Perfomance tracking
 

I'm going to take my car to the track soon to see what it can do, and I've been looking around for some device(s) / application (iOS) that can do some things like accelerometer (lateral G) recording, lap times, etc. Maybe a camera recording function. Has anyone tried anything like this?

Check out the track, autocross, HPDE forum, there's a lot of information there.

For iOS, check out Harry's Lap Timer as an option.

i'll second harry's lap timer

Add another recommendation for Harry's Lap Timer.

Which version of harrys lap timer?

$9, 19, or 27 version?

If you are on Android you can only get the $19 version. iOS supports the next level up.

As a learning aid, the middle version is very good. You can overlay the data onto video and see exactly what you are doing throttle wise.

The lap data is also good for comparing lap times since it shows you time gained/lost vs a reference lap.

Have you ever been on a track before?

Me? no, this would be my first time. First time having a car worth taking to the track, lol. I've been reading some of the threads on here on how to prep...

This was my first season taking the car to the track. I have now been a total of 6 times, 4 full days with instruction and two evenings solo. Here's my advice:

- Ride with an instructor as many times as you can. It will make a huge difference.

- For your first time out, don't bother with data logging or video as you are still going to be learning a lot about the correct lines, how the car handles, etc. Don't even worry about lap times.

- Once you've got a few sessions under your belt, video can be a good learning tool, so definitely use it then.

If you are new to track you won't need this kind of data. This is my first year tracking and I have been to a good amount so far. I don't take any lap times or data of that sort. I can tell most places where I screw up or where I did a pretty good job.

Also if new you will have an instructor in car. Going to be hard to listen to instructor and try to adjust driving based on your acquired data.

If anything, get a GoPro and post your videos and ask for advice. Next year I might try this but so far I can recognize my fairly fundamental mistakes.

Exactly what ZionsWrath said.You need to work on your driving before you are going to test a car to it's max.

Right, I wasn't expecting to squeeze every last ounce of performance on my first go, I just thought it would be interesting to see progress. It's more of a curiosity of seeing what I'm comfortable with now vs. what I can do.

In that case, just get a camera with suction cup mount, like a GoPro or ContourHD, or one of a dozen others. It is fun to watch the video later on, and you can always pull lap times off of the times of your videos.

I've been reading recommendations to bring premium brake fluid, extra brake pads, and stuff like that. Do you guys think it would be necessary for a first timer?