So I am training a new driver and looking to have him use this. Any feedback on its effectiveness for getting a new kart racer up to speed? Some specific questions:
Steven,
I have the following on my kart. I’m listing them from most useful for improving my driving.
SmartyCam HD rev 2.1
MyChron 5S
MyChron Expansion
Throttle Position Sensor
Brake Pressure Sensor
The SmartyCam positioned so that my hands, and brake foot are in frame. After every session, my coach and I use this to review lines, brake points, throttle points, turn in points, foot smoothness, trail braking, hand smoothness.
After we get the big points dialed in, the throttle and brake in the video help us to refine throttle and brake points.
After that we use MyChron data review to compare across the team so we can all find out where each of us is fastest, and improve as a team.
And, honestly, I have all the dodads on my kart because I love the videos and I love to nerd out on the data.
Other guys on the team use a gopro and a mychron and get the same level of result from our coach.
Rpm trace is most useful to me. You can infer braking from it if you don’t have pedal sensors which most don’t. Generally I find that comparing my rpm trace to a faster guy will show me where I am late to throttle or early to brake.
So you use RPM trace instead of Speed Trace for driver input analysis? What are you looking for with RPM that speed doesn’t show?
Not speaking for Dom here, but from my own personal experience (I use speed AND RPM when looking at driver’s data) the RPM can show instances of brake locking (big sudden drop of RPM) that speed doesn’t show as easily. That can be helpful when trying to demonstrate how aggressively a driver should or shouldn’t be braking for a given corner.
We use speed trace in our data analysis between drivers.
Both, speed and rpm I believe. I do not have pedal sensors for accel and decel.