Miami Mile/Exotics Rally timing equipment determined inaccurate
05-07-2010, 03:02 PM
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Miami Mile/Exotics Rally timing equipment determined inaccurate
This was posted today by Seth Rosen who ran the Exotics Rally where there has been so much question about the timing equipment.
Group: Lambo Owner
Posts: 116
Joined: 6-March 07
From: Freeport, NY
Member No.: 10,215
To all Participants, Spectators, Media & Fellow Enthusiasts,
On Sunday, April 25, 2010, Exotics Rally hosted a Runway Event at the Dade Collier Training & Transitional Airport in Ochopee, Florida. To measure this competition we used a new-unique timing system built by 2 engineers that have extensive knowledge of electronics, circuitry, mathematics and more. They have worked for The Military, US Government, Apple, Disney and many more projects past, present, and future. The system was built to perform better than the mainstream systems normally used when measuring a 1 mile speed competition. It was tested and calibrated and found to be 100% accurate within 100th of a second when it was built.
On Sunday, April 25, 2010, Myself and one of the tech's measured the mile accurately using a measuring wheel and laid out the trap sensors perfectly. We performed tests to insure it's accuracy with my car and compared it with a vBox and it was 100% accurate at 9am. At approximately 9:30am Jason Heffner and Ray Hofman approached me with a concerning issue. The lane for the 1 mile was directly set over the markings that were painted on the runway. They explained that they had been testing on the runway a few days prior and that it caused the car to become very unstable and they feared it could cause an accident. At this time I instructed my tech to move the lane over approximately 20 feet to avoid being on the markings. I began to help move the trap sensors and then was called away and went to the front of the airport to handle registration issues. When I returned, the tech had said it was completely ready to run.
Cars began running the mile and when times were announced many people were disheartened with the results claiming there was no way possible and the 'buzz' was that the system was off by approximately 9 mph. We continued to run until 12:45pm and then stopped for a lunch break. While everyone went to lunch I became aware that the tech did NOT re-measure the actual mile and simply walked the sensor traps across the runway laterally. This should have been handled differently and therefore the timing was indeed inaccurate. We went and re-measured and obtained the proper distance and the determined the exact calculation of the error. Thankfully the system is designed so that the tech was able to add these calculations to the software and re-adjust all the previous runs to read the correct times.
Towards the end of lunch I came forward and made the announcements regarding the issue and handed out time slips. Several people concurred that the timing was now accurate according to their vBox's, speedometers and gps devices.
As of Tuesday, April 27, 2010 there had been much talk on the Internet, in chat rooms, on the phone, and in the media questioning the validity of the World Record Run, by Ray Hofman which resulted in a reading of 266.938 mph. There was also speculation that now the system was reading higher mph results as well. In reviewing the data file from all the runs of the day it is my finding that there may have been some inconsistencies that some would find questionable.
Therefore, in order to verify these results I personally emailed both parties on April 30, 2010. In sum and substance I asked Jason Heffner & Ray Hofman to share their results with me exclusively. I offered a non-disclosure waiver, stating that I will not release or share any data included within the results that they claim they are in possession of with any other 3rd party.
To my dismay I received an email from Jason Heffner stating that the timing system was inaccurate. He also declined to share their data with me. With all these variables I cannot firmly state that the run was without question 100% accurate without the additional results. However this does not discredit the timing systems reading of 266.938 mph, it merely does not verify it with their results. You may draw your own conclusions as to whether the timing system was accurate or not.
For the remainder of the day it is my tech's conclusion that the timing system was working properly when it was not being blocked by spectators which happened several times. Please see the following statement made by my tech's.
"From everything I have seen, Heffner's run was completely accurate. If he recorded a near-exact time on two other independent recording devices, I would be inclined to assume that all things are indeed equal, and hence the times are accurate. Please obtain these records to completely eradicate any margin of error and then you will have not 1, not 2, but 3 verifications."
In closing I would like to add that I am sincerely sorry that this dispute has taken place regarding the accuracy of the timing system and the validity of this specific run. It is my hopes that this would have been resolved prior to the posting of this letter. I thank each and every participant, sponsor, and co-worker for your support and efforts. I pride myself on hosting value packed and exciting events, but this particular excitement I could have done without. Upon return of my support vehicle to NY which has the timing system, we will be renting an airfield in our local area to test the system and will present those results in the coming weeks.
