ET predictor / weather station

69427 · Post by **69427** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:49 am

My sons and I have started bracket racing our 69 camaro last season in an IHRA PRO class with no electronics or throttle stops. The car runs 6.60 -6.70 1/8 mile times, nothing real fast. I have been looking to buy a ET predictor / weather station for next season to track our cars performance.
I have seen the TAG and Altronics Perform AIRE systems, but since we take a lap top to the track for our data logger I was thinking about buying the Crew Chief Pro 7.1 program and a Kestral 4250 racing weather tracker. I like the idea of looking at the large lap top screen rather than the small readout of the other ones.
I would appreciate any opinions or suggestions from people that have used ET predictor’s or/ weather station’s for their bracket cars. I have never used one, so this is a first for us.

Thanks
Tom

1720 · Post by **1720** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 4:36 pm

We have an Altronics Perform AIRE station and use Crew Chief Pro 6.0. Our home track is close to a lake and the wind direction and speed and weather changes, some days, by the minute.

Crew Chief seems to deliver more usable info/predictions than the Altronics box does on any given day.

Since you already use a laptop at the track, I'd go with Crew Chief. I do see lots of guys successfully using Altronics boxes, but my success with ours has been minimal.

RT

mach9 · Post by **mach9** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:04 pm

I use Computech Systems race logger and predictor and highly recommend them. I'm sure they're not the only good ones, but their customer service is top of the line all the way. Always great to deal with.

69427 · Post by **69427** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:05 pm

So you use your "Altronics Perform AIRE" for your weather station to input to the crew cheif 6. Same weather info different predictors?

1720 · Post by **1720** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:34 pm

69427 wrote:So you use your "Altronics Perform AIRE" for your weather station to input to the crew cheif 6. Same weather info different predictors?

Basically, yes..temp and humidy shown on the Perform Aire entered into Crew Chief indicates a different D/A than what Altronics shows. Of course, that leads to a different prediction of the dial-in, and this is with 2 seasons worth of data.
RT

John Wallace · Post by **John Wallace** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 10:24 am

Does the Perform Aire show corrected barometer readings or absolute?
What does Crew Chief use?

1720 · Post by **1720** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:50 am

John Wallace wrote:Does the Perform Aire show corrected barometer readings or absolute?
What does Crew Chief use?

Absolute.

crewchiefpro · Post by **crewchiefpro** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:20 pm

If you have questions about our software contact me directly. My direct line is (309) 208-1486.

Our new Pro 7.1 has so many cool features and 9 new prediction formulas. It works with any hand held or trailer weather station. Crew Chief Pro will read one of the trailer weather stations we sell automatically, taking a reading every 15 seconds.

We analyze weather and store it for 4 years. You can compare weather from day to day, or year to year, graph it, print it out and much more.

To make it easier to learn we built into Crew Chief 18 instructional videos ( over 2 hours worth ) under the HELP MENU. These are part of the program and many of the forms have a Watch Video Button to help you find the video you need.

We update the software every day, that is my one and only job.

69427 · Post by **69427** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:36 pm

Our new Pro 7.1 has so many cool features and 9 new prediction formulas. It works with any hand held or trailer weather station.

Nice log book also.

crewchiefpro · Post by **crewchiefpro** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:14 pm

Thanks, after 20 years of refinement I think the log book looks good too.

Beretta · Post by **Beretta** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:34 am

OK so tell me how it works if your weather station tells you one et and Crew chief tells you another?????

69427 · Post by **69427** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:39 am

The way I am looking at this is, a weather station gives you current weather conditions such as temp, humidity, altitude, ETC. Then you take the readings from the weather station an input them into a computer program / formula that will figure a predicted ET for your car based on previous ET and weather conditions for that car, assuming no major changes have been made to the performance of the vehicle

Some of the units are all self contained (ex TAG system), with a small readout on them, others are not self contained. I am leaning more towards the lap top PC based predictor with a separate weather station, mostly because of the ability to see more information on the lap tops screen. I could also update or replace the weather station any time and still have all my logs of the cars performance and maintenance logs or changes I entered in it.

As far as if the two types where used side by side I don’t know which one is more accurate or better. Probable would have to pick one on your own personal preferences and budget. Once one of the systems is chosen for a particular car it would probably repeat predictions pretty accurately for that car as long as the inputs were accurate.

Thanks
Tom

1720 · Post by **1720** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 11:03 am

Quote: ["would have to pick one on your own personal preferences and budget. Once one of the systems is chosen for a particular car it would probably repeat predictions pretty accurately for that car as long as the inputs were accurate. Tom"]

You've hit the nail on the head, Tom.

Either one is only a tool to help in selecting a close dial-in. There are too many variables in track conditions and weather conditions, let alone driver/car variables from round to round, that effect what happens each pass.

That's why bracket racing allows for that # change on the window!

Ralph

crewchiefpro · Post by **crewchiefpro** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:26 pm

Our Crew Chief Software takes a reading automatically from the trailer weather stations we sell every 15 seconds. We recalculate everything in that 15 second period and save the weather for many years so you can compare and print it out.

We are the only company that can TEXT MESSAGE Your phone with the predictions as well as send it to a pager, this is updated every 2 minutes!

Don

69427 wrote:The way I am looking at this is, a weather station gives you current weather conditions such as temp, humidity, altitude, ETC. Then you take the readings from the weather station an input them into a computer program / formula that will figure a predicted ET for your car based on previous ET and weather conditions for that car, assuming no major changes have been made to the performance of the vehicle

Some of the units are all self contained (ex TAG system), with a small readout on them, others are not self contained. I am leaning more towards the lap top PC based predictor with a separate weather station, mostly because of the ability to see more information on the lap tops screen. I could also update or replace the weather station any time and still have all my logs of the cars performance and maintenance logs or changes I entered in it.

As far as if the two types where used side by side I don’t know which one is more accurate or better. Probable would have to pick one on your own personal preferences and budget. Once one of the systems is chosen for a particular car it would probably repeat predictions pretty accurately for that car as long as the inputs were accurate.

Thanks
Tom