Lap Timing Stuff

[Steve Fleming]

Anybody with experience of beacon driven lap timing equipment? Need it for track days (yes, I know we're not supposed to time cars, but everybody does - don't they?)and have got fed up trying to be accurate with a hand held stopwatch velcroed to the dash. Demon Tweeks has a couple of reasonably priced bits of kit in its catalogue which look interesting.

 

Comments, anyone??

 

Steve

[Peter Carmichael]

Steve,

 

This is very bad. Timing affects the basis for the liability insurance underwriting for the day. If the organisers allow timing then they have violated the terms of the insurance and the insurance companies will squirm out of any claim. The rules regarding timing are down to the accuracy involved. i.e. timing to the nearest second is allowed, but anything as accurate as a tenth is dodgy.

 

A surreptitious stopwatch is tolerated by many, but beacon timing systems are definitely out. They would encourage treating the day like a test day, which IMO is what test days are for - drivers with race licences, different insurance basis, no rules on overtaking, no sessions, at your own risk. This is not what track days are about and I would turn around and leave the circuit without driving if I saw this sort of thing going on.

 

That said, I have a car fully rigged up with beacon sensors for my Stack dashlogger. I have never run with the beacon though. I have a manual button for the timing on the steering wheel, although I have more often just driven the day, logged it and worked out what I was doing afterwards by reconstructing lap markers from a characteristic in the logs (usually a chicane).

 

If you mount a video camera on the car, you can get accurate timing back from the video. The rules haven't caught up with the technological possibilities, but beacons are much too blatant.

[Steve Fleming]

Peter,

 

I take your point although I see more and more people using the beacon technology. From a visibility viewpoint I find a stopwatch more or less permanently fixed to the steering wheel / dashboard, which is often seen, more of a threat to any insurance cover than a discreetly positioned beacon somewhere on the circuit feeding a similarly discreetly positioned receiver in the car.

As regards the Stack instrumentation in the R500 it makes you wonder what the thinking behind Caterham's decision to install it was. Surely not for road use??

 

Steve

[Jason Plato]

For a good value , quality timing system , try mailing : simon@acculap.com

 

He is a caterham racer and South Wales area organiser as well as a throughly nice chap , who also does a side line in timing gear and carbon fiber wings etc .

 

the equipment price may surprise you !!!! :-)

 

Dave .

 

[Graeme Smith]

Rollcentre do a passable laptimer - about £200 for one that downloads to a PC, and about £160 for an earlier model that doesn't (www.rollcentre.co.uk). I've had a few gliches with mine so can't whole heartly recommend it, such as believeably low times when skimming the pitwall at Brands, but should be fine for just getting an idea of what times you're doing. Both timers include beacons (a few quid less if you buy it without) - but you rarely need one. All UK circuits (apart from Anglesey) have their own beacon - see http://www.piresearch.com/about/press/whats-new.htm. Most seem to be switched on most of the time...

 

Edited by - Graeme Smith on 8 Oct 2000 21:37:59

[Peter Carmichael]

I'm going to come on like a killjoy here, but an accident causing an injury will leave the promotor liable to uninsured claims and one claim for a serious injury will probably be enough to put them out of business and the track (and other tracks) will never go near them again.

 

I am not convinced that timing of itself makes track driving more dangerous, but if it gives an insurance company a chance to squirm out of paying up in the event of a claim then I am dead set against it.

[Nick]

Another disadvantage is that if timing becomes common practice at trackdays and insurance companies realise this, premiums could well rise and/or trackday cover will be excluded, which will subsequently only be available through specialist companies.

 

Mr Pooper

[rkelly]

Peter - you mentioned mounting a video recorder....any advice on how to go about doing this ?

 

IMHO this seems to be a very reliable, safe, fun and "legal" way of timing yourselve...as long as you have a video recorder.

 

 

RKELLY

Keen and green

[Peter Carmichael]

I don't have any experience of mounting a video camera, but I know a lot of people have managed it. There was a recent discussion on it here.

[Matt Prior]

 

When I go on karting test days [which is rare since the 7 turned up, to be frank] with my mate, whoever isn't driving sits by the side of the track with a stopwatch and time the lap when the kart passes a particular point.

 

Seems accurate enough, actually [within a tenth or so I'd expect, but we'll find out if we ever get timing equipment], and means there's no suspicious equipment on the car.