Yours truly,
Seth Rose, Pres.
Exotics Rally
This was posted on supraforums and ford gt forums,
Group: Lambo Owner
Posts: 116
Joined: 6-March 07
From: Freeport, NY
Member No.: 10,215
To all Participants, Spectators, Media & Fellow Enthusiasts,
On Sunday, April 25, 2010, Exotics Rally hosted a Runway Event at the Dade Collier Training & Transitional Airport in Ochopee, Florida. To measure this competition we used a new-unique timing system built by 2 engineers that have extensive knowledge of electronics, circuitry, mathematics and more. They have worked for The Military, US Government, Apple, Disney and many more projects past, present, and future. The system was built to perform better than the mainstream systems normally used when measuring a 1 mile speed competition. It was tested and calibrated and found to be 100% accurate within 100th of a second when it was built.
On Sunday, April 25, 2010, Myself and one of the tech's measured the mile accurately using a measuring wheel and laid out the trap sensors perfectly. We performed tests to insure it's accuracy with my car and compared it with a vBox and it was 100% accurate at 9am. At approximately 9:30am Jason Heffner and Ray Hofman approached me with a concerning issue. The lane for the 1 mile was directly set over the markings that were painted on the runway. They explained that they had been testing on the runway a few days prior and that it caused the car to become very unstable and they feared it could cause an accident. At this time I instructed my tech to move the lane over approximately 20 feet to avoid being on the markings. I began to help move the trap sensors and then was called away and went to the front of the airport to handle registration issues. When I returned, the tech had said it was completely ready to run.
Cars began running the mile and when times were announced many people were disheartened with the results claiming there was no way possible and the 'buzz' was that the system was off by approximately 9 mph. We continued to run until 12:45pm and then stopped for a lunch break. While everyone went to lunch I became aware that the tech did NOT re-measure the actual mile and simply walked the sensor traps across the runway laterally. This should have been handled differently and therefore the timing was indeed inaccurate. We went and re-measured and obtained the proper distance and the determined the exact calculation of the error. Thankfully the system is designed so that the tech was able to add these calculations to the software and re-adjust all the previous runs to read the correct times.
Towards the end of lunch I came forward and made the announcements regarding the issue and handed out time slips. Several people concurred that the timing was now accurate according to their vBox's, speedometers and gps devices.
As of Tuesday, April 27, 2010 there had been much talk on the Internet, in chat rooms, on the phone, and in the media questioning the validity of the World Record Run, by Ray Hofman which resulted in a reading of 266.938 mph. There was also speculation that now the system was reading higher mph results as well. In reviewing the data file from all the runs of the day it is my finding that there may have been some inconsistencies that some would find questionable.
Therefore, in order to verify these results I personally emailed both parties on April 30, 2010. In sum and substance I asked Jason Heffner & Ray Hofman to share their results with me exclusively. I offered a non-disclosure waiver, stating that I will not release or share any data included within the results that they claim they are in possession of with any other 3rd party.
To my dismay I received an email from Jason Heffner stating that the timing system was inaccurate. He also declined to share their data with me. With all these variables I cannot firmly state that the run was without question 100% accurate without the additional results. However this does not discredit the timing systems reading of 266.938 mph, it merely does not verify it with their results. You may draw your own conclusions as to whether the timing system was accurate or not.
For the remainder of the day it is my tech's conclusion that the timing system was working properly when it was not being blocked by spectators which happened several times. Please see the following statement made by my tech's.
"From everything I have seen, Heffner's run was completely accurate. If he recorded a near-exact time on two other independent recording devices, I would be inclined to assume that all things are indeed equal, and hence the times are accurate. Please obtain these records to completely eradicate any margin of error and then you will have not 1, not 2, but 3 verifications."
In closing I would like to add that I am sincerely sorry that this dispute has taken place regarding the accuracy of the timing system and the validity of this specific run. It is my hopes that this would have been resolved prior to the posting of this letter. I thank each and every participant, sponsor, and co-worker for your support and efforts. I pride myself on hosting value packed and exciting events, but this particular excitement I could have done without. Upon return of my support vehicle to NY which has the timing system, we will be renting an airfield in our local area to test the system and will present those results in the coming weeks.
Yours truly,
Seth Rose, Pres.
Exotics Rally
This was posted on supraforums and ford gt forums,
