The G-MeterThe next logical step is actually a step away from the basics. A g-meter (or accelerometer) helps you attain the goal of accelerating as fast as possible for as long as possible by graphing the rate of acceleration throughout the run. This graph illustrates a two-speed car on a run. As you can see, the g's drop dramatically after the car shifts to high gear. As soon as the line on the graph dips, when it spins the tires for example, you'll know that the car is not accelerating as hard as it should. You can lay the g-meter graph over the other data and determine the cause. It is also possible analyze two runs at the same time after a change is made to the car.
Where Is the O2?Most systems will record air/fuel ratios, but generally it is something that should be handled on an engine or chassis dyno, or during a test and tune night with adjustments for altitude and temperature calculated before race day. Once you build a database of air/fuel using a meter like the one from Innovate (see it online at carcraft.com), or with output to the Racepak, you should have a grasp of where the power peaks are for the engine and what the air/fuel ratio is. You should already have this data before you get into other methods of data acquisition, but if you want to take another step, the air/fuel data could be used on track to put a finer point on the overall package.