Veloce Raptor

HA!

Gary R.

What a great deal! $160K for an Excursion with a hopped up gas motor! I think i'll buy an 05 Excursion, have a custom car shop put in a crate Duramax with Allison 7 speed, have more Torque and save $100K!

pontifex4

Speaking of excursions, I was at Watkins Glen for the second time this past weekend, and I had a chance to record some video and basic data.

Can I get some suggestions on where I can improve?

(Three laps -- the last two are a little faster).

ProCoach

Charlie, need your speed vs distance trace...

Gary R.

Not that i'm a coach, but it looks like a nice smooth, relatively consistent set of laps. Can the car go faster, absolutely. DE, second time at WGI, I think you are driving well but my "Let's Go Faster" method of stabbing you in the knee with a push-pin will help you gain time from T2-T5...

Google "Let's Go Faster" and you can buy my 1 page pamphlet on winning on Amazon.. you will be the 1st! I would buy it but I want to win!

pontifex4

Thanks, Peter. I'm attaching it below. I just did laps 3 and 4 from the video for simplicity.

Ha. Thanks, Gary. I'll see if I can rig up one of those mechanical drinking birds to do that, though. The extra weight of a passenger would slow me down.

ProCoach

Charlie, I want you to remove the Lateral G's trace and add the Time Gap vs Distance.

I want to see the time gained or lost between the two laps shown. I see variance in your braking for Turn 1, how quick and how much throttle coming OUT of Turn 5, some very minor difference in braking for Turn 6 and Turn 8 and serious difference in the throttle release then then final application in Turn 10 (may be traffic).

First, what I recommend is to do as you already have and lay over the two best laps. Then, identify where there is the most difference and try and get in your head a more detailed (and ultimately execute a more disciplined) plan for those spots.

You can show the two laps in different colors by opening the same data file a second time and selecting the desired, different lap.

Shifts are slow going up before T2, going down to the Toe and cresting the hill before Turn 8. Should be as fast as top gear shift on the back straight.

Lastly, I see great opportunity (with no or very little additional risk) in being more urgent in throttle application (speeding up the time it takes you to push down on the throttle more) coming out of braking for the Bus Stop (finished braking too soon?), T6, T7, T9 and T10.

Turn 11 is good, though! <grin>

hf1

Charlie, I'm no coach but by the lack of any steering correction and the slowness of your steering inputs I think you could just pick up the pace by 10-20%. It didn't seem like you were approaching 90% of the available grip at any point on the track.

Picking up the pace would also provide more brakes for setting up (the front of) the car for the turns better. I don't know what tires you were using and I couldn't hear the tire load and the throttle sound very well in the video but it looked like the car was coasting/neutral at the turn-in of most corners.

Your line was OK and your driving smooth, though.

Again, no coach here. Just a few years experience racing. Coaches, dissect this at will.

pontifex4

Agreed. The tires were R888s, and I wasn't really testing their limits. I appreciate the input!

Peter, for some reason, the Time Gap v. Distance trace is blank. Any idea?

ProCoach

You can't select two laps in the same session and do a time compare.

You must select one lap, then click on the steering wheel icon at the top of the page, "Add Drivers" select the same session, another box will open on the top left of try page (the same session, except in red instead of blue), click "Setup" on the new box, then on the right side of the new dialog box (with lap times on the right), select the tab with red and select the other fastest lap. Then, you'll have one lap in blue and the other (make sure you select a DIFFERENT lap) in red, and the Time Gap will show up. That will tell us quantifiably where you gained or lost, vis a vis one lap to another.

pontifex4

Got it. I've updated the screen shot in post #1371, above. Sorry to be so thick!

Adam@Autometrics

A couple quick thoughts:
1. There is a noticeable delay between throttle and brake. It might be the GPS sample rate, but make sure you go from full-power to maximum braking as quickly as the car will allow.
2. The brake pressure (longitudinal G) tapers quicker than I'd expect for this type of car.
3. The friction circle is very triangular; this suggests that there is significantly more grip available in transition - on corner entry and exit.

ProCoach

Adam, just a few observations on your comments.

20 Hz sampling on the accelerometer, 4 Hz on GPS (same as Race-Keeper and Race Technology DL1 used to be), so it should be good.

One of the things that moderates the perception of throttle commitment is the car slowing down due to elevation changes, so keep that in mind. Without BPS and TPS directly, it's tough to tell, but I like the accuracy of the accelerometer-measured "end result."

I see no seriously low hanging fruit from throttle-to-brake and only marginal on brake release, but do see time in picking up more throttle sooner.

I think your observation on the friction circle plot is ABSOLUTELY spot-on and a big part of the low hanging fruit waiting to be picked. It's also backed up by Charlie's explanation that he "wasn't really testing the limits" of his R888's!

Charlie, you're next!

I can tell you this... If you could have done the blue lap Turn 1 with the red lap from T2 to T6, you would have been a SECOND faster without any other changes...

pontifex4

Thanks, guys! Your comments all seem dead-on. I'll work on this. I'm also going to add at least a TPS signal and brake light (if not pressure) signal before I next run the car in two weeks.

I'm a pretty inexperienced driver, but I'm starting to get why people talk about data so much...

GuyIncognito

FWIW I don't see much of a point in a brake light signal, if it's only on/off...pressure or pedal position would be far more valuable.

also, I'd love to hear more about integrating this telemetry into your car,OBD integration, etc. If you have a lot of pics/info that would be a fascinating thread.