FLC easily explained - Fastest Lap Calculator

Fastest Lap Calculator
Slide 1
Topics
1.
Basic limitations
2.
How to use Fastest Lap Calculator
3.
Slow bike optimum line
4.
Fast bike optimum line
5.
Riding the fast bike in the race line of the slow bike
6.
Riding the slow bike in the race line of the fast bike
7.
Comparison
8.
To get real use of FLC – Down tuning
9.
To get real use of FLC – Using the down tuned data
10. To get real use of FLC – Find the right gearing
11. To get real use of FLC – Find the right race line
12. To get real use of FLC – Find out which advices to follow
13. To get real use of FLC – Find out what is important
Slide 2
Basic limitations
 Basically the acceleration the bike can achieve in any direction is set by




The coefficient of friction, represented as the circle
The limit of flipping backwards during acceleration or forwards during braking
The limit of the power of the engine
The limit of power of the braking system, in FLC the brakes are always powerful enough to slide or flip the bike.
Engine power limit,
(low gear over-powered)
Wheelie limit
Max grip
Accelerate
Turn left
Turn right
Brake
Stoppie limit
Slide 3
Basic limitations
 Basically the acceleration the bike can achieve in any direction is set by




The coefficient of friction, represented as the circle
The limit of flipping backwards during acceleration or forwards during braking
The limit of the power of the engine
The limit of power of the braking system, in FLC the brakes are always powerful enough to slide or flip the bike.
Wheelie limit
Engine power limit,
(high gear less power)
Max grip
Accelerate
Turn left
Turn right
Brake
Stoppie limit
Slide 4
Basic limitations, cont
 As you go faster and in higher gears the trust from the engine will be reduced and the bike will stop wheelie as
soon as the power comes under the wheelie limit
 Dark blue arrows represents the acceleration (speed change) you can do in any direction, it’s always to the first
limit.
Wheelie limit
Engine power limit,
(high gear less power)
Max grip
Accelerate
Turn left
Turn right
Brake
Stoppie limit
Slide 5
Basic limitations, cont
 If it starts to rain the grip will be reduced, everything else remains.
 In the example you cannot do stoppies with the smaller circle of grip. The stoppie limit is outside of the
circle for grip.
Wheelie limit
Engine power limit,
(high gear less power)
Accelerate
Turn left
Max grip
Turn right
Brake
Stoppie limit
Slide 6
Basic limitations, cont
Aerodynamic drag comes in mostly at high speeds. Force forward minus drag is what is left for acceleration.
When force forward and aerodynamic drag is equal the bike stops accelerating
Force forward – drag,
low speed 1:st gear
Force forward at gear 1-6
Aerodynamic drag
Force
1st
2 nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
Top
Speed
Slide 7
Force forward – drag,
high speed 6:th gear
Speed
How to use Fastest Lap Calculator,
The previous pages showed some of the most important physical limitations taken care of by the
programme. Basically those pages showed that there is always a limitation for how fast you can go and this
limitation can be calculated. FLC will take the bike to this limitation at every spot of the track. This allows us
to find the optimum race-line where this optimum riding style gives you the lowest possible lap time. It also
allows us to alter the physical parameters to see what effect they have on the lap time at different tracks.
Checking the race line we will find that there are different lines that are optimal for different bikes:
Slide 8
Slow bike optimum line
Below is a good line for a Ninja300 around Knutstorp. Observe the round line in the slow hairpin.
Lap time is 61,68s
Slide 9
Fast bike optimum line
Below is a good line for a S1000RR on the same track. Now the line is much tighter in the hairpin.
Laptime is 53,27s.
Slide 10
Riding the fast bike in the race line of the slow bike
If we run the S1000RR in the line of the Nijna300 the lap time becomes 53,46s
Slide 11
Riding the slow bike in the race line of the fast bike
If we run the Ninja300 in the race line of the S1000RR the lap time becomes 62,43s
Slide 12
Comparison
Bike/Line
S1000RR Line
Ninja300 line
S1000RR
53,27s
53,46s
Ninja300
62,43s
61,68s
This is quite obvious, we all know we need to be careful not loosing the speed
when riding underpowered bikes, while we need to get the straits as long as
