Telemetry in Rally: how it works and its advantages

Telemetry in rallies, a tool developed for more than 25 years, whose great potential is available to drivers thanks to Vittorio Caneva Rally School.

Let’s imagine being able to take a photograph of one’s driving style, an sensations of the crew and the on board camera, what really happened. This is what Telemetry applied to Rally provides us. At the Vittorio Caneva Rally School we have developed over more than 25 years a method of analysis and reading of the data provided which allows us to make an extremely precise reading of the driver’s driving.

 

What Telemetry in Rally is

Positioned inside the vehicle, Telemetry is nothing more than a device connected to the engine control unit (ECU) and with additional sensors positioned in strategic points, which is capable of measuring some characteristic and useful parameters for performance analysis:

• Brake pressure
• Percentage throttle usage
• Steering wheel angle
• Vehicle and wheel speed
• Longitudinal and transversal accelerations

The system can provide for the creation of virtual channels via software. They are simply the result of mathematical expressions that allow further values ​​to be shown, not directly coming from sensors. An example is Kus, representing understeer.

When the pilot finishes the session it is possible to download the data using special software and view it through the relevant graphs. Hence the analysis to compare different sessions, identify where the performance was better and understand why.

 

What can be analyzed with Telemetry in Rally

It may seem strange, but speed (and time) are not the only values ​​affected by telemetry analysis. They are only the result of a series of operations which, if conducted by the driver in the best possible way, lead to their maximization. Telemetry allows us, thanks to its numerous graphs, to understand how a particular speed was achieved at a specific point of the special stage.

• The brake channel allows us to understand how many meters the braking took place, the trend of its pressure, how much load was generated on the front wheels.
• With the steering wheel graph we can analyze the racing line and position of the apex point.
• With the throttle graph we can understand that the latter has been used correctly.
• With the other data available we can understand when the vehicle has been used in relation to the performance it is able to express.
• The speed trend is the final result.

We also always find a time graph which allows us, by comparing multiple sessions, to understand both locally and globally when time has been gained or lost; interesting aspect for a driver who can thus learn to quantify the chronometric weight of his actions.

Thanks to the correct use of Telemetry in Rally it is possible to read numerous information that would otherwise be impossible to grasp with the naked eye, we can better understand some incorrect attitudes of the driver but above all show them numerically and graphically. Telemetry, last but not least, allows you to measure progress on a correctly executed test or school day. It is the counter-proof provided to the driver that the investment made has brought measured results.

Vittorio Caneva Rally School uses telemetry in all its asphalt courses, in courses with rally cars even on gravel, and is working to implement it in all further activities carried out.