Originally Posted by Steven_RW
lol at all this - its awesome cool stuff - but surely its mostly irrelevant?
A stop watch sellotaped to the dash and a rev counter is all u need.
When Im on track I dont read any guage except the rev counter and the passenger does the lap timing.
I know thats a bit black n white and the data logging rocks - however u prob dont need a dash that shows half or any of that stuff?
Is this just another case of bling?
RW
lol - the screen shots show the dash on two of the "road" pages, there are also several race pages which are used when we sprint. When sprinting you don't have a passenger to start as top watch - the dash auto detects a launch and starts a stopwatch. Other pages show full ECU data and diagnostics in real-time
At the end of the course the stopwatch stops and displays your run time - saves having to wait for the timekeepers to publish it. During the run the dash is constantly updating to graphically show your performance compared to your best ever run over that course - resolution is down to the less than 1/20 second. Incredibly useful in seeing how a late braking manoeuvre really hurts you all the way down the next straight. Another benefit is that the car is double entered and at the press of the button you can load in data for the second driver.
Unless you compete in sprints / hillclimbs its hard to appreciate that events can be lost by tenths or even hundredths of a second.
Basic data analysis during the event can also indicate areas where further time can be saved and these are not always as obvious as you'd think.
I agree that most of the data is irrelevant when racing, but apart from the performance meter, a large speed indicator (picked up by in-car camera) and a small rev counter is all that's shown. Shift lights are the primary source for gear change - and the dash throws and logs alarms if required.
When I built this setup, the dashboards available a) had little or no support for open circuits (point to point - not round and round) b) simply didn't have the facilities / features of this... I believe the GEMS CD24 display might be the closest yet...