If you were to build your dream car, what would the key requirement be? For the owner of this XB coupe, handling, build quality, good looks and power all tied for first place. The result is one of the most impressive vehicles ever to appear in NZV8.

I know what all the fans of American cars are thinking after looking at the previous page. It’s something along the line of, “Why would you do that to a Falcon, why not an American car?” It is a valid question. It’s also one you may not like the answer to.

The owner of this XB coupe, who has asked not to be named, has had more cars than most of us could ever dream of. The majority of them have been Mopars, although there’s been a large number of Fords both American and Australian in there too, and a couple of Chevs just for good measure.

Ever since he was a kid growing up in suburban New Zealand seeing people drive XB Falcons when they were new, he’s wanted one. He knew that if and when he got one, it would be turned into the car of his wildest dreams and it would be the one car he’d never sell. (more…)

Datalogging systems used to be prohibitively expensive, which meant they were typically reserved for professional race teams. Times have changed, however, and now entry-level datalogging systems are readily available from a variety of manufacturers, with some systems starting out at less than $1000. This has meant basic datalogging is now within reach of the average enthusiast, though the number of systems and options available can be daunting and confusing even for the most well-informed consumer.

Obviously, if you only use your car to get to work and back then logging the amount of time spent stationary in traffic will not be much help. But for those of who like to get amongst it for the odd track day or go to the drag strip every now and then, some basic datalogging might help improve times dramatically.

The key with datalogging is being very clear about what you are actually trying to achieve. It is great to have data from hundreds of different sensors, and in the right hands this can provide a huge amount of information to improve the engine, suspension or brakes. But unless you know what you are looking at and how to interpret the data, it can be very easy to get lost in a sea of numbers and end up more confused than when you started.

Most people tend to overcomplicate their data-logging system and end up logging a lot of channels that aren’t strictly necessary to get the answers they are looking for. This can make your datalogging system a lot more expensive than it needs to be, once the cost of the additional sensors is factored in. Logging from a large number of sensors will also mean the size of your log files is dramatically increased. That may not present a problem, but if your logging equipment has a limited amount of storage memory, you may find you run out of memory to do the job.

(more…)