Performance Measurements

[Brucester]

Has anyone tried or had any reports on the cordless performance measurement device advertised in the kit car magazines.  Its about £120 exc VAT and apparantly measures accurately 0-60mph, BHP at wheels, and many other stats.  Thought it may be a fun gadget, any views?

[Mark Stanton]

Put the £120 towards a tutorial track day and you'll surely notice your improved "performance"        

[hilux]

My wife says that my performance always improves when I`m cordless.....

Especially when I`m wearing my pyjamas

[Nick M]

If you're referring to the AP-22 then yes, they're very good.  You do need to take the time to calibrate them properly but they're accurate enough to be within a few hundreths of the timing gear at Santa Pod, which is actually a good place to set them up.

The initial novelty wears off but if you leave it permanently in the car then you can play around with measuring cornering forces, in gear acceleration, braking, etc.

Good bit of kit, and a useful tool too.  I set it up to measure the bhp at the wheels and was disappointed with the results.  Sadly the AP-22 proved to be correct and it was an early sign that the engine wasn't in the best of health.

[Kevin Wood]

I came across a program called streetdyno the other day. Claims to be able to generate power curves from acceleration data gleaned from connecting the tacho signal to the sound card input of a laptop (with suitable level conversion to stop it blowing your sound card to bits!. Haven't played with it yet but could be a good low cost option for anyone just wanting to compare performance following tweaks.

Wouldn't expect good absolute accuracy though. Unless you know the weight, frontal area, CD and rolling losses of your car.

Kevin

[samcooke]

There's a very good review of the AP22 on the seight website

[Sooty]

AP22 are great for testing any engine or handling mods, but remember that you’ll need to calibrate it correctly first before believing the results.

First off get the car weighted, then get it onto a drag strip, to calibrate the ‘tilt’ suspension settings on the unit, so they match the times and speeds of the track timing gear, a few runs normally does it.

After that have fun