b'Track Car Data LoggersTech Tip: How is a datalogger different than data acquisition?Its not. It was originally termeddata acquisition & along the way the name was simplified to data logger.Both are accurate terms. We are acquiring data or logging data. Same thing. Dont get hung up on terms. These are simple deviceswhen used with the right sensorsto measure what is going on in the car dynamically on trackand then reviewing it to learn from & improve. Improvement is THE reason to gather, review & learn from data. Ive been utilizing RacePak Data Acquisition systems since the 80s when I was drag racing tube chassis, door slammers. They were the leader then & they are the leader today. Yes, there are more expensive systems. In NASCAR & IMSA Road Racing you will see more Motec systems. They are sold by & come with a Motec Technical Consultant to help those professional teams learn quickest & get the most information from their data. But frankly, it is the same data. Dont read this wrong. I love the Motec systems alsojust not the $40,000-80,000 price tag. We can gather, review & learn from the same information as Motec for a fraction of the cost with RacePak. Systems. The IQ3 with Internal Logger is under $3000. A complete RacePak G2X Pro system is Under $4000 & for another $3300 we can add shocks sensors all around & have a robust professional level data acquisition system that will help us make the car & driver faster. When I had 9 race teams & Engineers on staff, we designed & built our own Star data acquisition systems simply for cost reasons. But for a single race team, the RacePak V-Net system is the most foolproof & most cost effective.When I was racing with a single team & a great sportsman or professional driver, we were more focused on how to get more performance out of the car. Years later when I owned & operated a large driver development program, we found we utilized the data acquisition much more to help the drivers learn quicker. Ill expand on both below. First, I will clarify that helping a driver improve their skills & lap times is quicker when we have good history of other drivers, or teammates to compare to. When Ive had new drivers come into my team & we had data from previous winning drivers, well that was obviously helpful & quicker. Same when Ive ran 4-6 of the exact same race cars with my team. It was a time saver to look at what the faster drivers were doing & compare to the struggling drivers & help them ramp up to speed MUCH quicker. Ive seen friends team up & do this to learn much quicker. Until one day one of the friends decides to stop sharing information so they can outrun the other friend.Even with no history & no teammates, a data acquisition system is the quickest, most cost effective, accurate & rewarding way to improve driver skills. How?With a simple data system we can acquire, or log, the Driver steering input, braking input & throttle input. In short, everything the Driver is doing to & with the car. Thats huge!The other things we can see along with the Driver inputs are lap times, segment times, corner speeds, straight speeds, G-forces & more depending on the sensors. You can literally try stuff on track, like braking softer or harder, earlier or later, shorter or longerand review it back in the pits to see what was faster in that section of the track. You can compare how getting on the throttle earlier or later, quicker or slower & KNOW what makes you faster. You can run different lines on track, through sections and even in individual corners & have proof of which line is quicker. Do these for each section & your overall lap times go down by seconds not tenths. Ive seen Amateur Drivers shave off 2-3 seconds in a single day of driver coaching with data acquisition. Want to get more out of your car?Test something mechanicalnew shocks, aero, different spring or bar rates, various brake pad compounds, etc. and the data will show you not only which was quicker, but WHERE it was quicker on track. You may find some changes help tighter tracks & others help tracks with big sweepers. But you will KNOW what works & that confidence allows you to have a better performing car, be a better performing Driver, get better results on track & frankly have more fun doing it!682'