Acelerometers
 

I just purchased a Beltronics Vector FX-1 acelerometer. Some of you may be using one of these already, for those that are not, I wanted to tell you what I think. I tried it today for the first time.

I found it at Circuit City for $125 after a rebate. If you don't know, this device uses time and acelleration data to give you some pretty cool results. All you have to do is plug it in and mount it to your windshield. You also need to tell the unit how much your car weighs (for HP calculations).

I made three runs with it today. The first two were pretty much practice, and then I got more serious on the third. The problem I had was finding a safe, flat stretch of road to run a 1/4 mile. As a result, I had to take my foot off the gas at 85 mph so my 1/4 mile time suffered. I really need to find an old airport runway.

Any way, here is what the device can tell you. I thought the numbers were pretty good, considering that I had to let up on the gas and I only got a mediocre launch. I did not want to squeal the tires too much and draw too much attention. My numbers seem pretty consistant with what I have seem from other slightly modified Mustangs. I really only have the C&L Plenum and 75 mm TB.

1/4 mile - 14.4s @ 85.5
1000 ft @ 11.88s
1/8 mile - 9.18s @ 78.3
330 ft - 5.98s
60 ft - 2.10s
0-80 - 9.18s
0-70 - 7.55s
0-60 - 5.55s
0-50 - 4.38s
0-40 - 3.33s
0-30 - 1.88s
0-20 - 1.10s
0-10 - 0.38s

Agin, If I had only not let up on the gas, I should have been able to get that 1/4 mile time under 14 sec. As you can see, this is really great data to be able to get for $125 and I can use it whenever I want.

How many accelerometers does it have?I have a g-tech pro competition that i still haven't been able to test anywhere,especially now that a piece broke off. :D Anyway it has 3 accelerometers to offer more acurate measurements.Also can you upload your data on the computer and review it there?Does it display g forces?How bout graphs?hp to tq,hp to tq to rpm and all kinds of other graphs you would need?For $125 it wouldn't be bad if it did all those things.I mostly went for the g-tech pro competition because it has a shiftlight.

I believe it receives data for aceleration from four different directions: forward, backward, left and right. It will display g-forces for all these vectors.

The model that I purchased can not be downloaded to a PC. The next model up (FX-2) has this capability. This website can give you a picture of the unit and it's specifications:

http://www.beltronics.com/fx.html

Neither model has a shift light. That would be a nice feature.