America's Best Handling Car: Track Testing
How did they do that?
For this year's Best Handling competition, we tried out a new method of measuring steering-wheel angle using what's called motion-capture-from-video. The software -- ProAnalyist by Xcitex of Cambridge, Massachusetts -- can track the motion of just about anything (like a steering wheel) without having to attach clumsy gizmos. Cool. And with some much-appreciated help from Al Murphy of Analysis of Motion in nearby Simi Valley, it worked right out of the box (something that never happens). Check out some of our results in our videos.
Steering angles
In the example on the right, the steering-wheel angle of the R8 and M3 are shown over the course of their fastest laps. Note the Audi's additional steering movements, the BMW's sharp counter-steer correction midway around its lap -- insights we'll be probing more in the future.
Randy Pobst
If it's got wheels, this journeyman sports-car pro will race it.
Just think: He could've been an accountant. Yes, Dayton, Ohio-born Randy Pobst got his college degree in accounting (earning a 3.52 GPA, no less). Fortunately for motorsport, he chose another path after attending his first autocross at age 19. "I watched the first two events, then I ran my Datsun 510 in the third and won, beating the class champion." The die was cast.
In the ensuing three decades, Pobst has forged a solid career up and down amateur and later professional sports-car racing ranks. His first national championship came in 1990, and he's added a half dozen more since then. Pobst has raced at every major road-racing course in the country, has several SCCA national championships to his credit, and is a two-time class Daytona 24-hour winner. Although most of his career has been spent in the GT ranks, he's also raced and won in prototype categories in the ALMS and the Grand-American Rolex series. He's enjoyed factory rides with Audi and Porsche, as well.
This year, Pobst has two full-time rides. One is at the wheel of the APR Motorsport VW GTI that competes in Grand-Am's Koni Challenge Series. The other is aboard a GT class Porsche GT3 Cup for K-Pax Racing, which competes in the SPEED World Challenge.
Given that he's driven all sorts of cars with a variety of powertrain layouts and engine locations, we felt Pobst would be the ideal pilot to give us balanced, unvarnished feedback on the wide variety of cars we rounded up for Laguna. And he did that to a high level. Randy got up to speed quickly, was super consistent lap to lap, and worked hard to understand each machine. Plus his enthusiasm for cars and motorsport is infectious. And you have to love that.
-Matt Stone
randypobst.com