You’ve heard the old wheeze that knowledge is power, but like most clichés, the statement derives its origin from truth. When it comes to performance tuning, the more you know about what your car is doing, the more intelligent tuning decisions you can make. Back in the barely dusty archives of Funny Car drag racing, Kenny Bernstein became virtually invincible overnight when he discovered the value of an onboard data logger.
Fast forward to the new millennium when the entire world revolves around digital gadgets like compact discs, digital telephones, digital TV, and more. Given all this digital access, it’s no surprise that a company like Edelbrock would create a digital data-logging device that is affordable and easy to use. This is the competitive edge you’ve been looking for.
The premise is simple—outfit your car with a raft of sensors and then configure a black box (actually, the QwikData box is Edelbrock red) to keep a digital record of its performance. The software allows you to download and explore all the nooks and crannies of this data on your laptop computer. This is not new technology. Companies such as RacePak and Auto Meter have been building automotive racing data loggers for years. The difference is that Edelbrock introduced its system last year with the aim of producing a more affordable data logger that is easy to use and can deliver a wealth of information on one screen.
CHP’s own technical guru, drag racer, and contributing editor Kevin McClelland is one of those gearheads who always needs more input than just e.t. and speed to help him dial in his 9.90-second Super Gas roadster. It took Kevin about 10 seconds to realize the advantages the Edelbrock QwikData system offered his Super Gas race car.
The Edelbrock system offers the ability to keep an accurate accounting of a multitude of variables that all contribute to any run the car makes down the track—variables like inlet air temperature, automatic-transmission oil temperature, shift duration, and dozens of other details that all contribute to repeatable performance. Since Kevin races a Super Gas car that uses a throttle stop, it is imperative that performance be as repeatable as possible. This means that Kevin will use the QwikData system to evaluate each run to determine what, if anything, changed between runs.
Of course, QwikData can be used to help the performance of any kind of car, not just a bracket or drag race car. The QwikData can be easily configured to monitor numerous functions for a circle track car, autocross racer, or even a top speed machine. There are limits to the amount of information the QwikData can store, but the beauty of the QwikData is that it is completely conformable. The variables are the number of sensors you wish to monitor, the data capture rate, and duration. Monitoring 8 channels at 50 samples per second would give you enough data for over 20 minutes of data-logging time, which would work well for an autocross car, for example.
The Crucible
While all this potential is interesting, we wanted to see how it really worked. So Kevin installed the Advanced Bracket Racing QwikData system in his Davis Super Gas roadster to evaluate the system’s effectiveness. The sample screens shown in this story are actual data recorded during an NHRA Division race at Bakersfield, California.
The graphs show several different collections of data. Kevin literally covered this car in sensors to give him plenty of data. The Edelbrock QwikData records from all of these sensors (or at least as many as the system’s memory allows), and you can decide which traces you would like to display at any one time.
The QwikData also allows the user to overlay separate runs so you can compare them to see where the car ran better in one particular run versus another. It often happens that certain portions of a slow pass will be better than previous runs. You can use that information to tune the car to take advantage of that data.
We’ve just brushed the surface of all you can accomplish with the QwikData system and the tuning advantages it represents. With a general trade price of around $1,500 for the Bracket Racing QwikData package, this system is not for everyone. But for racers interested in eliminating the variables and tuning for ultimate acceleration, QwikData can give you knowledge that you can turn into power on the track.