Adaptation of lane watch to racing?

Matt,

Funny that you feel that your brain is so amazing that it can maintain situational awareness in all cases, but that it's too dim to distinguish when this tool might be of value, and when its not.

Are you also alarmed when your oil pressure warning light comes on in pit lane after a race?

-Kyle

PS: Thanks Dayle. I needed that.
 
On a very similar note last week I bought a 2015 Honda Fit for our "burn car" for trips back and forth to Missouri. On 100% on Honda's 2015 vehicles they include a right side door mirror camera that turns on whenever you signal for a right turn or you select it on 100%. You see 100% from the front door handle rearward so the view is quite impressive. The also have a backup camera when reverse is selected.

I would think this would be Uber nice on a racer....you could even mount the camera further forward on the right fender for an even better view. 7" display is just the right size although on a racer I would mount it higher than stock.

I like the idea......but it is one more thing to break.
 
We sell a fair number of video and data systems to offshore powerboat racers. They commonly use a rearview camera / video display. One neat tweak we've done for some is to do a data overlay (RPM, temps, speed etc) on the video such that it becomes a combined rear view "mirror" and data display. We can even flip the video so that it looks like a rear view mirror.

Kyle - you need this!

I'm thinking that I likely wouldn't be able to see high enough out of my Scirocco windshield on the banking at Daytona (I sit tall in the car and can't see much above horizontal) so could rig up a camera on the dash looking forward and upward and put a video display beside my rear view mirror....

I have a feeling we could rent these out at Daytona this fall!

Al Seim
HP VW Scirocco
Race Technology USA LLC
 
Al Seim":2rcjd6yd said:
We sell a fair number of video and data systems to offshore powerboat racers. They commonly use a rearview camera / video display. One neat tweak we've done for some is to do a data overlay (RPM, temps, speed etc) on the video such that it becomes a combined rear view "mirror" and data display. We can even flip the video so that it looks like a rear view mirror.

Kyle - you need this!

I'm thinking that I likely wouldn't be able to see high enough out of my Scirocco windshield on the banking at Daytona (I sit tall in the car and can't see much above horizontal) so could rig up a camera on the dash looking forward and upward and put a video display beside my rear view mirror....

I have a feeling we could rent these out at Daytona this fall!

Al Seim
HP VW Scirocco


Race Technology USA LLC
Click to expand...

Al,
Could you do 2 cameras, split screen on one display and record? I was thinking the vibration would kill anything other than huge dollar
displays, but powerboats take a beating.
 
Hi Kevin -

Yes, but our stuff to do the split screen is fairly expensive, it's our VIDEO4 system starting at around $1500 and has no display - but can use up to 4 cameras, records and outputs to a SD TV display.

Info is here:

http://www.race-technology.com/content. ... 8&cat=7557

The powerboat guys are using fairly expensive Garmin displays - but I think that the cheap Chinese backup cameras and displays like Dick is presumably using are probably fairly robust and are so cheap as to be borderline disposable. We use a high quality bullet camera which has proven almost indestructable in cars and boats.

Al
 
Bosch lipstick cam $70 and $35 3in. display. put the display right next to dash and no head turning is needed. Did this when we got the hans device.
 
disquek":3lxn1m1b said:
Matt,

Funny that you feel that your brain is so amazing that it can maintain situational awareness in all cases, but that it's too dim to distinguish when this tool might be of value, and when its not.

Are you also alarmed when your oil pressure warning light comes on in pit lane after a race?

-Kyle

PS: Thanks Dayle. I needed that.
Click to expand...
Kyle, my opinion is that I would spend more mental processing time trying to figure out when not/to trust the blinky light on the dash vs. just glancing out the mirror and seeing for myself. If there's a car inside my corner, I *usually* already know it-- one of the perks of running a slow car is that I am used to having one eye on my mirrors almost all the time.

So if I add a proximity sensor to each corner of my rear bumper, there's going to be one more thing blinking in my line of sight telling me there's something in my mirror while I'm already looking at what's there.. So is it redundant information at this point? I readily admit (and already have in this thread) that there will often be a case where someone sneaks up on you or you forget someone is behind you while you're battling someone ahead. That would make a device like this a handy tool. However, I would still consider this a supplement to a mirror, not a replacement. My biggest issue/concern is that this is a digital device (on/off only) whereas racing is a very analog world. A light would only tell me there's a car within range of a sensor... but how close and how fast are they coming? I still have to look at my mirror to determine that. I guess one way to look at it would be the light is simply a noid light to say 'hey, check yer mirror, dummy!' ... And yes, that would be handy. I'm just not sure I would bother to pay attention to it after about two mid-pack race starts.

A rearview camera- maybe one with range lines to give you a quick spacial clue of how close the car is? That's a different ball of wax.
 
I'd bet that 95% of SCCA contact is of the "I didn't see them" variety.

Anything to reduce that would help.

Mirrors are great, but my experience is that there is a skill to operating them (meaning that some folks do it better than others).

-Kyle
 
Agreed... however it seems to be the local joke that the ones that are known to not look at their mirrors are also the ones known by the mechanics not to look at their oil pressure lights.. So I would take that one step further and assume a proximity light would be yet another thing that would be ignored. :roll:
 
Matt,

I don't think that an LED can cure stupidity, I'm just wondering if a simple proximity alert system can slow Bondo sales.

-Kyle
 
Indicator lights are like mirrors, you must know when it is appropriate to look at them!

Roebling Road, Georgia, turn 9 is a very flat and fast turn in any car. One of my GT1 competitors was well into the turn, saw an indicator light on the dash brightly illuminated. Looked down at the gauge, then did a double take on the gauge. By the time he looked back up, he had left the track and was well into the woods. He removed a small 6" or 8" diameter pine at ground level on his trip into the trees. They located his car by following the mushroom cloud of steam when his radiator exploded. He then needed to replace the front clip of his chassis.

So, maybe that is why some drivers are afraid to monitor their mirrors and gauges...

Personally, I prefer the 18" convex mirror, ( not the multi panel Wink mirror ) mounted above the windshield, where it doesn't block my forward view on the banking at Daytona and Charlotte. At Rockingham, NC, it didn't matter, you looked thru the side window going around the banking. You could only see 30' forward thru the windshield. The radius of the banked turns was that tight and that steep.
 
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