Split times

[Chief Geek]

Hello. Paul the split time guy here.

This topic is a place where we can discuss the speed of our cars and drivers over portions of the hills less than the whole course.

I encourage anyone with something to add to please post here for our cumulative knowledge, so long as it's constructive.

The split time system is a work in progress and will evolve to serve the NEHA sporting community as demands change and my electronics skills improve. On this topic, I hope to learn from drivers, workers, and fans about what they know and want to know about their performance.

The official bottom-to-top timing system determines the event results and will not be interfered with, or undermined by, the split time system. All NEHA members and friends owe Walter #33 and Kevin #25 a beverage for building the official timing system. Personally, I owe these two gentlemen many thanks for their help and patience with me as I develope the suplimentary split time system.

Paul

[Chief Geek]

Does anyone have a request for where to gather times for Okemo 2, 2012 on August 3-5?

Please reply to this post so I can find your ideas easily.

Paul

[sdwarf36]

I'd suggest moving the exit light on the outside of the turn farther away from the road-I've had my back end exactlly where it was sitting.
How about from turn 12 to 15? (ambulance turn) Thru the woods, you could run a straight shot with the wire on the right side.

[sachilles]

I wonder if you post the a drivers split time as a percentage of the overall run time, if it might give a better idea of who is taking the turn better?

It would be no surprise that a STi might go through the same corner as the Daewoo at a faster pace. So just because the sti went through quicker, doesn't necessarily mean it took the corner more efficiently. So I suggest you simply divide the sector time by the overall time to get a percentage. Then every driver can look at the others to see who might be taking a better line.
Also radar on the entrance of the turn versus the exit of the turn. No idea how to practically do that, but it would be interesting to see.

[KevinGale]

I don't mind a percent if we don't lose the absolute time in seconds. I'm interested in who is getting through the corner fastest.

I'd also find 12-15 an interesting set of corners.

[Shenglehoffer]

As for basic split times, I think on Okemo, the end of the straight as opposed to the start of it, could yield more help setup info for chassis tuning. Logisticaly I don't know if that is possible. This past weekend was an eye opener for me as to just how "un-nimble" my car really is. Though I do have a bit of power, that can skew the time having that long run wide open down the straight. I would think the original Shenglehöffer (RIP) would be about 2 seconds faster up top due solely to its massive corner speed and turn in, but the dmod can make up those 2 seconds on the straight.
The other end is that we take the info given for this weekend and use it to tweak for next race. To see gains would require the exact setup for both races. I myself an not opposed to having the same split time point for the next event.

Final note. Paul, seriously, thank you so much for putting the amount of effort into this that you are. You do this almost entirely for us racers and it means a lot to me. Not only is the info cool and very useful, it's just nice to see people passionate about our sport. Keep it up, sir.
-Erik.

[sachilles]

Kevin, definitely would not want to replace the split time, just supplement it with a formula to calculate the percentage. Over the course of the day watching your percentage would let you know if you are actually improving or not in that area.
If folks are trying to figure out entrance vs exit speed, you'd need another sensor(or two). Unsure how practical or costly that would be. Sensor at the start of the sector, one in the middle and one at exit. That would give you a better idea if you were fast in and slow out or the opposite. With a defined distance between two sensors you can determine speed with less variables than radar.




For philo the rock turn might be neat.

[Chief Geek]

This comment came from the split timing plea for tripods thread and probably belongs here.

What I've been told is the exit speed for a corner at the beginning of a long straight is what is important. So it may be worth giving up a bit of time in the corner to get a better exit speed. You get to carry that extra speed all down the straight. Of course sooner or later you hit top speed and the advantage is lost.

Once you hit top speed, ou don't loose the advantage you already have, you just stop gaining more. I think the best way to look at it is on a time vs speed graph. The distance traveled is the area under the curve. The more area up to a given time, the more distance covered in that time. A higher exit speed will raise the curve, giving you more area/distance traveled at any later time.

Adding a 2nd sensor on the exit of turn 8, for a total of 3, would give us corner exit speed. This may be the best measure of a cars hill climbing speed independent of horsepower. I think I can do that for Okemo 2. Anyone got a couple more old tripods?

Paul

[jkale]

Paul, I think I have an old tripod I can donate... Ill try and find it.. If I find it, Ill bring it to okemo 2.

[sdwarf36]

Joey-do you have a tripod I (think) I gave you when we were doing the start light?