ChrisB_NZ

Yes, more practice required. It's like all good things, you can never practice enough. I just read a note from Sean, looks like more practice Saturday getting ready for Sunday !

Macca

Pete. mental note to self. Light meal only Friday night...

peterC2S

And before we work out whether I'm likely to throw up right!

Edit: double post not sure how to delete!

ChrisB_NZ

Pete, you throwing up would all add to the experience! There are a lot worse things that could happen

peterC2S

Thanks for reminding me! Mate I am really looking forward to it - very capable car.

ChrisB_NZ

Yes, I think it is a lot better suited to Targa than track work.

Macca

^^^^ Totally agree. Its a torque monster and that's what you need for fast road driving. The 996TT is perfect for the job. I think it will be a far better Targa car than a track car....

O2GO

I've conditionally registered for the NI Targa on the basis that this weekend hooks me :-P

ChrisB_NZ

Good commitment, I'm hoping we will be joining you.

Paul mentioned you may have found a phone app that will do the job of monit. Is that right, I would be interested in that.

Macca

IMO any phone app that does the job of Monit (fairly easy actually) will not be practical or reliable for the duration of a serious Targa Tour.

Believe it or not even on the NI Targa NZ we travelled through areas where GPS dropped out (Valley into and out of Whangamonima, under bridges, through tunnels etc). Same thing happened to me regularly in the ravines between the mountains in the Alpes of France back in Dec in the GT3, sometimes for a minute or longer at a time plus the acquisition and plotting time. Worse still you will need to mount the phone on the window and there's no way anyone is operating it as they are being thrown around the car. Lastly, battery life will require a charger, more mess in the car.

I spoke with length with the guy who owns and developed the Monit in 2012. We discussed his then new/proto GPS unit. There was an opportunity for me to buy one before release. However he warned me the unit would not work well in parts of the SI and central NI and that such units would not be sanctioned on any European vintage units due to GPS fall out. I want to take the 993 to Europe in 018 for some vintage Rally so that was the decider for me.

Get teh T100 or equivalent hard wire model if you can. Mount it somewhere close enough to the navigator that he doesnt need to lean from his seat to use it (not hard in a 993). I made mine removable on a flexi stalk with clip plugs at the dash that stash away under the factory carpet when not in use. Make sure you put a wheel speed sensor in and calibrate it properly. Properly calibrated its faster and more accurate than any non military spec GPS. You have backight, full time dedicated power supply and easy to use and feel buttons. Its designed and built as a rally computer not a phone - it does its purpose as it should. You wont find a historic rally or serious Targa car today with anything less than a hardwire unit with wheel speed sensor (or direct feed of the odo line form the cars factory wheel sensor as you do in an older 911). Dean knows how to fit and install cleanly.

Just saying, thats all. Its like Trackit. They made an iphone app but its not reliable and cant store and upload logs, worse still it requires constant power lead and you cannot use any phone functions while the app is running (its very resource and memory hungry).

If you like the Ecotour and want to try the real thing in Rotorua and SI towards the end of the year I afraid youll have to invest. Put into perspective both Monit + Trackit + installation is less than the fee for entering one 2 day event....

Macca

...

ChrisB_NZ

That installation looks very nice.

I agree, if all goes well this weekend then I will be buying Trackit and Monit devices. The new Monit looks to be able to run in GPS or hard wired mode, so addresses the drop out issues and allows for some events which don't allow GPS devices.

The issue is just this weekend, I very much doubt we will be going out of cell and GPS coverage and it would be nice to have something to help practice the notes and instructions side of the event.

996tnz

I guess it's bad form to put a plastic bag over your co-drivers head before entering the stage...

I'm about to test RaceChrono and GPS Tripmeter android apps. Some good comments from some who have used them in rallies. Just hope they play together nicely sharing the GPS signal or I may need to put them on 2 separate devices.

ChrisB_NZ

Thanks, I just downloaded the GPS Tripmeter, looks nice and simple and seems to work okay. Just need to figure out a temporary mount for the phone now so Pete can use it on Sunday.

Macca

Yes, David Holder at Monit explained to me the new unit would need to have both. Quite honestly once you have hooked up the wheel speed sensor there really is no longer any good need for the GPS, it becomes redundant (it also needs a hardwired power solution anyhow). Also with the GPS only you wouild have to have the unit mounted on the dash (I didnt want to do this for obvious reasons). That being said it could provide a solution between cars if the course you were driving was known not to have any dead spots. In fairness the only two places I have driven where GPS dead spots exist was Targa Tour 2012 central North island in the valleys, in tunnels and in Europe in tunnels and on the Alpine routes. Tonnes more blind spots in Europe than I anticipated. At one stage I was without GPS for almost 10 minutes!

For this rally spirnt I dont think you will need any form of rally computer myself. The course is short and you have recced half of it. However if you graduate to the full event you will need the hard-wire solution.

I think any one of a number of apps will be fine for the Ecolight event ...