Originally Posted by
trilerian
Didn't see this when you first posted. But I think a .3 is too high at least is 6 cell. Now in 4-cell and 8 minute heats it may be right, but I am still working on that class, but in tc if I can turn a 7.9 in the first couple of laps I can turn at least an 8.0 in the last lap. Also your formula was for the average of your best 20 laps, that allows me to knock off 17-18 laps. Maybe it should be configured for the overall lap average instead of the top 20 lap average. This way at 37 laps I would have a consistency of .346 and at 38 would be .126 this is based on a 305 second finish. And you see, if I took only the top 20 laps of that 38 lap finish I would probably be under .100. But this is all subjective, it can't really be used to compare my times to a guys at a different track, we generally only have 5-6 cars in a heat, the guy at the other track may have more which will cause a different consistency, but it is extremely helpful when comparing yourself to yourself or to another person at your track. Which you have said already, but I am just saying you are right.
I'd love to see some paper on some of your runs. It's fun to try and analyze that kind of stuff. When we're talking about 1/10ths of a second, you can't go off of memory, that stuff has got to be dead on to the thousandth.
Also, the more laps you include, the higher the error number will be, but the number is relative to all that are tested the same way.
If you're accurate enough to consistently knock down low numbers, the law of averages dictates that you will be equally as consistent a driver, as the car slows.
When I'm testing, I run a car until it's last lap is exactly 1 second slower than it's best lap. At that point, the package is really done performing. There likely aren't more than 2 laps left at creep speeds. But if you go to the very end of the run, say 10+ minutes, it will skew otherwise useful information because I'm intentionally still driving the car at a known 1 second error rate.
There is another advantage to doing just the top 20 laps. It weeds out a few of the brain fades that would skew the actual potential of the package.
Also, I tend to believe if the car/package gets faster at the end of the run, or is even capable of running similar lap times, a piece of the puzzle is not as accurate as it could be. I feel it could be an indication of a car that started pushy and came in late, or started loose and came in. either one will show a result like that. Also, it's a good indicator to check rollout. Sounds like you might be able to grab a tooth.
Need to see some paper though, it's all speculation.
