Due to our difficult to gain real life racing experience sometimes many simracers have from little to none knowledge about what is needed to improve their own performance on track. Study and reading it is not a foolish thing in any case, and racing and simracing are not exceptions.
Telemetry is a technology that allows remote measurement of physical quantities for later analysis. Applied in the motorsport world, it will allow us to gather all the information provided by the vehicle to analyze desired aspects like car behaviors that affect the dynamics of the vehicle or driver inputs.
Our main advantage using sims is that we have to completely forget about testing the sensors in the different parts of the vehicle. iRacing offers all this in a simple way.
Today, we show you the best books for race car data analysis:
Analysis Techniques for Racecar Data Acquisition
Racecar data acquisition used to be limited to well-funded teams in high-profile championships. Today, the cost of electronics has decreased dramatically, making them available to everyone. But the cost of any data acquisition system is a waste of money if the recorded data is not interpreted correctly.
This book, updated from the best-selling 2008 edition, contains techniques for analyzing data recorded by any vehicle’s data acquisition system. It details how to measure the performance of the vehicle and driver, what can be learned from it, and how this information can be used to advantage next time the vehicle hits the track. Such information is invaluable to racing engineers and managers, race teams, and racing data analysts in all motorsports.
Whether measuring the performance of a Formula One racecar or that of a road-legal street car on the local drag strip, the dynamics of vehicles and their drivers remain the same. Identical analysis techniques apply.
Some race series have restricted data logging to decrease the team’s running budgets. In these cases it is extremely important that a maximum of information is extracted and interpreted from the hardware at hand. A team that uses data more efficiently will have an edge over the competition. However, the ever-decreasing cost of electronics makes advanced sensors and logging capabilities more accessible for everybody. With this comes the risk of information overload. Techniques are needed to help draw the right conclusions quickly from very large data sets.
In addition to updates throughout, this new edition contains three new chapters: one on techniques for analyzing tire performance, one that provides an introduction to metric-driven analysis, a technique that is used throughout the book, and another that explains what kind of information the data contains about the track.
A Practical Guide to Race Car Data Analysis
A Practical Guide to Race Car Data Analysis was written for the amateur and lower-level professional racers who either have a data system in their cars or who may be thinking about installing one but who do not have access to an experienced data engineer. Many of the data systems available today at reasonable prices offer capabilities that only professional race teams could afford just a few years ago.
Unfortunately, most of these racers do not know how to use more than a small part of those capabilities.
Using real track data, numerous real–world examples, and more than 200 illustrations, the Guide gives them the knowledge and skills they need to select, configure and use their data systems efficiently and effectively.
Beginning with a detailed discussion of the things racers need to know about the hardware and software necessary for a an effective data system, the Guide continues with chapters on basic data analysis tools, more sophisticated data analysis tools like x-y plots and math channels, damper potentiometers and the wealth of important data they produce, brake and clutch pressure sensors, and creative use of math channels.
The Guide concludes with a comprehensive scheme for analyzing data, examples of the data views used with the scheme, and detailed information on how to create and configure the data views.
Making Sense of Squiggly Lines
This book is clear and easy to follow with great example illustrations with insightful analysis in text to accompany the illustrations. There’s a few passages that are a bit more technical but overall I don’t think you need an engineering degree or anything like that to get a lot of value from this book. I’d agree with the opening stanzas in the book — it’s definitely going to be more interesting if your focus is on driver improvement; its not really as good as other sources if your focus is on car engineering.
If you have a way to generate data for yourself, this book will definitely help you find opportunities for self-improvement in that data. This is not the book to tell you _how_ to improve your driving technique — it’s more about drawing your attention to opportunities for improvement. Identifying the problem, though, is often half the battle. I’ve used things I’ve learned from this book with real world data sets (Race Keeper) and also with virtual world data sets (iRacing with iSpeed and ATLAS) and I found the book content equally applicable to both. Compared to the other oft mentioned books in this field that are either double the price or more, seriously technical or barely available anymore this one is a bargain you can put hands on quickly.
Competition Car Data Logging
Data logging has become an essential tool for professional racing teams in all forms of motorsport who are trying to get the maximum potential from the engine, chassis, and the driver. The equipment to successfully log this data is now available to amateur drivers, builders, and armchair racers, and can be a very cost-effective way of improving your performance. Everything is explained including how to design and install a system, how to interpret the collected data, and how to use this data to analyze a performance. It discusses logging techniques for karts, circuit racing, rallying, hill climbing, sprinting, hot rod racing, stock car racing, and drag racing.
Data Power: Using Racecar Data Acquisition
Data Power is the first practical guide to using data acquisition systems in racing. You’ll learn simple visual techniques to recognize critical car and driver performance characteristics at a glance. Race engineer Buddy Fey demystifies data acquisition with the racer’s perspective on how to:
- Choose and install a data acquisition system
- Set up your PC to download and analyze data
- Examine and understand graphs and data
- Optimize chassis and drivetrain tuning
- Analysis driver performance
- Merge data acquisition into your race day
- Learn how race teams are using advanced computer techniques to go faster.
- Pick up practical tips and hints from a professional to turn your electronic data into mph.
- Understand at a glance the information your competition is still puzzling over.
See you on the track!
