Cars & Autos | Sunday 7 June, 2015 5:43 pm |

GT sports cars from Porsche are a good ticket to the world of motorsport. Four out of five of all Porsche GTs ever built have been driven on the track. One in three enthusiastic drivers takes to the track in the first year of ownership testing sporting limits of vehicle and personal skills. Porsche has developed a Track Precision app especially for such drivers.

The Porsche Track Precision app is part of a special Sport Chrono Package, which is only available for the Cayman GT4, 911 GT3 and 911 GT3 RS. Combined with a pre-fitted lap trigger from Tequipment, lap times are measured even more precisely in comparison to when measured using GPS signal. The app for Android or iOS can be downloaded from Google Play and iTunes free of charge. It enables the driver to perform a detailed and objective analysis of lap times and personal driving style using synchronised data and video recordings. To do so, it utilises precise vehicle data from an auxiliary control unit in the vehicle as well as the device’s high-resolution camera and GPS signals.

The Porsche Track Precision app offers a unique range of functions, both while driving as well as for subsequent analysis. Before setting off, the driver simply has to select the desired track. A mere 60 international race tracks are available in digitised form. Additional tracks can be conveniently added in a map editor or can be created when driving the first lap on a new circuit. To ensure high video quality, the driver should affix the device in a secure mount on the windscreen. As soon as the start line has been passed, the system automatically begins to record using the GPS data. The data can then be saved after passing the finishing line.

On the track, dynamic performance is also visualised in the form of traction, steering response, as well as longitudinal and lateral acceleration. In addition to the sector and lap times, the display also shows the precise position of deviations compared to an ideal lap, gathered from available data or a previously recorded lap. The driver can also always see the difference in time, distance and speed at a glance, with two animated “ghost cars” used to indicate the current difference in comparison to the reference lap on the display: the car in front is faster.

All of the data and the video recordings are saved on the device, as a result, it is possible to produce a video analysis immediately after the vehicle has stopped, allowing the driver to improve performance values in the very next lap.

Unique features of the app’s onscreen animated display include a 911 GT3 or Cayman GT4 cockpit with a steering, simulated accelerator, brake pedals, position, steering angle, lateral and longitudinal acceleration (G-force) as well as traction all synchronised with the video.

The ghost car animation of distance and time deviations in comparison to a selectable reference is also displayed. On top of that, a number of detailed graphical analyses can be selected. For example, it is possible to display the driving line and to switch to detailed display screens or to a video of a precise position anywhere on the track.

Porsche has developed a special control unit for data collection and transmission, which acquires all of the relevant information from the on-board network ten times per second and encodes it with a high-precision time stamp. This ensures that no inaccuracies arise during transmission to the device via WiFi. The driver can use the device’s menu to select whether to use the GPS signals from his device, the car, or from an external, high-precision GPS receiver.

For the high-precision measurement of the lap time, the Sport Chrono Package for GT sports cars also includes an interface to a “lap trigger” as used in motorsport, which communicates with the Track Precision app. It is based on the light barrier principle, with a transmitter next to the start/finish line triggering the receiver in the rear side window when the car passes. The lap trigger is available from Porsche Tequipment.

GT customers who did not order the Sport Chrono Package when buying the current generation Cayman GT4, 911 GT3 RS or 911 GT3 can have the Track Precision app retrofitted by Porsche Tequipment at the nearest Porsche Centre.