The info stated all of it: I used to be too decelerate the straights.
The probably offender? I used to be additionally too gradual via the turns.
This was the short interpretation from the VBox Motorsport data-acquisition crew when evaluating my laps to one in every of my competitor’s.
VBox Motorsport had invited us, together with a number of different journalists and influencers from the motorsports world, to an intensive coaching session at Circuito Maspalomas. It’s on Gran Canaria, nowhere close to right here.
[Live thread: Learning how to best use Racelogic’s VBox products]
We’d principally deal with the corporate’s HD Lite, a intelligent, simply deployable data-acquisition system with built-in HD video seize and a full suite of knowledge instruments that may be learn and interpreted in VBox’s Circuit Instruments software program.
We plan on transitioning our monitor testing to this platform, because it ought to dramatically enhance the extent of research we are able to share.
Anyway, again to me being gradual.
“I don’t really feel tardy” was, in fact, my first response.
However then we regarded deeper on the velocity traces. Seems the preliminary evaluation–which was fully legitimate and positively essentially the most statistically probably reason for my lap time deficiency–turned out to not be fully right.
When wanting on the velocity hint, we may see that my entry and mid-corner speeds (in purple) usually outpaced my competitor’s (in blue). And there wasn’t the telltale stairstep previous the minimal nook velocity that normally signifies getting on the gasoline too early.
As a substitute, we noticed clean negotiation via the nook adopted by an acceleration hint that climbed at a gradual fee.
My competitor’s curve, although, had a extra convex form. It bulged upward, displaying a larger fee of acceleration out of the nook.
It additionally confirmed an upshift from second to 3rd a lot ahead of mine–adopted by a shift from third to fourth that I by no means made as a result of I by no means received inside 500 rpm of needing to make that pull to fourth.
My competitor’s acceleration fee started to path off by the top of the straight, whereas mine continued to limb pretty linearly. By the braking level, our high speeds on every straight had been nearly similar, however they had been in fourth gear and I used to be in third.
So why, then, had been they hanging as a lot as half a second on me down these straights? If our terminal velocities had been similar, how was their bulged acceleration curve price so many tenths? And what was responsible for it to start with?
To reply the latter query, we began with the techs who had been sustaining the NB-chassis Miatas we had been driving.
“Are these automobiles all similar?” we requested. “One looks as if it could be down on acceleration.”
We came upon that a few automobiles–mine included–had been outfitted with a 3.90:1 ultimate drive from an NB Miata initially fitted with a six-speed transmission, whereas the remainder of the automobiles had the 4.30:1 rear from the five-speed automobiles.
All of the automobiles had been outfitted with five-speed transmissions, giving the 4.40:1 automobiles an actual mechanical benefit via the meat of second and third gear. By the point I received nicely into the powerband in my leggier third gear, it was time to hit the brakes.
Now we’ve to reply the query of why two automobiles with similar terminal speeds on the finish of a straight–and I even had superior terminal speeds every now and then–had been getting outrun by automobiles with much less high velocity. The reply is the world below the curve.
Prime velocity is nice, however in case you take longer getting there, you finally spend extra time at a median decrease velocity for a given distance traveled. Whoever has a better common velocity over a given distance goes to cowl that distance quicker, whatever the terminal speeds on the finish of that distance.
A extra difficult query follows: What’s supreme?
Taking a look at our acceleration curves, one other 500 ft of straight would have probably seen me wringing out my tall third gear and overtaking the rate-of-acceleration contest whereas my competitors was struggling in the course of fourth gear. However we didn’t have one other 500 ft of straightaway.
When evaluating two velocity graphs in Circuit Instruments, we may simply use the delta graph–displaying the place one automotive was gaining or dropping time in comparison with one other–to see that we had been dropping a number of time in the beginning and center of every straight. We had been then dropping time at a decrease fee towards the top of the straight–proper on our approach to overtaking the delta battle had the straight been longer.
So, what’s supreme for a given straightaway isn’t just the configuration that produces the best most velocity however the configuration that produces the best space below the acceleration curve.
However I didn’t have entry to a different mechanical configuration, and continuously you gained’t, both. So, how do you utilize this type of data to take advantage of what you need to work with?
In my case, I focused on maximizing any benefit I may acquire by my sometimes greater high speeds whereas mitigating no matter benefit I may discover when the state of affairs arose.
This technique took the type of closely concentrating on threshold braking, holding that velocity so long as I may, and taking as deep a braking level as I may get away with, even when that meant adjusting my method angle to have the ability to brake later and tougher.
On nook exit, the place my competitors had their most clear benefit, it meant taking a very line of defense to interrupt as a lot of my opponent’s momentum as attainable. Clearly blocking is just not allowed, however that doesn’t imply you need to use the entire monitor on the exit of a nook, both.
Being overtaken by the automotive with the extra favorable gear ratio is perhaps inevitable, however by throwing off an opponent’s exit sufficient to barely delay their throttle software may maintain off that move lengthy sufficient to carry place down a shorter straight.
And the lesson right here is that these methods are simpler to make use of while you take pleasure in really figuring out the place your deficiencies are. That’s the place knowledge acquisition comes in.
With out the information, all I actually know is that my lap occasions are just like everybody else’s but I’m getting dog-walked down the straights.
With the good thing about the information acquisition, I can a minimum of pinpoint particular areas the place I could have had a momentary benefit so I can deal with maximizing the time I spend in these moments and leverage them as a lot as attainable.
