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Project S2000: Testing Temps and Tools (Replay Camera and IR Pyrometer)
By Khiem Dinh
Khiem Dinh is an engineer for Honeywell Turbo Technologies at the time of this writing. All statements and opinions expressed by Khiem Dinh are solely those of Khiem Dinh and not reflective of Honeywell Turbo Technologies.
At my last track day, I got an IR pyrometer as a new toy for taking some data. For this track day, I added a Replay XD1080 HD video camera to the mix to replace my previous camera (which met an untimely demise). Furthermore, a few friends of MotoIQ were also in attendance to join in on some track day fun. Video was taken and many temperatures were measured. Keep on reading to see how the Replay works and different brake systems stacked up.
MotoIQ editor Colin was (and still is) freezing his butt off up north and he asked me what the SoCal roads were like as we had been discussing cycling. Being the nice guy that I am, I thought I’d take some video of a bicycle ride along some of my favorite coastal roads. With my previous camera, I didn’t have a good way to mount it to my bicycle so I zip-tied it onto the handlebar. Well, unfortunately, it fell off during a climb and was promptly run over by a car. Unfortunately, the camera body was plastic which proved no match for a new BMW 3-series.
A co-worker of mine mentioned the Replay XD1080 HD camera to me. Legend has it Rhys Millen had one knocked off his car in the rough and tumble environment of Global Rally Cross and it kept on recording throughout the event including getting run over. Hey, if it can handle getting run over in rally cross, it should be able to handle a BMW 3-series.
My previous camera, I always mounted to the windshield with a suction cup as I didn’t have a good way to mount it anywhere else. Also, wind noise was an issue. The Replay XD1080 HD is small. It’s like the size of a small bottle of tabasco sauce or a little bottle of Jack they give you on airplanes. The small size along with being cylindrical shape makes it easy to mount in various places. The cylinder part is hard anodized aluminum making it tough and rally cross car proof.
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| For my first test, I mounted the camera in the center of the car on top of the central storage compartment. Some 3M double-sided sticky tape is used to attach a mounting base. |
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| The camera slides into the HeimLock Mount which then slides into the base. The HeimLock Mount has 8 degrees of tilt and 360 degrees of rotation. Once you get it in the position you desire, you pull out the red lever which clamps the mount into position. It’s a cam-type device like used on bicycle quick-release axles and seat post clamps. |
Remember the issue of wind noise I had mentioned before with my previous camera? Well, Replay supplies these little ‘windbreaker’ stickers which are used to cover up the microphone hole in the aluminum body to prevent the wind noise. These ‘windbreakers’ were optimized in thickness to properly prevent wind noise while still providing great audio. I had tested the camera mounted like this on the way to work without the windbreakers and it seemed fine. However, let this be a lesson for you, I didn’t take into account the often significant winds at Willow Springs. Check out the video below.
It’s been ages since I’ve driven Streets of Willow in the clockwise direction. I run with SpeedVentures often as they put on great track days and they were running CW direction. About that wind noise… notice in the video the lack of bad wind noise while going down the main straight. This is what I experienced during my test drive to work. After going through turn 2, I get smacked by a pretty good cross-wind creating a lot of noise. A buddy of mine from StopTech had a wind speed measuring device and we measured gusts of over 20mph. So for all you other guys use the windbreakers! Anyway, on another note, the easy mounting of the camera in this position allows you to check out my steering inputs. Plus, you can see how there is very little shifter movement due to the Hasport engine mounts. Just check out some S2000 videos where the stock enigne mounts are still used. Note: this video was taken on the 720p setting at 60 fps (frames per second). Also, the cover shot is just a screen grab of the video at the 720p setting. I’ll test out the 1080p setting later. Lastly, the 720p/60fps setting will give you about 10 minutes of recording time per GB of memory.
