Race Technology AP22

Virtually everyone interested in performance vehicles of one type or another are also interested in the times that they can put down, whether the reason is for setting up a car, checking what difference a particular modification has or has not made or just to practice launches and 0-60 or 1/4 mile times with.

The problem always being that unless you live next door to santa pod or the like, your not likely to be able to get accurate figures your able to compare or gauge from.

That is until now! The Race Technology AP22 is a state of the art performance meter capable of accurately capturing a whole host of performance information from a given vehicle and presenting the information in a range of different ways, and not only that but at an affordable price too!

So How does it work I hear you ask? Well take a look below at the science behind how this performance meter works...

...Every time you accelerate hard in your car, you can feel the force of the acceleration pushing you back into your seat. You can also see it when object slide around on the dashboard as you go quickly round a tight corner. The harder you accelerate, the harder you are pushed back into your seat. Acceleration is often quoted in terms of g-force. 1g is the acceleration due to the Earths gravity. This will cause an acceleration of approximately 20mph / s. So if you were to drop a dart from the top of a tall building, after one second it would be travelling at approximately 20mph. The acceleration is the same regardless of size or weight. It is the acceleration due to gravity which is used by weighing scales, as the force an object exerts on the earth is proportional to it's mass multiplied by the acceleration:

F = m x a

If you really want to get stuck into the science of it take a look on race technology's site here for more info.

Now you know in essence how it works lets see what you get when you order an AP22.

The AP22 comes in a very compact and protective case that makes it very easy to carry with you wherever your going without fear of damage to the meter..

Hiding inside is the AP22 unit itself, a COM lead to upload information to your computer, some mounting pads and comprehensive instructions on how to use and setup your AP22.

The unit itself looks great and is very compact indeed making it easy to mount in all sorts of cars.

Although a more permenent mounting method can be used its just as easy and effective to use bluetak / prittak to position the meter on the dashboard of the car to be tested and this can also be used to keep the unit as horizontal as possible to give it's most accurate reading.

To give you an idea just how compact it is - the picture on the right shows its size in comparison to a typical Nokia phone.

The unit is very easy to operate and after a few runs to familiarise myself with the controls it became second nature what to do and how to navigate the easy to follow menus.

As well as displaying your last runs information on its LCD screen the AP22 model records your runs for upload later on. The number of runs it can hold is quite substantial and you will get bored long before you fill its memory.

In addition to the more common 0-60 and1/4 mile categories you can set the meter to time you from any speeds - so for example 0-100 or 100-0. In other words its totally adjustable to your application.

Apart from all the parts you get with this unit you can also download some software (D.C.A.T.) from race technology's site which can help to interpret the data in graphical form (A normal Excel spreadsheet can also be used as data is saved into a standard .txt file). Below you can see the type of results and data that the AP22 is capable of producing in conjunction with the aforementioned software.

In this example the Green line was a 400bhp Cosworth, the red line was a totally stripped out XR2 with a standard 90bhp engine and the blue line shows a totally standard XR2 complete with interior.

the red and blue cars were only tested up to 60 mph whilst the green car was tested to 100mph - along the x axis is time in seconds and up the y axis is speed in mph.

Apart from the graphs more clearly showing you your data it is possible to see the slightest of deviations when gears were changed or missed etc allowing you (if you wanted to) to go over each run with a fine tooth comb.

In this example you can see that the cosworth makes 100mph before the totally standard XR2 makes 60mph!

As well as recording mph and seconds the unit also records G-Force, feet travelled and power. For the later, finer vehicle information has to be imputed first to give an accurate reading but none-the-less it is still suprisingly accurate.

You can see in the graph above the huge difference between the cosworths g-force making capabilities and the two fiestas...and you can clearly see the similarity in g force produced and the gear changes of the fiestas too!

This performance meter really is a quite fantastic tool and a must have for anyone serious on there 1/4 mile or standing starts. You can try out different combinations of gearing, tyre pressures, launch techniques even measure your reaction times!

It is light, compact and is as easily operated as it is mounted. It records data with quite awesome precision and allows for some very useful comparisons to be made either in tabular form or in a graphical form as above.

There are many other features that the AP22 can cater for but I think we would need a new site if I were to discuss them all here - so take my word for it this is a superb tool that anyone seriously into achieving quick times no matter in what form can't afford to be without.

The AP22 will set you back £160 + VAT

For more information on the Race Technology AP22 and the rest of their range of products check out their website here or give them a call on 0871 8717149

FastFords.org.uk Rating of

5 out of 5