The opposite query this example brings up: Might we’ve found out this concern with out leveraging knowledge acquisition?
Sure, in fact, however the mystery-solving curve may have been a lot, for much longer and required much more trial and error and experimentation. Trying on the goal velocity traces massively streamlined the method and pointed us to the suitable questions that rather more rapidly.
Additionally word that we didn’t use any esoteric features of our knowledge tools. A easy velocity hint was essentially the most invaluable device in our arsenal when it got here to fixing this thriller.
Extra like this
Feedback
BTW, I noticed a few minor typos within the article — the OEM rear finish ratio for the NB 5-speed is a 4.3, not a 4.4. Additionally, at one level the article says that the opposite automotive was ending the straight in fifth, which does not appear to be mirrored within the knowledge (beginning in 2nd, 2 shifts places it in 4th).
As for the conclusion:
Additionally word that we didn’t use any esoteric features of our knowledge tools. A easy velocity hint was essentially the most invaluable device in our arsenal when it got here to fixing this thriller.
I might argue that an RPM hint wold have solved the thriller sooner, as a result of the gearing ratio discrepancy would have been instantly obvious within the knowledge as a substitute of one thing you needed to infer from shift factors. 🙂
Mmmm what occurs when you do not have entry to the opposite automotive’s knowledge???
codrus (Discussion board Supporter) stated:
BTW, I noticed a few minor typos within the article — the OEM rear finish ratio for the NB 5-speed is a 4.3, not a 4.4. Additionally, at one level the article says that the opposite automotive was ending the straight in fifth, which does not appear to be mirrored within the knowledge (beginning in 2nd, 2 shifts places it in 4th).
As for the conclusion:
Additionally word that we didn’t use any esoteric features of our knowledge tools. A easy velocity hint was essentially the most invaluable device in our arsenal when it got here to fixing this thriller.
I might argue that an RPM hint wold have solved the thriller sooner, as a result of the gearing ratio discrepancy would have been instantly obvious within the knowledge as a substitute of one thing you needed to infer from shift factors. 🙂
Thanks for recognizing the typos. I am a zillion miles away however I am certain the CFla-based internet crew will get th ecorrections made.
As for an RPM hint, I do not fully disagree, however an rpm hint would not essentially immediately reveal a better mid nook velocity the way in which a velocity hint would. In the event you simply checked out an rpm hint, you’d additionally see decrease rpm on nook exit, and it may very well be simply as simple to work below the idea that that additionally meant decrease cornering velocity, therefore much less exit velocity, therefore much less straightaway velocity.
In the end I believe the actual takeaway message is that folks are likely to get actually intimidated by knowledge, they usually can get overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of knowledge they automotive produce. It is a honest and cheap worry. However the actuality is you actually do not want many channels to provide a TON of usable information.
JG Pasterjak stated:
As for an RPM hint, I do not fully disagree, however an rpm hint would not essentially immediately reveal a better mid nook velocity the way in which a velocity hint would. In the event you simply checked out an rpm hint, you’d additionally see decrease rpm on nook exit, and it may very well be simply as simple to work below the idea that that additionally meant decrease cornering velocity, therefore much less exit velocity, therefore much less straightaway velocity.
In the end I believe the actual takeaway message is that folks are likely to get actually intimidated by knowledge, they usually can get overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of knowledge they automotive produce. It is a honest and cheap worry. However the actuality is you actually do not want many channels to provide a TON of usable information.
Yeah, an RPM hint by itself is just not helpful. RPM + velocity hint considered collectively would make it very obvious, although.
A velocity hint by itself will determine downside areas and can allow you to infer causes as to why the world is perhaps an issue. IME, although, to actually clear up these issues you need the motive force enter traces. Throttle place and brake stress will affirm (or reject!) your inferences (within the case offered above, a throttle hint may have definitively dominated the “late to throttle” argument). TPS and brake stress traces may also give significantly better suggestions while you return out to attempt to repair your pedal work. You may make the same argument for steering angle, however I do not discover that I really use all of it that usually — I assume steering is simply simpler to get proper than brakes or throttle! 🙂
I might say that 95% of the time I am taking a look at knowledge I am utilizing the three major traces of velocity, TPS, and brake stress, plus the derived hint of delta-time when evaluating two completely different runs.
My ’06 automotive apparently doesn’t have brake stress or steering angle accessible within the OBD-2 stream. All I’ve seen that’s helpful (utilizing Solostorm) is throttle place and RPM.
I’ll look into whether or not I can graph out the velocity hint. Proper now I simply use the course segmenting characteristic to look into the place I used to be faster, aka shorter section occasions, to select which part to deal with. So I do not see a bonus of the VBOX for my state of affairs, although I welcome feedback.
A truism generality from drag racing is that automobiles with comparable horsepower may have comparable lure speeds, however that different points of setup will drop elapsed occasions. Clearly if JG was solely in third and competitors was in fifth, there was some huge distinction in gear ratios. But when a particular nook was in his /optimum/ powerband for his transmission, his rear finish would give him a bonus AT THAT POINT over the opposite automotive that was not, and if the transmissions had been similar aside from rear finish ratio then the drop ratio between every gear could be the identical. If the drops between gears are too massive to remain within the optimum torque vary (onerous to consider with a 6 velocity) then the upper numeric transmission would have slighly tighter drops and that too may find yourself as a bonus.
Displaying 1-5 of 5 feedbackView all comments on the GRM forums
You may must log in to submit.
Trending Merchandise
