docwyte

So it allows you to compare your lap vs a friend?

Tigers10

This is an awesome update! FYI, you may need to go into your app store to manually update your app before the new functionality appears.

Cory M

I don't really care about the stava style leaderboard but the curve overlays in the app are cool. Would be nice if you could replay the video too, but probably difficult due to memory issues. Hopefully they improve the ability to zoom in on the curves.

sonorous

I was playing with this more today and really like it. This will be a very powerful tool once the leaderboard database is more full. The ability to find a faster lap from another driver in a similar car and then compare the details is significant. This is a common technique that professional instructors use and it this makes it very accessible to amateurs coaching themselves. Below is a quick comparison I did of my wife and I in the same car. It just highlights how the tool can be used to focus on places where time is lost or gained and the difference in throttle commitment, breaking points, corner speed, etc.

I actually use Strava in a very similar way when I am looking for time in a specific MTB segment. I find a faster rider and overlay the metrics to find areas to target for improvement.

docwyte

Ok, but you don't really know if it's a similar car or not. You have no idea what the setup of the other car is, they could be running Hoosiers or slicks, or be on a zillion dollar suspension, or, or, or....

sonorous

I think that others could give a better response to your point than I but, I don't think it is as important to find an identical car as you make it sound. Anything close should give good information. I would not compare a Cayman S on street tires to a Radical but most similar cars with similar lap times will be valuable. Slicks vs. street tires, GT vs. aero car, those make big differences. What the analysis can show is braking points, braking G's, min corner speed, etc. which has value in looking for areas of improvement.

For me it happens to to easier as I drive either a GT4 Clubsport or GMX5 Cup. Both of those cars are essentially spec cars and tend to be very similar. They are also very popular so it is easier to find exact reference points.

docwyte

OK, but for those of us with street cars it makes a huge difference, we're not in spec cars. The braking G's, cornering G's and brake points will be very different on street tires or NT01's vs Hoosiers or slicks. To try and replicate what someone did on Hoosiers/slicks, assuming they were on a similar street type tire will create some brown moments for sure

jreifler

What you could do is try to start a Garmin thread for best track times / recorded laps at a given track. Each post would include pertinent specs for the car in question. That’s how it’s done in the GT4 sub-forums. Otherwise it will be impossible to get meaningful comparisons.

Cory M

I didn't realize you could compare your data to others in the app, I was just looking at my own. That's pretty cool.

Edit- I looked into the leaderboard more and it's not as useful as I thought (yet). Very few people have a public profile which means you can't see anything but their best lap time. If someone does have a public profile and you want to see anything of substance you have to add them as a friend. Still not sure if that will let you compare data. It would be nice if personal details were anonymous but you could just compare curves, look speeds in corners, etc.

jreifler

They’d have to jump through a lot more privacy hoops to make that data publicly available without end users expressly opting in. I agree it would be great to see that level of detail. They could do a “global” opt-in at the outset of signing up for the app. That would theoretically allow them to share all data without users having to add individual friends. I’d be surprised if their lawyers hadn’t considered that, and opted not to take that step. State, National, international privacy regimes get complex fast with software that processes personal data.

ProCoach

In the larger scope, much more variance between drivers than cars.

No. The laws of physics don’t know the difference. While the absolute measures may vary somewhat, the goals, trend lines and shapes of the charts, as well as the geometry of the line, should be the same.

docwyte

Guess I'm not following you there. Hoosiers are worth at least 2 seconds a lap at my home track. If I see someone else with a 996 turbo who's faster and I send it trying to match their cornering speeds, that's going to end poorly for me. Let alone changes in suspension, aero, turbo's, etc. My friend is substantially faster than me with the "same' car, but it's not the same as he has triple adjustable Penske's, has aero and makes 50% more power than me, sometimes is on hoosiers, etc. Without knowing that, looking at his segments and trying to replicate them would be dangerous

Mikelly

In your car with your setup and with you driving, it's worth two seconds per lap. In say a 944Spec with Jason Stanley, maybe they're only good for 2 seconds per lap for 4-5 laps then they fall off so much that someone on an Toyo RR might catch him, if it's a 40 minute/25 lap race.

For those of us who have been running spec classes, this is huge. A number of the 944Spec guys will def. take advantage of this.

ProCoach

Your painting with a broad brush vehicle equipment and power differences being an automatic advantage are not at all supported by the tens of thousands of driver and car data that I have.

Just too much difference in how well drivers take advantage of the “advantages.”

As far as the leaderboard, I don’t put too much stock in trying to replicate other drivers, because few are modeling correct best executions of fundamental skills and there is too much of a difference between good and great drivers.

There are patterns of driver control inputs that are simply better and more optimal than others.

Simply bolting on triples from Penske will NOT make the car faster. You HAVE to have a driver that will take advantage of the improvement in transient behavior to push and register that expanded capability.

You wil find that cornering speeds are remarkably close between cars with differing suspension packages and tires even, it’s leading up to that and coming off the corners is where there’s a real difference.

Otherwise, why do I measure an SCCA Spec Miata National Champion getting higher vMins in non-aero corners (under 75 mph) than a LeMans winner in Riley’s Daytona Prototype MKXX going thirty seconds a lap quicker at VIR?

I can supply thousands of like examples, like SPC corner speeds quicker than front running B1 cars, or 996 Cup cornering quicker than a reasonably well driven 991.2 Cup. The list goes in and on.

The DRIVER is the greatest performance variable in the driving equation…

ProCoach

Yes, for spec classes, this is going to be helpful to people to bootstrap their performance.

To find and focus on the areas that make the biggest difference.

Drivers drive to what they THINK is the limit, not what IS the limit.