Lap timers / data acquision

I asked about Traqmate a while back and am thinking about it again. Does any one here use it? Can it be any real help in improving your driving? Now that I am a sole DE diver I miss the instructor. Thanks

I have a G2X. It's definitely useful, though I'd say it's less useful than scrutinizing your video (so get an in car cam first).

Data combined with video will let you identify clean HPDE laps, then compare them to eachother. I battle with inconsistent lap times, so I usually look for segments that are frequently inconsistent and work on cleaning them up. Once you can put down consistent laps (or segments), you can try alternate lines and/or change the setup of your car and get real data to validate if it's actually faster. Data is also handy if you can get someone who is faster than you to drive your car, or trade data with someone who has a similar car to yours.

I'm looking at selling my G2X and picking up a traqmate for the benefits of trading with others. Well, and the G2X software is moderately evil ... be sure you play with the software in depth before you buy a system. The software is really what you're paying for.

I use Traqmate along with their digital video system. I haven't been able to combine the data with the video but that's my own fault by not being overly computer savy. The data is very useful as it can show you inconsistancies between laps. I've put laps side by side and watched where the differences were. What it doesn't show is if there were other reasons for slowing (traffic, flags, ect) but that is where the video combined with the data would come in. I'll have to work on that. All in all I like it.

It's a little pricey, about a grand each for the data and the video. It also works at AutoX too but won't help much because of the short time between runs and the ever changing layout. But it's fun to look at.

It definitely has less value in an autox situation, but can still show you where you're not being smooth around the course.

On a full track, it's extremely useful to me. I went from originally using the simple accelerometer in various GTech model's with my AMB transponder data and last year upgraded to the Traqmate. I've been doing in-car video for awhile and haven't had much problem using the data from either the GTech RR or the Traqmate with my digital video. I haven't combined them, but once the video is open in editing software, I can manually sync up the time between the data and video. At some point, I'll break down and get the video option so I can do it within the Traqmate software itself and save some aggravation there, but overall, I think Iaz hit it when he pointed out the ability to share and compare data with others, especially someone who's consistently putting down faster lap times than you in the same car or one very similarly setup.

It never ceases to amaze me as someone who started autox'ing back in the 80's and looking at the cost of data acquisition systems and their comparatively archaic capabilities compared to what you can get now with only $699!