One of the better trends to come out of the automotive tuning scene are the adoption of cheap, accelerometers that let the drivers keep track of quarter-mile times, 0-60 second rates, braking distance, etc., all from within their own car. With units like the Beltronics FX2 available for under $200, performance tuners don t have to waste money on track runs, dynometers, and speeding tickets just to determine how hoss their hot rods are.
Unfortunately, accelerometers are notoriously sensitive to road conditions, bumps, temperature, and engine vibration, so when Nonlinear Engineering developed the Veypor Motorcyle Performance Intelligence system, they complimented their 3-axis accelerometer with a rear-wheel rotation sensor to provide more accurate data acquisition. The two-button Veypor unit measures acceleration, velocity, current gear and RPMs, as well as graphing peak horsepower and torque maps. Add to that a lap timer and staged quarter-mile run programs and you ve got a full-blown, durable sensor package for around $280. [Thanks, Devin!]
