c_241.html

Hope that helps!

tstafford

Yep. I have one too. The simplicity is what makes it so great. Charge it up, put it on the mount and go. Has definitely made me faster and also helped me know what to ask my coach. It's a bargain IMO.

montoya

Yes, in your videos all I see is full green all the time! Seems like a nice gadget to get someone up to speed. It would be cool if there was a sensitivity setting to get that last tenth out of your lap. Not necessarily for a track car because it would be too dangerous, but in a race car where we often go over the limit to actually find the limit, it would be cool if you had such a device that would stay red until you are at say, 98% or 99% of the corning limit. That way, if you have a corner you are having difficulty with, you can dial it in with the device. High speed corners like T1 at Thunderhill come to mind- the limit is hard to approach because of the speed and invariably something is left on the table.

Thanks for posting! Nice laps at Sonoma! Maybe I need you to coach me around there! Next year we are having the Runoffs there and I need to get faster!

apextrackcoach

Awesome review Joe, all very good points. Keep the comments coming, we want to hear from our users to improve the device! Feel free to reach out to me here on Rennlist, or at andrew@apextrackcoach.com to make comments and suggestions.

We're working on a battery life indicator right now, as well as a feature to set custom start/finish coordinates. We have also hired an Android developer to bring it up to par with our iOS app.

Killer laps Joe!

Andrew

orthojoe

Thanks, man! Happy to throw out my 2 cents on Sonoma anytime!

There is a sensitivity setting. In the gt3 video it is in the middle/intermediate setting. In the gt4 video it is in the high/expert setting.

kfmcmahon

Andrew, I see you are in Birmingham....have you approached the PSDS instructors to get them in the cars there (especially the RS)?

boxer-11

I'm a wannabe data nerd so this is pretty interesting to me.

I'd agree that G-Sum is practical with existing data logging equipment and it's one of the channels I look at a lot.

To me the interesting twist here is that this gadget appears to be trying to tell you both how much grip you are using and how much extra you could be using. Is that a reasonable interpretation??

There are ways that I've found to look at available grip from raw data but either I'm not expert enough or they are tangential rather than direct. For example, under-/over- steer measures...but to get those to work you need data that isn't typically available from AiM or RaceLogic systems -- steered angle (tire not steering wheel) or yaw rate and the like. I'm sure you can get those from more pro gear setups though.

The Apex DTC box seems to give you that directly though...fascinating.

I read through the notes above and the web collateral on their site but I'm still a little unclear on a couple of things.

For instance I think I see in some videos times when the steering is straight and the driver is probably on full throttle but the display is part red, part green. How do you interpret that?? Does that really mean there is time to be had on the straight (and if so, where)??

Second, some of the time all the LEDs are used and some of the time some are unlit. What's the significance of the number of LEDs lit at any one time??

And a curiosity question...if this gadget has a learning system in it, do you have to do a lap or two before it's really able to give a good assessment of available grip??

tstafford

Yes. You need to give it about two laps before it provides any meaningful response. And it continues to improve as you pick up speed.

randr

It looks like it uses lineal g and lateral g to determine the cars friction circle and from there estimates potential improvement. Im not sure how much different it is to keeping an eye on your g meter and feeling for feathering........or have I missed something?????

Manifold

How does it know where the limit is? If someone consistently drives up to 0.1 G under the limit - thinking they've reached the limit - how would it know there's another 0.1 G in the tires?

Seems like it has to guess where the limit is based on inference from the driver's driving, and then it's value would be in telling the driver where he's inconsistent in the sense of being below his own limit (not the car's limit).

orthojoe

"Is that a reasonable interpretation" - yes, that would be a good interpretation

I asked about the why the display is red when you are full throttle down the straight. The answer I was given was that it is measuring current Gs next to 'POTENTIAL' Gs. In a straight, you are not using all of the available grip, hence the red bar. It doesn't mean there is more time to be had.

You ask a good question about why not all of the LEDs are used every time. I was wondering that myself the other day. Maybe apextrackcoach/andrew can chime in on this one.

You do have to a couple of laps for it to get a baseline. After that, it will continually adjust throughout the day. I was told it will hold what it learns as long as you don't turn off the unit. So, basically turn it on at the beginning of the day and don't turn it off again until the end of the day.

You've got it right. Not everyone has a way to display Gs live that can be easily seen as you drive, and not everyone knows how to display Gsum data posthoc on video to review. This is a way to do it easily.

orthojoe

Great question. In my conversation with andrew, I was told that if you are only driving at 6/10ths of the car's limit, it probably won't be able to determine the full capability of the vehicle. It is helpful to probe the limits in order for the software to make precise predictions/calculations

Manifold

The same principle applies to 9/10ths too. If the driver never goes past that, I don't see how the device can know where 10/10ths is. I suppose the device can get some idea from braking if the driver is at least willing to brake close to where the ABS kicks in, but my peak lateral G is sometimes higher than my peak braking G, probably in part due to the effect of camber.

And conversely, if the grip goes down due to tire aging, etc., I wonder how long it will take the device to learn that the G forces are going down because of that rather than the driver not driving hard enough.

orthojoe

Great points.

TRAKCAR

Thanks Joe, I was looking forward to your write up!



All I got was this part
"if you are driving near 10/10ths, you aren't going to be look at lights."

And that lap in the GT3 is super sexy driving.
Is that your PB? that's the one I'm going to be watching on the plane ride over