Corner-carving is among the most rousing activities practiced in the driver seat, yet it can also be the most humiliating and frustrating if you don't know what you're doing. Handling pursuits are the golf of gearheaddom. You're not going to get any better without some lessons, and even afterward you could flail aimlessly, not really improving. It'd be nice to have an instructor coaching your every lap. That's what this new gizmo is all about. It can provide handy training for first-time road racers, and hard-core data and community interaction that will compel the most diehard slide-rule stroke. Just watch.
First, the 30-second history. Think back to 1984-ish when Top Fuel racer Kenny Bernstein and crewchief AA/Dale Armstrong were among the first to bring attention to race car data logging. The company they worked with was Racepak, which 23 years later is the leader in data acquisition systems for all types of race cars and industrial applications. In 2005, Racepak became a division of MSD Ignition, using that company's marketing and distribution strength to bring data logging products to hobby car guys like us. One of the MSD/Racepak products is the G2X lap-analysis device that we tested here.
What's A G2X?
The G2X is a data acquisition system that uses Global Positioning System satellites as well as lateral and longitudinal accelerometers to produce information about a car's location and lap times on the race track, plus its speed, acceleration, and deceleration. For advanced users, up to 12 auxiliary sensors may be used to record such things as throttle position, brake pressure, steering angle, and many other points of interest. For cars with aftermarket EFI systems from Accel, Autronic, F.A.S.T., AEM, or MSD, prewired cables are available to plug into the EFI's existing data sensors.
The information that's collected by the G2X is stored on a removable memory card for downloading to a PC computer, where Datalink II software is used to interpret the information and display it in maps, charts, or graphs. In addition, the in-car unit has a miniature dash that can display lap numbers, lap times (in real time or in difference versus the prior lap), speed, rpm, and even what gear the car is in (based on a calculation of road speed and engine rpm). It also includes a programmable progressive shift light that can be set to a different rpm for each gear.
Optionally, the simple VNet-brand cabling system allows you to plug in Racepak VNet gauges for a cockpit readout of any of the information available through auxiliary sensors or through the EFI system, so the G2X also becomes the information center for your entire dashboard.
Installation of the G2X data logging system alone is very easy: Just mount the black box, plug in the GPS antenna that magnetically attaches to the roof of the car, plug in the single cable for the dash display, connect it to a tach signal, and then hook it to 12 volts through a cigarette-lighter plug. The kit can be easily moved from car to car. The base system with everything you need except for a PC computer sells for $943.50.
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