Tim Anderson from Racepak reached out to me earlier this week about this…
Couple of things that are different about this one… It’s from a company that’s been in the auto racing data hardware/software space for about 20 years. Albeit not karting, but nonetheless, that’s something.
Also, it’s actually in production from what I can tell.
Nice idea, but no thanks. With new phones ranging from a few hundred dollars to a grand, would you want to strap it to your steering wheel? Can’t image that phones are built to withstand the harsh environment of racing. Some of the tracks we’ve visited over the last couple of years have had limited or no cellular coverage. Downloading data when not in the pits is prohibited by some racing organizations. If you need to share data, you can always push it into the cloud.
Agreed, Personally, when I see phone based systems that are trying to mount to karts, they are being developed by company who has never been karting and is out of touch with the harshness of the environment.
I’ve had similar conversation with a few different companies that have thought about developing a similar approach, and I’ve talked them out of it.
Couple of things that are different about this one… It’s a company that’s been in the auto racing data hardware/software space for about 20 years. Albeit not karting, but nonetheless, that’s something. Also, it’s actually in production from what I can tell.
I personally don’t see using a phone as a major minus or plus by itself, it really depends on the implementation. I don’t see cost as a huge factor as you can pickup used phones so cheap, not to mention that a lot of us have older, but suitable devices laying around. I think I have three 
Consumer electronics can be ruggedized, so that’s not a major issue. As an anecdote, I haven’t been on a track without a phone in my pocket since 2011, including wet weather.
For something like this to stand up and get traction, first and foremost it needs to be able to help racers improve their performance in some sort of real way that it’s contemporaries can’t. Ideally it needs to be able to accomplish that without live telemetry which will raise eyebrows all over.
The next questions is how well the “cloud” portion has been designed. Can it deliver a platform that’s optimized in a way for tuners, coaches and so on to collaborate remotely and get results for the driver.? Is the end result better than uploading a .drk file to dropbox?
Telemetry part is cool, but it’s problematic with orgs not to mention questionable cell coverage at many tracks.
My phone doesn’t work well even with phone-friendly gloves, let alone karting gloves.
My thought is always, what if someone tries calling me in the middle of my race and all my data disappears?
TJ, if you’re called during a race, I’d expect your to raise your hand and pull over. Now what was you number again?
The company has a fresh approach and I wish them well. Although with every new AiM product, memory cards and cables are a thing of the past. Maybe someday every racer will be using something similar. I would have liked to have a system like this back when we raced at Blackhawk or Road America where you would only get to see your driver for eighteen seconds out of a 2 or 4-minute lap during a half hour race. But at a sprint track, I’d rather be hanging on the fence watching my driver than having my nose in a phone or tablet.
P.S. I’m the guy who started out with a socket set, a screw driver and a tack. If you’d told be back then that karts would have radiators and data collection devices, I’d have said your were nuts.
At least you had a tach 
James, will try to be less tacky on the Forum in the future. 