Thrillhouse

I wanted to move to HD video for my various motorsports recordings so I bought a GoPro HD motorsports kit to use during the upcoming season. It's a great package, you get the camera with an impact resistant case, a second case door for waterproof work, a beefy suction cup mount, a selection of adhesive mounts for flat surfaces or helmets, and a few different joints/attachments.

My plan has been to use the GoPro for video from outside the car somewhere, then splice in footage from an in-car camera for audio/hand tracking.

I went to Slush Cup #3 with WWSCC in Shelton, WA yesterday and figured I'd give the new camera a trial run. I stuck one of the adhesive mounts to the front bumper on the upper surface just in front of the grill. This means the mount plate is hidden from normal view unless you get down low to look at it. The mounts use 3M VHB adhesive which seems to handle vibration and heat pretty well. I scrubbed the spot I attached it to with an alcohol camera wipe to ensure no wax or grime would affect the adhesive.

The camera just clips in to the base plate, and seemed to be pretty sturdy. I later realized that I forgot to attach the rubber isolator which helps damp vibration, so the camera did rattle around a bit, but it was attached just as strongly at the end of the day as at the start. The camera is mounted upside down so I have to flip the video afterwards, but that's easy enough.

I also mounted my normal Canon IS870 digital camera on the camera mount on my Brey-Krause harness bar (Thanks Corvettepilot!). This gives a good view out the front of the car and of my hands on the wheel. The Canon also records much better audio up in the car instead of the wind noise that the GoPro gets.

Once the day was finished I used Sony Movie Studio 9 Pro to combine and syncronize the two videos with the in-car camera overlayed on the HD resolution gopro video feed. I'm happy with how it turned out and I think with a couple tweaks it'll be a great setup to use both for showing other people what I do on the track, and to evaluate my driving to find things I can improve on.

The autocross itself went pretty well. It was really cold (~40 degrees), and I'm still running the OEM Goodyear F1's with 20,000 miles on them, but I was only 1.5 seconds behind the other Corvette there, a 2002 Z06, and he only beat my time with an awesome final run that was right on the edge of control. This was my 3rd time out in the vette, so I'm sure I can find more to improve on.

Here's the video of my fastest run, note that you can bump youtube all the way up to 720p if you want: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eKYS5cOw9o

jwt1603

Nice video. Would the Go Pro work OK on a roll bar? Would there be to much bounce to get good video?

Thrillhouse

It would probably work much better on a rollbar as the bar wouldn't flex like the fiberglass front bumper does. The bigger problem I think would be mounting the GoPro in a place where you can still get a good view out the front of the car. The GoPro has an extremely wide angle lens (170 degree at 720p) which means if it's very far back in the car you lost a lot of the screen to the seatbacks/helmet. You can get around this a bit by recording in 1080p which reduces the field of view to 120 degrees, but then you chew up your memory card much more quickly.

My camera mounted on the BK harness bar is very solid and doesn't have the shake that the gopro had. Remembering to install the rubber isolator on the gopro should also help cut down on the shaking. Without it the camera can rock back and forth on it's mount a bit.

jwt1603

I have a six point cage so I could mount it on the bar up by the windshield. How does it wrap around the bar? Is the clamp very thick? I don't have much clearance between the bar and the windshield frame.

Thrillhouse

GoPro makes a special rollbar mount, it looks like it's pretty small. It just clamps around the bar and attaches to the camera. It looks like you could invert the clamp bolts from how they're shown in the picture and it would probably fit just fine.There's a good picture here: http://www.goprocamera.com/index.php...2&productid=15

fred_S

Very nice video, looks like a nice setup to record my holiday driving.

Glennm27

Pretty cool. I have a couple Go PRO's (not HD) and I can flip the video within the camera for mounting upside down, so when mounted upside down, it is already shooting the video right side up.

You may want to check that, just to possibly make things easier for yourself.

Thrillhouse

The instructions for the HD list a function to flip the video, but then say "if your camera doesn't have this function, go to the GoPro website for a firmware update". The GoPro website doesn't have a new firmware for the HD yet, so for now I'm stuck doing the flip afterwards.

Hopefully they'll add it soon, it'd save me a step in post-process.

rgg16g

Great video! So which memory card are you using? Also, how did you flip the video image after recording?

Thanks

Lawdogg

Nice video!!! What kind of speeds were you seeing? Looks like a nice fasssst course.

0RAAMaudio

That was great

Looked like Bremerton, I have run a couple of events there, really long and quick course for that place if I am correct!

I really miss Packwood the most from the NW though.

Rick

Thrillhouse

I just used a simple 8GB SDHC card. It has plenty of space for autocross use. I'll probably get a 32GB card eventually.

Top of 2nd in a couple places, so about 60mph tops. It's pretty rare to hit more than that at our local autox events.

This specific event was at Sanderson Field in Shelton, but the track layouts are somewhat similar to what Bremerton does. I run at both locations, Bremerton tends to be a bit longer with more sweepers, but Shelton tends to have less people. I haven't tried Packwood yet. Haven't gotten the nerve to run with SCCA yet.

0RAAMaudio

No nerve needed, they are a very nice bunch there in the SCCA, really

I have ran in So Cal, two different clubs, NoCal, Portland and Seattle areas, Spokane and now in Utah, always great fun with great people

Do not skip going to Packwood, you will love the location, courses, people, etc.....I promise!

I am more into the track now but whenever I get a chance I will go to the local solo events here, sometimes just stop to say high, I do plan to run out Vert at some soon though

Rick

0RAAMaudio

If you ever get a chance to run in SoCal, the Stadium events in SD can be incredible, especially in a Vette or car with really good power. My Matrix Turbo (I built the first one besides a magazine car that blew up and I made more power was a blast when the Vette drivers setup some of the courses down there, very fast, well into 3rd gear(I shocked alot of people with the times I put down with that funky car

Back then I was always in awe of the Vettes, SS cars were nuts, I could not afford one, now I have two!

Rick

rgg16g

Do you recall which brand? One might think it does not matter but my PNY SDHC card does not work in the GOPRO HD. I found a users forum for the GOPRO and it appears there are only a small number of brands compatible with our camera.

I have contacted GOPRO and the place where I purchased the camera, hopefully they respond on Monday.

Thrillhouse

Just checked the card and it's an "AData" card with "Class 6" written on it. It seems to work just fine with the GoPro

rgg16g

Thanks buddy! I hope my camera is not broken and its just a funky flash card.