Any modern smartphone can shoot home movies of kids in the backyard or Grandpa snoring on the davenport in quality high enough to make VHS tapes and 8-millimeter films feel as antiquated as silent movies. But when the camera is being accelerated from stationary to 60 mph and beyond in, say, three seconds, the shaking frame can nauseate viewers. This is where dedicated cameras and mounts can come in handy for track rats.
But taking your videos?and track education?to the next level requires a little more investment beyond the ubiquitous GoPro. Racelogic, maker of the VBOX data loggers we rely on to gather our instrumented test data, has offered a number of video loggers over the years. The aptly named VBOX video family basically adds a camera to VBOX gear, combining the data-diving nerd aspect of a speed-trace analysis with the visual stimulation of a car going around a track. Actually, you could use VBOX video to analyze how your kids mow the lawn?would that be crazy or cruel" The newest video VBOX, the HD2, adds 1080p recording to the 10-Hz GPS engine, which Racelogic claims is accurate to 0.01 second. Yes, there are 4K cameras that?ll plug-and-play on just about anything, but none of those automatically overlay track maps, speedometers, and lapping information like the HD2. With a little bit of setup and a connection to a car?s CAN bus, you can even add displays for tachometer, steering angle, and brake, gas, and clutch-pedal information. And you can use your sma...