Results from the PowerBox

You can see in the videos from the previous Motorkhana I had a small box mounted on the windscreen. This is a PerformanceBox, a GPS-enabled device that captures all sorts of real-time information on your driving. For example, it will record:

1. Speed
2. Direction
3. Rate of turn
4. Distance travelled
5. Radius of corner
6. ...and many more

The use is that I can objectively look at what I'm doing in the car in far more detail than my memory, or even the video, provides.

For example, in my last post, I was talking about how I needed to brake 15m before the corner, to scrub off 20kph to turn in at 80kph. But was I doing that? Not really....

From the data, I can see where I started to lose speed, where I started to turn, and the distance between the two. I can also see the speed at which I take the corners. What I can see is that I start slowing 40m before the turn instead of 15m, and I'm doing about 40kph through the turns....

Now you're probably thinking - what a clown, he doesn't even know what speed he's doing in a corner. To you I say - fair point, but there's a lot going on right then. All my limited brain power is focused on keeping it in the right direction.

Another interesting thing is I'm not braking hard enough. Looking at the rate of change in speed, I would expect to see a linear curve going upwards, which is the rate at which I can accelerate, which is a pretty straight line up to the 100kph max for the circuit. However, the brake profile is about the same pitch, just opposite. I would expect it to be much, much steeper, as I'd expect to be able to scrub off speed faster than I could pile it on. As they're the same, I might take a look into the brakes and how I'm using them.

You can also overlay results from one lap onto another, so you can see where I'm braking later, and the overall effect on speed, and where I'm coming out of corners faster. Once you get the hang of the software, it's actually quite interesting seeing what you're doing.

I get the feeling it would be a lot better on a closed loop like Barbagallo, where you cross a start finish line repeatedly, so you can get a number of contiguous laps.