FergusH

I thought GT4 owners might be interested to see some pictures of my Racelogic Vbox HD2 installation.

The HD2 has a main box, about the size of the GT4 owner’s manual, two cameras, a GPS antenna, a screen, and a microphone. The main box has an SD card slot at the front and I purchased mine with a USB cable, so I could use a USB memory key for data rather than the SD card. (You can see that in one of the picture; there's a Sandisk USB key plugged in.)

The installation work was done by GT Auto Concepts in Redwood City in the Bay Area and I could not have been more happy with how they did it. They installed my harness bar last year and I was impressed with their attention to detail and customer service. (The bar arrived late and they scrambled to get it installed for a track day.) With the HD2, they had good ideas about where to place the components. I particularly like where the main box is installed: behind the driver’s seat, mounted vertically on the engine bulkhead. They even fabricated a flat metal bracket that the HD2 is velcro-ed to. There's a power and CAN bus cable that runs from the main box down to the fuse box.

One camera is mounted high on the windshield, giving a great view of the corners of the car (the camera is very wide angle) and the other is mounted on the harness bar, pointed at the steering wheel. I was concerned that this location might affect the image quality as the Vbox cameras struggle when there’s both a bright exterior and dark interior in the shot. It is something Racelogic are planning on addressing in a software update. However, for the purpose of seeing my hands and knees, I decided to mount the camera on the harness bar, instead of in the top right corner of the windshield. It’s worked really well: the inside is perfectly exposed and the outside is a bit bright but not too bad - and it doesn't really matter what the outside is like, as there's a different camera for that view.

The mic is mounted between the carpet and the engine bulkhead. That’s working well ‘though if I was fancier (or cared more about good audio!) I’d probably figure out how to mount it above the exhaust. The screen is next to the wheel. Lastly, I wasn’t sure about the accuracy of the GPS with the antenna mounted beneath the glass in the back so I asked GT Auto Concepts to not mount the antenna permanently. Temporarily, I'm just running through the back and up through the the rubber seal of the rear hatch. When I get more time, I’ll do some tests and if the accuracy is ok compared to putting it on the roof, I'll probably end up mounting it to the harness bar, just below the glass in the rear.

All in all, I’m really happy with both the HD2 and how GT Auto Concepts did the install. I’ve got no connection to them beyond being a happy customer but I’d highly recommend them if you’re thinking about getting an HD2 and you’re in the Bay Area. The scenery in their front lobby is pretty good too!

Joe Weinstein

Cool!

What data does the screen display, that you'd want at runtime?

Is your car interior back to stock-looking now, or have you gutted some of it?

FergusH

Hey Joe,

The OLED screen (which is very clear, even in bright sunlight) has these options when driving:

1. Live speed
2. Max speed
3. Lap timing
4. Lap count
5. Predictive lap timing.

Here's more info on this page: https://racelogic.support/02VBOX_Mot...ED_User_Manual

The car is back to stock now and looks very tidy. All the cables are routed out of sight. (Other than the GPS antenna which I deliberately left out.)

Mech33

Nice install! Turned out great. And thanks for sharing all the details. I'll have to check that shop out.

pvgolfer

Yeah, nice and clean install. Good to get all those cables tucked under the trim.

Any secret to removing the trim from the A-pillar and headliner? Can they simply be wiggled loose and pulled straight off?

FergusH

My secret is that I paid someone else to do it! I don't know how to do that work and the need to do it - the Vbox camera cables are too thick to tuck away without removing the headliner - is mainly the reason I got the install done professionally.

trebien

Wait, how is this better than my donor iPhone 4s and Harry's Laptimer?

I kid, I kid... looks great.

But Racelogic needs to get their ish together and release a monitor screen for LHD cars... with the cable to the left, and buttons on the right... don't they!

;-)

FergusH

Ha, I was talking about the screen thing with GT Auto Concepts. We thought about mounting it upside down but the logo would drive me crazy. Personally, I think they should just ditch the logo.

I know you're joking about Harry's Laptimer but it's a good question, given that HLT is basically free. I got the Vbox for two main reasons:

1. It's super reliable
Between an external GPS, a GoPro, a Bluetooth dongle for engine data and the phone itself, I never got HLT to the point where I could just drive and not have to think about whether it was recording my session; it was always a bit flakey. This bit me a couple of times when something...um..."interesting" happened on track and there was no recording of it when I got back into the paddock. The Vbox just works: you start driving and it starts recording.

2. It's easy to compare laps
Racelogic's Circuit Tools app make it super easy to compare two (or more) laps side-by-side. You have a nice split screen view where you see the video, and the data for the lap below it. It's got some clever options where you can choose to sync the laps based on time, distance or position. Time's the obvious one but position is really cool as it syncs the video and data to the same place on the track, making it easy to see what you differently between laps (or sessions), regardless of your overall lap time.

ShakeNBake

Looks good Fergus! How is it mounted behind the seats?

If you pull the rubber seal around the door from a-pillar to door latch, you can tuck a lot of wires behind the trim without having to remove trim. Hardest trim to remove is the panel around fuse boxes, but it's designed to come off (with care). I'll post some pics when I get mine done, I finally have the car back.

jimlau

Not sure if you're joking, but the OLED display has an accelerometer and will flip the text over if you mount it "upside down." Then you just need to cover up the Racelogic logo with something.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if we could make a different face plate as an option, with the lettering the other way around...

ProCoach

Thanks for being the first of more than two dozen I've sold since release. It's a great tool!

If anyone needs a setup, with detailed instructions and made-to-fit , easy to install power and CAN harness for your GT4 or 991, send me an email or PM.

I stock and ship quickly and offer the best support for these systems.

JonathanWalker

Lovely install im looking at fitting one to my WP GT3 RS sometime soon

Shandingo

I highly recommend contacting Peter Krause if you are considering this. He is very knowledgeable and can provide you with a wiring setup that will significantly ease installation. I purchased such a wiring setup from Peter and it works great in my GT4.