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I'm going to cover several questions which have popped up because of the group buy... 1) Which situations will the system help me with? The system will help for any situation where your rear end can step out due to excess power. For example, turning onto a street and dipping into the throttle just a little too much... or when the turbos kick in during the middle of a turn... or when you're driving along on a highway, downshift into third gear, the turbos kick in, and you end up losing the rear end and doing 360's off into the grassy shoulder (hehe... yup, I've got first hand experience with that one! luckily, I didn't hit anyone or anything as I was spinning through 3 lanes of traffic!) Also, this system is AMAZING for autocrossers/circuit racers. It gives you perfect and consistent powerslides and launches. In fact, there is a lot of action going on now to outlaw many forms of traction control in professional racing because it works so well. For straightline/drag racing, it's great because you can use the maximum amount of power that your tires can handle. Unlike stock traction control systems, that cut power way too much (to the point that it hurts your acceleration), the Racelogic system lets you finely tune exactly how much traction you want (best straight line acceleration is 5-8% wheelspin). Also, the launch control will help (see below). For those times you need to drop off your car at the dealership or loan it to your friend... you can do one of two things: 1) dial in for 0% wheelspin, so there's no way for them to lose the rear end and crash your car OR 2) splice in a toggle switch that will turn on the rev limiter (so you can set it at say 3000rpm, and the engine will not rev higher than that). I feel 1000x better leaving my car with anyone now that I have this system. (Also, you can examine the datalog to see EXACTLY how your car was driven while you were gone!) 2) What are all of the options that I can get? Basically, you can get the "adjustable system" which gives you an in-cockpit 5 position dial so you can change how much traction control you want on the fly. For example, if you are driving around and it starts raining, you can simply dial in more traction control. Then, there's "launch control" which allows you to set a rev limit to whatever rpm you want for the launch. For example, set it to 4000 rpm, then you line up, push the button, push the gas, it bounces off 4000rpm, 3-4psi of boost builds, and then you take off. If you get the "professional system", it includes all of the above plus a lot of extra goodies, like on-board RAM to datalog your runs (the adjustable system can datalog too, but you need to leave your laptop hooked up to it). But, it's gonna cost ya! 3) How good is launch control and how does it work? Will it decrease my 60' time? Here's a video of KiwiZ building boost using launch control in his Z... he doesn't actually launch in this video, so he's not holding the gas down, otherwise, his boost would just stay up. [ www.geocities.com/v_spec_gtr/Racelogic/launchboost.mpg ] Here's a video of KiwiZ actually launching... his exact words were "It's amazing... you just go!". [ www.geocities.com/v_spec_gtr/Racelogic/rear_4k_launch.mpg ] I've been doing a lot of testing lately, and launch control will be most helpful in the following situations: (a) You're running drag radials or slicks and have a clutch that can take a hard launch (i.e. sidestepping the clutch). By using launch control,the 5psi of boost will shoot you out of the hole with this setup. I've got drag radials on order, but they aren't here yet, so I don't have any hard numbers for this... but if you just use your common sense, 5psi of boost out of the hole is a lot better than vacuum (which is what your engine is at when you just normally hold it at a certain rpm). But, the only way that this will work is if you have drag radials or slicks. Simply sidestepping the clutch on street tires will not work too well... trust me... I've tried it lots of times! You'll simply spin your street tires for about 0.4 sec as the traction control brings the power levels down enough to get you moving (which is why I said you must use drag radials or slicks in this scenario). (b) Your typical 60' time is 2.2-2.4 sec on street tires while using a decent performance clutch. Launch control can drop it to 2.0 sec (Orion did it after only a few trips to the track). The problem with this scenario is you can not build 5psi of boost and expect your clutch to last... 1-2 psi max is all you can really hope that your clutch can take, and you have to slip the clutch too. I bet that sub 2.0 sec 60' times are possible with a little more practice and tuning (keep us posted, Orion!) (c) You can get a 2.0 sec 60' time occasionally, but not consistently. This is the best aspect of launch control. The traction control will serve as a "ceiling" that will help salvage your launch if you let out the clutch too fast or you're prone to overreving at the start line. This will help your consistency. 4) Which system do you recommend? I would most highly recommend the "adjustable system with launch control". It does basically everything the professional does, and costs less. The professional system is better because it will datalog automatically for you, so that you can download the run afterwards (with the adjustable, you need to leave your computer hooked up during the run)... so if you have the extra cash to blow, then it might be worth the convenience for you. The basic system is ok, but not really all that flexible since it's only an on/off switch. 5) What's the datalogging like? Does it help? Here's a screen capture of one of my 1/4 mile runs.
 and another shot zoomed in of that same run... pay attention to where the cursor is (the vertical line)... you'll see that here at the top of 1st gear, the rear wheels are beginning to break out, but then the traction control kicks in (bottom line) and keeps the rear wheels from spinning greater than 10% (which is what I had it set at for this run). 
As you can see, you can watch your speed, rpm, wheelspin, and the amount the traction control is intervening. Also, I believe you can log your air flow sensor, throttle position, O2 sensors, or anything else (you just have to splice into different wires)... I'll have to check on this last part though. It also lets you compare two runs side by side, and you can zoom in and out to examine a specific section in detail. It will record from 1.5 minutes to well over an hour's worth of data. It helps you to tune not only the traction system, but any other performance enhancing part for your car. By moving the cursors around, you can measure what your 0-60mph time is, 0-100mph time, etc. etc. 5) What much does the traction control help my 1/4 mile time? My best 1/4 mile time with the traction control on street tires was 12.9sec at 119mph. When the traction contol was off, my best was 13.5sec. My best 60' time was only a 2.3 sec because I only have street tires and have an OS Giken triple disc clutch, which you can't slip (as per scenario "b" in the launch control description). But Orion was able to do well with street tires and a Cyclone 3.5 clutch. I've got drag radials on the way, so I am expecting really good 60' times soon, but I won't have those results before the end of this group buy. Please note, if you have a stock Z, your results may not be as dramatic... my Z makes about 625hp, so I get MASSIVE wheelspin without the system. One time, I was racing when the track was damp and half of the cars were fishtailing and crossing the center line. I went straight and true with the traction c
Bernie
The heart of the Phoenix...
bhsiao@newssun.med.miami.edu |
RACELOGIC TRACTION CONTROL: VIDEOS, PICS, and TEST RESULTS> - 
