Log books anybody?
 

How many of you guys keep a little log with the car. Stating certain conditions you could easily forget.

Example:
Track - CMP full
Time - 1:47
Weather - 78 and clear, 82 on track
Notes - testing smaller 91 rear sway vs msm read sway, rearend more settled, pushed a tad harder on turn 1.


Or something like that, maybe more detailed. Something to keep all your different setups in check. I was wondering if there's not software or even Android app out there for something like this.

Thoughts, opinions?

I use the generic one that SCCA in my region hands out for time trials to cover experience, classing and placing for their events. Outside of that I keep a spreadsheet with car configuration, track conditions, weather, prep time, driver condition, costs, repairs, amount of seat time, instructor comments, lap times, etc... During the events I just write notes on 3x5 cards and place them in my glove box and move everything to the spreadsheet after the event.

We have 2 sets for our ITA car. One stays in the garage that has alignment and gearing info for each track. At the track each session has its own sheet with pre and post session tire temps, tire pressures, fuel load, "driver feel" notes, best time, notes on tire consistency (if we're trying different tires for some reason), etc. At the end of the weekend all the track notes are digested (driver notes compared to catalogs) and any setup changes are put into the garage log.

Brave man :giggle: If I kept a spreadsheet like that, it would probably be the subject of a recurring nightmare.

It's part of the reason I brought my car closer to stock. For what I was spending to be slow it should have been in a much nicer car than a Miata.

You did sure about. Thanks for your write up. I think that I will also make a notes on 3x5 cards also. :D

I used to keep a log book where I would note any changes to the car, mileage it was done at, etc. as well as record of each event, all the specs for the event, my impressions, what I learned etc. but as most have probably noticed on this forum, I tend to end up writing a lot, which means I got tired of keeping the log book by hand. Switched over to keeping it on my laptop this last year. I have a seperate spreadsheet for every part/fluid/etc. purchased for the car so that I don't have to look at the costs all the time unless I'm adding to that list specifically.

I log a lot of things to work on car set-up considering I don't realy know what I'm doing.