Garmin Catalyst: the device that improves driving performance

A real revolution for pilots of all levels. The new Garmin Catalyst is an exclusive “ Virtual Coach ” which is mounted on the dashboard, collects performance data, provides suggestions audio in real time, offers the immediate analysis of the sessions and shows your main areas of improvement.

Garmin Catalyst

The virtual coach of the pilots

The world of car races is technologically avant -garde and, year after year, is able to offer an increasingly incredible amount of data. Very little has actually been made to make such data easily interpretable. Today a pilot, to understand him in the immediate post-gara’s mistakes, needs a professional instructor.

Which is not always possible.

The goal of a pilot is always to improve its time on the lap and, to immediately correct its approach to the circuit, she must learn to make the most of the data in its possession. And it is here that he enters the scene Garmin Catalyst, a portable coaching tool for driving on the track, able to provide precise indications, evaluate progress and identify the areas of improvement of the pilot.

How does it work

Once mounted on board, you just need to turn on the engine and give the green light to adrenaline. The pilot can view the lap times on the 7 -inch color touchscreen display. And receive audio indications to improve the lap time based on the previously collected data.

The latter can be listened to through compatible bluetooth earphones (sold separately) or through the stereo on -board system.

As soon as a session on the track is finished, Garmin Catalyst provides an immediate analysis of the performance, highlighting the areas of improvement directly on the screen. All this in an intuitive and simple way, without having to download the acquired information, configure graphic designs or to use precious time to the interpretation of unclear information.

The dual objective of the Drive Coaching and the post -test analysis is the optimization of the pilot’s performance, so as to “guide” it to a continuous improvement.

The ideal tour

Anyone who has a little familiarity with the world of racing knows well that the tour time is largely influenced by how drivers are able to face the curves. Garmin Catalyst is a completely autonomous device that thoroughly analyzes this aspect. Thanks to its sensors, it is able to record the fundamental elements for a good approach to the curve, or detached, insertion, rope point, exit, and acceleration.

Until today, to know the fastest lap theoretically, It was necessary to divide each “lap” into individual segments and add the fastest time recorded of everyone. In this way you get the fastest theoretical ride of the user. But this does not correspond to the truth and it is the laws of physics that say it.

Since the final point of a quick segment is not said that it coincides with the starting point of the best subsequent segment.

Garmin Catalyst, through the True Optimal Lap function, It collects the metrics of the race and identifies the points where the segments can be united seamlessly to create the fastest runway. In this way, a hypothetical “best time” is obtained on the basis of the trajectories actually traveled, while providing the time probably reachable.

Always on the right wake

As mentioned, the success of a good tour depends on the position that the vehicle occupies on the track during the lap: for this Garmin Catalyst introduces The True Track Positioning function, designed to record and analyze the trajectories of the car Through a combination of information detected by the inertial sensors integrated in the tool, by the processing of the images of the video camera and the precise multi-bill positioning to 10 Hz.

In particular, The supplied video camera allows you to record videos in 1080p HD quality which can subsequently be reproduced directly on the Garmin Catalyst screen, overlapping information on instantaneous speed and much more.

Speed and immediacy

After a run on the track, downloading and analyzing the recorded data relating to the latter can be a very articulated and complicated passage, both for beginners and for the most prepared professionals. Garmin Catalyst revolutionizes all this, offering The great advantage of providing and viewing the data recorded directly on the screen, without the need for intermediate passages. In addition to speed and immediacy in the consultation, this also offers a significant time saving.

All recorded data are naturally accessible also by a mobile device or a computer using the Garmin Connect platform. The device is provided with a precarious database of hundreds of circuits all over the world and allows users to add new circuits with extreme ease.