Just like we looked at a couple of Featured Articles ago, some people like graphs and some people like video. Well, some folks like to look at a track map and have data over-layed onto it. This is most commonly done with colors – you know – those colorful rainbow maps with the different bands.
While not great for all things, the maps can really help with some things. Speed is a fun thing to look at, but it often just confirms what we know. Looking at the Watkins Glen data, it just confirms what we expect. The back straight is the fastest part of the track, followed by the front straight. No real surprises or major insights there.
Similarly, looking lateral G forces gives us a little more info, but nothing too revealing. The map creates a quick way for us to see that we pull the most lateral G force in the Uphill and Big Bend and the Left Hander are the next closest. It’s a little surprising that the lightly banked, fairly slow Left Hander is as high of a G corner as it is, but that doesn’t help us too much. More importantly, we can look at the location of the G forces to look for early or late apexes, which could be helpful. That is one spot where the data overlayed on the graph makes seeing things a little easier.
Next, lets look at Braking G forces. This lets us look where the brakes are applied and for how long. The map makes it easy to see that there is a bunch of trail braking into turn one (bottom right) and not enough into turn six (top right). While the graph can tell us how much braking was done and where, it’s nice and quick to look at the map and see the colors right away, not having to try and figure out where on the track we are looking.
Finally, lets look at Combined G on the map. Combined G is a topic for another featured article, but a quick explanation is that it is a measure of total traction used. The mathematical formula for it is the square root of (lateral acceleration^2 + longitudinal accleration^2). While the graph tells us lots of info, the map does as well. We can quickly look at the map and see the color bands either increase intensity (good) or we can see little drops (bad). Same info, just a different way of looking at it.
Now, there is are many, many more ways you can use these maps. Just imagine all the engine data you could put on there – rpm, oil pressure, fuel pressure, oil temp, and many more things. Your imagination is the limit. Just like above, you might find that some data isn’t too helpful, other things items will give you key insights into your car.
Now, there is are many, many more ways you can use these maps. Just imagine all the engine data you could put on there – rpm, oil pressure, fuel pressure, oil temp, and many more things. Your imagination is the limit. Just like above, you might find that some data isn’t too helpful, other things items will give you key insights into your car.
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