Some automakers design cars specifically for video games, while others add features that make drivers feel like they're in a video game. Enter the Performance Data Recorder that Chevrolet unveiled Sunday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Available in the 2015 Corvette Stingray, the Performance Data Recorder is, in layman’s terms, an integrated dashboard camera that allows drivers the chance to see what amounts to instant replays of their track-day fun. But layman’s terms don’t do this system justice.
Yes, at the system's heart is a windshield header-mounted 720-pixel camera that Chevrolet says can record more than 13 hours of footage when a 32 GB SD memory card is placed in the Corvette Stingray's glove box-mounted SD card slot. But thanks to the help of Corvette Racing partner Cosworth, the Performance Data Recorder can be used as a way to “really refine your driving technique,” Chevrolet spokesman Monte Doran told The Huffington Post.
The system’s telemetry recorder uses a GPS receiver that Chevrolet says is five times as fast as the one in the Corvette Stingray’s navigation system. Meanwhile, the recorder's ability to access vehicle information, such as steering angle, brake force and engine speed, provides owners with the chance to see recordings of their track-day fun and examine what apexes were missed or where the brakes were applied too early.
Chevrolet is also proud of the fact that drivers can upload videos from the Performance Data Recorder to their computer, so they can promptly make their friends jealous of the fact they not only own a Corvette Stingray, but that they can afford to take it to the track. No word yet on how much it will cost to equip a Stingray with the Performance Data Recorder.
According to Doran, the 2015 Corvette Stingray and its Performance Data Recorder will be available to the public in late 2014. He wouldn’t say if or when the Performance Data Recorder will show up in other Chevrolet or GM models.
Check out Chevrolet’s video of the Performance Data Recorder in action above.