Lap recording software.
 

My first track day is coming up in a few weeks. I've been passing the time by watching videos posted here. Question is; what track recording devices/software are you using? I see a lot of different visuals in the video which leads me to believe there are a lot of options.

Don't worry about it for your first track day. Make sure your brakes are good instead. ;)

Once you get there though I really like Qstarz and Aim Solo for a good basic package. Just today looked at some of the data outputs from both systems. I like the Qstarz output better, but both are good packages.

^ ditto what GSS138 said. if you must, just use harrys lap timer (iphone) or racechrono (android) to keep track of your times if you dont want to use a transponder. that way, at least they can place you in the correct position for each new session

Before I had a real datalogger in the car, I used to use Android software (would probably be RaceChrono now, I used something else a couple years ago that was similar but not as good) plus a higher-res external bluetooth GPS module (this one: Amazon.com: BT-Q818XT: Qstarz BT-Q818XT 10Hz Bluetooth GPS Receiver: Electronics ). For $80 + existing android phone, it's a nice cheap solution for pretty accurate results.

I use harry's lap timer on my iphone. not as good as a real lap timer, but very easy to use.

I use Harry's on my iphone also, it's cheap and easy. Have fun at the track!

I'm one of the two developers for RaceTrace, which is an iPhone app that does lap timing as well as data analysis. I'd personally recommend that :tup:. Check out the news page on our site for some examples of how you can use the app to pick up time.

I will point out, if you're going to use any mobile app, you'll definitely want to invest in bluetooth GPS device. Mobile phone GPS data is crap when it comes to data analysis purposes. We recommend either the BadElf Pro or Dual XGPS devices. With mobile phone GPS data you'll get lap times that are "in the ballpark", but not much else.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Neat! I'm a software developer too, but in a completely different area. I'm not an iPhone user, but if I could offer a feature suggestion for your app: I've found the predictive lap times on my current datalogger setup *really* helpful. It's a mode where, as you go around the track, the display shows a prediction of what your lap time will be (based on your lap time-vs-position compared to other laps), and gives a display something like:

1:20.44 (predicted full time for current lap-in-progress, which varies up and down)
+0:03.44 (prediction above is 3.44 seconds slower than your best)
(and then red/green background for whether the current prediction is running faster or slower than best)

The predictions tend to be a little jumpy at the start of a lap and then settle in the closer you get to the end, obviously.

When you get the hang of watching that out of the corner of your eye, you start picking up mid-lap info like "hey when I missed my turn-in back there, it set me back 0.3s on my laptime", or "yeah, apexing this spot a little earlier saved me 0.2s".

Thanks for the recommendation, it's definitely on our short list of features to add. I play iRacing myself and really like their implementation of predictive lap timing, I imagine ours will be similar to that.

Does your app shoot video?

Not currently, no.

Best feature of in-car data. This is the reason for having an AiM SoloDL in the car. Everything else comes back at the hotel or the following week. Predictive lap timing will make you aggressively faster.

^ Agreed. Even if you're not consciously nitpicking details out of it, just having it there nagging you has a psychological effect. Every time you miss a corner a little bit and it slips redder, you mentally ding yourself about it immediately. Every time it slips greener because you made some awesome new move, you feel great about it immediately. (Mine's in RaceKeeper btw, I wasn't aware SoloDL had it too!)

yes, harrys has a similar feature that shows section by section how fast you are and I cut a lot of time at COTA by seeing that I had gone faster through certain sections.

The Aim Solo DL is a really good starter system. It plugs into your ecu to give you a ton of read outs. Have an instructor do a few laps in your car to set some good data to compare your own to.

You can analyze inputs such as throttle/brake inputs, steering input, gps location, etc. There's a lot more to going fast than watching a laptimer.

However, don't bother until you have done about 3-5 track day events. Up until then, you'll just be getting comfortable driving the car at speed. Having any type of data system, such as a laptimer display or what I described above will just be a distraction right now.


There are also other systems, such as the DL1, which I am not terribly familiar with.