The Competition Car Data Logging Manual (Speedpro)

Review

Track & Race Cars, October 2008
UK magazine
Circ: 25,000

Data logging can look baffling and complex with the amount of complex lines and numbers that are presented when using data logging. Starting by looking at what type of hardware and software to buy, it goes through how they work and how to read them. This does a good job of explaining things that many manuals would not touch on. The graphs and tables are well labeled and explained showing examples of what can be expected when using data logging.
  Bear Facts, Summer 2008
Newsletter of the Porsche Club of America, Polar Region
 
A practical handbook on how to choose and operate data logging equipment and get the full benefit from what it tells you. Aimed at the amateur competitor, it covers hardware and software and takes over where the manufacturer's instructions run out. It shows how to understand what the data is telling you and how to use it to go faster.
  www.silhouet.com/motorsport, 2008

I think that someone might be trying to tell me something. Shortly after receiving 'How To Build a Motorcycle Engined Race Car,' I receive the book 'The Competition Data Logging Manual.' Someone thinks that I will build one at some point ...The book is clearly written and easy to understand, but then I am familiar with terms such as Controller Area Network (CAN) busses and ECUs through my work, so I can't assume that the novice reader will find to quite so clear, although I don't see why not.  I would also recommend the book to anyone who is starting to learn about data analysis in any field, not just data logging from competition cars. The book quite clearly deals with issues such as sampling frequencies and the effect on data, as well as data averaging and measurement ranges. I've met all such problems in the lab before, and it would have been useful to have read this book then. It also tells you a lot about what to look for in your resulting traces, and how to try and understand dynamic issues from what you see. Armed with this book, you could make a good start on understanding them.  However, it does sometimes use acronyms without defining what they are, eg. on page 78, limited slip diff becomes 'lsd' without warning, and should really be capitalized, as with the use of CAN earlier in the book. Without defining what the acronym is you could read something completely different for those three letters ... Also, there are very occasional layout issues, with small amounts of text placed between diagrams, so that you can lose the reading flow when going from page to page. But these things are minor.  I found the pointers to car behavior from the traces and hints given to setup to be illuminating and potentially very useful to the driver wishing to learn the art of driving faster. If nothing else, it gives you a very different insight into F1 testing and what the drivers do in their briefings with their engineers, and for that it is well worth reading.  

Book Description

This book is aimed at amateur racers but it will no doubt find its way on to the bookshelves of many professionals because of its no-nonsense direct approach to the use of datalogging to improve the performance of both the car and the driver. It includes a buying guide to ensure that you buy a system that suits your present and future needs and deals with installing and calibrating the system to give useful results. It gives practical advice that will minimize problems with the system. It deals with strategies to extract the maximum amount of useful information to help mechanics, engineers and drivers. It reveals the secrets that the professionals, what is possible and what is worthwhile.