waddisme

My hud quit working. I like using it at the track for target entry speeds for turns and to know when braking is done. Much quicker than looking at speedo. Before I tear the dash out to repl it, should I learn to drive without or is nothing really gained by using seat of the pants?

sothpaw2

My first instructor was a T1 guy and he didn't like that I used it and turned it off. I really like it for the reasons you describe and for me it would be very worth fixing.

DarkMastyr

I never notice it. It's actually faster for me to more quickly peep down at my tach/speedo and note the general orientation of the needle than it is for my eyes to refocus its depth of field onto my windscreen. But that's probably because my eyes are pieces of junk haha.

RX-Ben

IME, the HUD is useless.
Get a datalogger if you are taking lap times more seriously/want to improve your driving.

longdaddy

this is a great subject!

if you want to use it to "get to" specific entry speeds, I feel it will do more harm than good in the long run. you would get far more benefit from developing your sense of speed, which would be much faster and precise compared to getting into the cycle of looking at HUD-adjusting-looking again to confirm-etc: way too much thinking while you are setting up for the corner!


on the other hand, if you only use it to "confirm" the entry/corner/exit etc speed that you already set using your reference points/and speed sensing skills, similar to indexing turn exit using the tach, it can be a useful tool in the absense of a proper datalogger.

After a few years trying to "use the HUD" to drive the car, I ended up (first intentionally, then automatically) looking over/through the HUD and only focusing on the number once I knew I was at the "right" entry speed/point, to confirm consistency, as well as glancing at it at the specific point near corner exit to verify if a particular approach produces better exit speeds. this resulted in consistently higher corner entry AND exit speeds, even at tracks/corners where I thought I was "pretty close" to the limit.

jcsperson

I love mine and miss it when I'm driving one of our other cars. I like the fact that the info I need is only a few degrees down from where my eyes would normally be. Even when looking at it, my peripheral vision can still see the road.

brkntrxn

I never use mine. When I force myself to look at it, it just does not feel right. I keep my vision so far out and so soft, that to concentrate on something so close and so specific just feels foreign to me. I prefer to let the grip and balance of the car tell me whether or not my entry speeds are appropriate for the track conditions at that time.

-Kevin

AU N EGL

Oil temp in the DIC

and everything else is by ear.

a data logger for the important things.

travisnd

You need to learn to drive by feel. Not looking down at the HUD to figure out when to brake or turn. Driving fast at the limit you never have time for that anyway IMO. Tom's right... Oil Temp on the DIC and a traqmate to analyze after the fact.

justkickin

I don't even notice the HUD when on track. Oil temp and feel is all you need.

moespeeds

No way should you be looking at that thing during performance driving. It's a shift in concentration that you don't need. Your turn entries should be determined from a brake marker and a turn in point. If you're nailing those two, speed is irrelevant.

whatcop?

Exactly. If you need a reference its very easy to glance down and know the general speed.

Ambient temperature, track surface temperature, tire temperature, and tire composition all differ every time and between every track. So there really is no "fixed number" for every corner every time.

exactly what I do minus the data logger. I need to get one but I've been lazy.

I feel like its more of a crutch to keep looking at it. Even on the street I feel like it takes too much time to look at. I mean honestly who looks at their rpm gauge for every shift. You aren't unless you are at the drag strip or on a straight away trying to maximize every ounce of power.

AU N EGL

Too busy looking UP the track

Jason

If you have that kinda time on your hands, go faster.

L98Terror

I never look at entry speed but I do sometimes check exit speed at that point you have a split second as your foot is to the floor and your steering wheel is unwound.

geerookie

sothpaw2

This is what I mean by helpful. After everything else is done, if you have a split second to spare, it's good to know the exit speed. Not that it's usually even possible--I might only have the time to do that glance one time during one lap all day and certainly not for every corner. But if you just tried a new line it's nice to know how it turned out.

Yes it will vary with tire temp but you can keep those in mind. You could do a corner with 1 line and check the exit speed and then in a later lap, same session, use a different line and check exit speed.

It's not a big help but it can have utility.

geerookie

The data logger part is important so after the track time you can go back and use concrete data to correlate with what you felt.

If you have time to "look" at something while you are driving to get your speed right you are going SLOW.
And if you are going fast enough and you take time to look at something you won't have a next lap

An inexpensive app for your phone will be enough of a data logger to replace the HUD and help you with entry and exit speeds etc. You can usually upgrade most of them to work with an external GPS like the QStarz and get higher resolution.
Or you can just get the QStarz data logger for less than $125.

Bill Dearborn

My main use of the HUD is to check exit speeds. I have it set up as high as it will go and with my race seat in the car my sight line is just a little above the HUD. That way I can read it in my peripheral vision without taking my eyes off the track. For example, the flag station coming out of T7 at the Glen (Toe of the Boot) is near the top of the hill just after the track out point. As I go past the station I note the speed and am able to determine how well I got through the turn. I also use it to see how fast I am going at the track out point onto the back straight and then when I get to my braking point at the end of the back straight. The speed achieved at track out tells me how well I did getting through T2, T3 and T4 and the speed at the end of the straight is a tell for how well the car is performing as it is a long uphill climb with rpms getting close to the rev limiter as I near the braking point. Also the flashing shift light helps a lot. I wear trifocals and it has always been hard to look down and change my focus to the IP, move my head to get the mid range lens in line so I can actually see the instruments and then look back up and refocus my eyes to the outside world. At my age my eyes don't change focus very fast so there is a certain amount of time the outside world is blurry until they change back. The HUD keeps that from happening. If I am wearing sun glasses and don't have the trifocals on I don't even bother to check the IP since I can't see it anyways. Add on top of that the IP always seems to be in some sort of shadow no matter which way the car is pointed. When I went from my 97 to the 03 with HUD I finally was able to actually see my instruments.

I just wish the HUD would go a little higher so I was looking through it like fighter pilots do and have it setup so when your eyes are focused on distant objects the readouts in the HUD are in focus. If fighter pilots can stand to look through a HUD at 400 to 500 mph and maintain situational awareness during critical maneuvers I can certainly look through one at 150 and be able to maintain a sense of what is going on around me.

Bill

fatbillybob

Maybe you can take the dash pad off and tweek the hud mounting point with some washers or something to change the angle it shows on the windshield.