Porsche launches Track Precision app
Smartphone application can take the role of an instructor when out on the track
Porsche has launched its Track Precision app, giving drivers the opportunity to receive track instructions via their smartphones.
The app uses the car’s on-board sensors while out on the circuit to sense steering angle, brake pressure and accelerator position. The start and finish lines are also automatically detected, ensuring accurate lap and sector times.
In addition, drivers will be able to see an animated version of the car’s cockpit on the phone’s screen, with the steering wheel moving in time with the real-life version.
Not only is speed, engine speed and selected gears recorded, but the car’s oversteer or understeer tendency is taken down. These can then be used to recreate the entire lap for evaluation.
Eduard Schulz, the app’s developer, said: “There’ve always been telemetry systems for pros, and then eventually the Sport Chrono package. Over the past five years or so, more and more apps have been coming on to the market with which lap times can be measured using GPS and in some cases even recorded. So at Porsche, we’ve had the idea of developing a professional race app for some time.”
The system can even generate an imaginary vehicle on the phone’s screen. This ‘ghost car’ gives drivers a better visualisation of deviations in line and time. It’ll also show in real time how much slower or faster your current lap is via a bar diagram at the side of the screen.
The app is available for all new 718 Boxster, 718 Cayman and 911 models, and is free to download. It is advised that the app is used on track only
