Racelogic Circuit Tools
The Circuit Tools software package from Racelogic is designed to vastly simplify the process of extracting more performance from yourself and your car.
Insert your SD card containing the video and synchronised data, and select the latest file. The software then automatically detects the country, circuit and track configuration you have been driving (from the vast database of circuits included with the package), then uses the start/finish line in the database to separate and sort the laps contained in that file.
The fastest lap from your latest session is automatically chosen and displayed on the graph window, and the video is moved to the start of this lap. You can then compare runs from this session, or from previous one simply by clicking on the relevant lap-time shown in the session window.
A theoretical ‘ideal lap’ is calculated from the best sectors in each session. To view sectors, simply click on the relevant sector, or drag the cursor over a number of sectors to show a sequence.
A very useful channel, time difference or 'Delta-T', can be displayed showing the lap-time difference around the lap between two different laps.
Two laps compared using Circuit Tools analysis package showing Delta-T channel
Track maps
Circuit Tools contains a huge database of worldwide circuits and for most circuits in that database are Track overlays.
These are surveyed inside and outside edges of the track, which allow you to truly see and compare different driving lines.
Lap-time difference channel
The time difference or Delta-T channel is a very important parameter in driver analysis and Racelogic have vastly improved the standard technique used up till now with an advanced algorithm which utilises the advantages of GPS to the full.
Conventionally, continuous lap time difference was based on aligning the distance channel from each lap and subtracting the time at these points.
This works only if the driver took more or less the same line around the track, but if you are comparing two drivers, or trying out different lines, then the difference in lap distances can be typically more than 10m by the end of the lap.
This means that the time difference channel degrades from the start of the lap and could be out by up to as much as 1 second by the end (and over 4s around the Nordschleife!) which makes it difficult to use for any meaningful analysis.
Take the example on the right, where the two drivers took completely different lines around the corner, but which is the fastest? The difference in rolling distance between these two lines is around 3m, so if you rely on distance to compare them, the analysis for this corner alone will be out by nearly 0.2s.
You can apply corrections to appear to reduce this, but in reality you are losing out on vital information because the true point by point comparison is not being done.
In Circuit Tools Racelogic have developed a sophisticated routine which compares the two actual GPS driving lines around the lap to give a continuously accurate Delta-T channel which is always within less than a tenth of a second, even around the Nordschleife.
This ensures that the feedback you are getting from the analysis is as accurate as possible, allowing you to get closer to finding the optimum driving techniques.
Download Racelogic Circuit Tools here
For a detailed overview of Circuit Tools software, please watch the following video: