Track Day App/driver training tools

[Tracmac Engineering]

Hi,
I am currently working on a new track day app initially for iPhone along with its own supporting hardware that will incorporate many innovative features as we continue to develop it. Our mission is: to go faster, quicker! That is give the driver critical information on the fly to let them know if what they are doing at each moment is an improvement or not so that they can improve each lap, finding the optimum time with fewer laps required to do so.

What I’m trying to do includes:

• A live time split that continually updates much like the delta time number on a Formula One dash. This will allow you to compare how your current lap is going to a reference lap (that you can either upload or set to update and always be the fastest lap from that session). This time split is updated every 0.5sec or so depending on how often the user wants it to refresh
• Uses accelerometer to perform inertial navigation with GPS for dead reckoning meaning it knows where the car is and how fast it is moving every 0.01sec (100Hz) for vastly improved accuracy at higher speeds over what most software/hardware packages that are currently on the market can offer
• Drop pin for setting the start finish line for touch free use on track will be incorporated in future updates
• Log and save position, speed, and acceleration data on the race track, then use our analysis tools to compare laps and improve your driving style
• Overlay laps to a satellite image of the track and select a measured variable to change the colour shading of the lap path to compare racing lines and braking points in post analysis will be incorporated in future updates

Any feedback you can give on what I am doing is appreciated, if you feel there is something else that you would like to know while on track or in post analysis that I have missed let me know, so I can review it with my team and we could incorporate your features in the app/our software and hardware before we launch or in an update, we will be developing it as we go if we feel there are improvements to be made. Or if I’ve hit the nail on the head and you can’t wait to try it out let me know as we will be looking for people to test it and give honest feedback soon!

[tristancliffe]

As well as giving a delta time to an uploaded lap or the best lap from the session, why not give a delta time to the best theoretical lap so far.

This presumably would require the circuit to be split into sectors (I tend to use the braking point for a corner to the braking point of the next corner, regardless of how long the straight is in between), but it does avoid the stupid theoretical claims that splitting the track into 3 or 4 sectors PER CORNER can cause. Most tracks end up with between 3 and 6 sectors.

[Tracmac Engineering]

Thanks for the feedback, great idea on the delta time to the theoretical best lap time! I dare say it will be one of the features added in an update.
I completely agree with how you split the track up into sectors we are working on another update that will require auto sector generation and after some thought and revisions on the white board what we came up with was selecting a point just before each braking point (as for the application we were using them for we needed to capture the braking point) then it would look at the braking point before it and then select a point that is a set fraction between these two points say 80/20 split in order to draw the sector line this way it is not a set distance between the points but a fraction that can self adjust for tight vs open circuits. Thanks again for the tip, will keep you posted on our progress.

[Stacy]

Hi,

What will this do that TrackDriver Trax doesn't?

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/trax-uk/id397980454?mt=8

That includes 3d interactive track / circuit guides, data logging (Racelogic), ghost car displays, etc.

It's not a timing app though, might be worth looking to fill the gaps.

S.

[Tracmac Engineering]

Hi,
Thanks for that, yeah Trax seems to be good for tips and analysis on certain tracks only, might be a good fit for some of the post analysis. Track Day App from the initial launch will purely be a timing device that then relays simple information in real time which is the time split between current lap and reference lap which can be uploaded or can be set to update to be the best lap of that session. The driver can use this while in the car to learn if what he/she just did at any point on the track was a good or bad thing be it racing line, braking point or aggressiveness on corner exit. I understand that the problem can often be much more complex so it will just be a general driver’s aid at first, but good post analysis will be the key to it working well as a package. As soon as it’s up and running we also have some cool hardware ideas we want to integrate into the app in order to make it one useful package, but what we end up doing will be user driven.