A few months ago, Ars took a look at how cars are getting smarter, mainly in the aid of fuel efficiency and safety. All that technology stuffed under the hood creates data, and where there’s data, there are nerds eager to analyze it.
It used to be that, unless you were a professional racing team, you had to be satisfied with the dials and gauges on your dash if you wanted to know what was going with your vehicle. But the steady drumbeat of Moore’s law has a way of democratizing technology. Data acquisition is now coming to the masses, thanks to Autosport Labs. Based in Seattle, the company is at the final stage of raising funds to develop Race Capture Pro, an open-source alternative to more expensive data gathering setups like those from TraqMate or RaceLogic.
As almost anyone who’s driven on track can tell you, if you want to go fast, the best place to start isn’t the tires or engine. It's the driver. Some drivers might be faster than others thanks to quicker reflexes or better eyesight, but as with any skill there’s more to it than natural talent. This is where data acquisition comes in. A good data acquisition system will do a number of things. GPS pinpoints exactly where the car is with sufficient resolution to see whether or not you’re using the right line. Accelerometers will record your g-forces, while other data is collected from the engine, brakes, and so on, building up a detailed portrait of exactly what the car is doing. It’s easy to talk a big game when you're sitting around in the paddock with a beer. But when your data tells you everyone else was taking a particular turn with pedal flat to the floor and you weren’t, there’s nowhere to hide.