> I am in full agreement with Byron Short and Dr. Bob Woods regarding
> data aquisition, whether it's Geez!, video, or Pi Systems. They should
> be 100% legal, provided you don't need to make any illegal modifications
> to the car in order to install them. And as Byron said, they should be
> explicitly prohibited from mechanically assisting the driver in
> real-time.
Me too.
> However, a big part of the original discussion in SportsCar was using
> the information to show drivers who have not yet seen the course(s).
> At Nationals, for example, watching someone's video of the course before
> you run is clearly an advantage, and one that is not accessible to
> everyone. You have to know someone who ran already, who took video,
> who will show it to you. Is this fair?
I think that everyone probably "feels" that they may or may not get an
advantage by many different means. Video does nothing for me because view
is too small, I need the full periphery view before it does me any good. In
fact if I watch a video of a course that I have driven, I spend most of the
time just trying to figure out where I am. Maybe I just have not used video
the "correct" way, I don't know. Personally, what I think helps me is
walking the course with someone that has already driven the course. If I
can find out what they thought before hand and then what they experienced,
that just seems to help. Hopfully I will not fall into the same pitfalls
and find out where I really can put the pedal to the medal and the car will
hold.
All that said, probably we all have our cruches that we feel help. If you
start trying to limit one thing, where do you stop. I really do not think
that you can stop until you make people stop talking to each other.... I
know, extream but is showing someone how to take something on a course map
really that different? I think that we have all had people help us that
way, lots. Clearly an advantage espesially if its a really good driver that
is doing the helping.
I think that Byron hit it dead on in his note:
<Data acquisition and video work the same way. Just as being coached by
Mark Daddio doesn't necessarily make you drive like Mark Daddio,
watching video and reading data acquisition, whether of your own runs or
even Mark's, won't make you suddenly drive like Mark. When the timer
starts, it's all up to you. Nobody is gonna drive the car for you.
But there is an important distinction between data acquisition/video
versus having a great coach like Mark Daddio. GEEZ and video are
available to all competitors--there's a limited supply of Mark Daddio.>
Me thinks that its just a never ending can-o-worms and going there will do
more harm then good.
-Wally
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