possible to utilise the power when riding strong bikes.
But, more important. It shows you where the limit is. Which corners are open
enough to be mastered with the maximum radius also on a superbike and
which are tight enough to be stop-go corners on an under powered bike.
Slide 13
To get real use of FLC – Down tuning
To really get good use of FLC we normally have to down tune the performance until it represents our
personal lap times. The reason is that the program always drives on the limit of physics, we mortals cannot
master that.
In the example we make a simple down tune for one of the talented club racers in the club.
Before down tune he does the lap in 55,73s, OK he’s talented but not to that extent
Slide 14
To get real use of FLC – Down tuning
After reducing the coefficient of friction (making the circle of grip in the beginning of this presentation
smaller) he does the lap in 62,55s. This corresponds well to his real capability.
Slide 15
To get real use of FLC – Using the down tuned data
Now we can try an other track using the same coefficient of friction that gave a realistic lap time at our
home track. Let’s go to Anderstorp.
The same down tuning as at the home track gave almost the right lap time. We are making the lap in
98,52s which is a few tents faster at Anderstorp than what our racer is real life. This is logic, Anderstorp is
not his home track.
Slide 16
To get real use of FLC – Find the right gearing
Finding the right gearing will normally not affect the theoretical lap time as much as the riding experience.
The reason is that FLC is the perfect rider with the perfect seamless gearbox. FLC always selects the gear
that gives the highest power (see slide 7) when going on the gas.
In the example we are still in second gear just before the braking point before the carrousel. See the blue
dot).
Slide 17
To get real use of FLC – Find the right gearing
Here we have moved closer to the braking point and engaged 3:rd gear.
To have to change gear just before braking is normally not liked by the rider.
Slide 18
To get real use of FLC – Find the right gearing
To alter the gearing we open the Bike Menu. In this case the answer was to go in the opposite direction with
the gearing. We did not use the last of 6:th on the long strait and it’s better run a while in third before
braking.
Slide 19
To get real use of FLC – Find the right gearing
Changing to a larger back sprocket (47 instead of 45) let’s us now be in third some distance before the
braking point and the total lap time has been reduced.
Slide 20
To get real use of FLC – Find the right race line
There has been a debate whether it is beneficial to take a double apex in the banked lefthander.
Yes it is! The lap time goes down from 98,49s to 98,42s. Even though the corner takes longer. The reason is the
higher speed when entering the strait, 149,2 km/hrs versus 146,6 km/hrs.
The line with double apex is somewhat behind when entering the strait, but the strait is long enough to take it back.
Slide 21
To get real use of FLC – Find out which advices to follow
Double apex in the carrousel is also recommended by some riders.
But, trying the same here just does not work. Even if the speed out of the corner becomes higher all the extra time
it took to come through the corner is wasted anyway since the brakes needs to be applied as soon as you are out
of the carrousel.
Lap time increases from 98,49 to 98,60s.
Slide 22
To get real use of FLC – Find out what is important
At a fast track like Anderstorp it is reasonable to think tucking in behind the
screen is important, but how important is it?
The menu allows for playing
with most of the parameters
there are. Standard setting is
the riders part of the front area
0,2m2 when tucking in behind
the screen and 0,4m2 when
sitting up braking. (The
aerodynamic drag helps the
bike to slow down while braking
and hinders acceleration while
on the gas).
If the driver does not get his
helmet and elbows in properly
and shows 0,3m2 of front area
the lap time will increase from
98,42s to 98,91s on a Honda
CBR 600. That’s 0,59s!!!
On a superbike it’s less
important. On the S1000RR the
lap time goes from 94,54s to
94,83s when changing the
tucked in drivers front area from
0,2m2 to 0,3m2. It’s still 0,29s so
horsepower should not make us
too sloppy with our driving style.
Slide 23