So true......my Escort was fine with that sort of thing,but the first time you try it with a more modern ECU is a shock....I thought I'd broken the car when I gave it a try.
What you need
An Android Phone running 2.2 or higher
aLapHD App (free or paid) from the Android Market £3.99
A Bluetooth OBD2 scanner like this from Amazon - also widely available on Ebay £20
Racerender software RaceRender 2 Video Processor £Free or £20 for the full deluxe version
And here's what you can do (best watched in HD):
I made the dials myself using Racerender and you can add other dials like throttle position, gear, g-force, MAF, intake pressure, engine load etc etc.
I also now have a way of mounting the phone on, so will capture better video without the screen mount getting in the way.
Did Oulton Park yesterday, great day with lovely weather
Brands Hatch a couple of weeks back now.
Haven't had a proper track day(apart from odd laps of Lydden etc)and this was a fantastic day out.
Shared our track slot with a track prepared 911,a few other S3s,a track ready ED30,and a BTTC car......really was superb fun,and I managed not to stack the car(or anyone else's) or blow it up,and got some decent speeds out of the Brabham straight but it taught me that I need a remap(my brain that is),and I need to get some more corner speed out of the car and me.
what was the car you were chasing a R32? and that striped out mk1golf on the outside data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 some mad cars at Oulton Park.
The Blue car is an old EG Civic (race prepped) and that Golf was crazy fast.
Went to Spa again a couple of weeks ago - beginning to get the hang of the data thing.
This is my best lap, though for some reason, the data logger decided that 7000rpm is enough for anyone
And this is with the data working properly.
Brings back memories from my Spa Track daysdata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Camera don't really show it but it's a fair old climb up the hill after you get through Eau Rouge.Speeds seem similar to my 182.90-100 through Eau Rouge then up to around 110-120 by the time you reach the top of the hill.
Sometimes i'd give the engine a breather and change up to 5th a tad early after Eau Rouge and see the speed stay static as it hardly seemed worth it to flog the engine to death to get another 5mphdata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Usually 120at the top of the hill (on the speedo as opposed to GPS as shown in the vids) and I do the same upshift to 5th sometimes too. Putting the roof up gives another 5mph easily, but I prefer it down so I can see all the really fast stuff coming up behind me a lot more easily and can get out of the way.
You're right about the gradients though, until you've actually been there, you have no idea how steep it all is.
A fun tip is to drive the circuit in the wrong direction on one of the console/computer games, it give you much better idea of the gradients, especially up from Fagnes to Malmedy.
The speed at which you approach Eau Rouge going backwards is pretty frightening too.
data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Would have been good to try that in real life.
Probably could have got somewhere near the limiter..data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Anglesey this weekend (22nd Sept), will be in a white E36 so feel free to say hello if you see me.