A 3D scatter plot of oil pressure against cornering and braking G, colored by oil temperature

New 3D scatter plot - Catch oil starvation in corners before it ends your race

Put any three channels on one plot, color it by a fourth and uncover hidden relationships in your data. Catch oil starvation in long corners, or any other secrets hiding in your data.

The scatter plot gauge can now draw in 3D. Put any three channels on its axes, color the points by a fourth, and spin it to see how they relate. It answers the questions a single chart can't, like this one: does your oil pressure hold up in long, fast corners?

Oil starvation, in one picture

In a long, fast corner, oil surges to one side of the sump, away from the pickup. Pressure drops for a moment, and the bearings pay for it. It's a common worry in a track car, and it's hard to spot on a line chart, because you have to line pressure up with cornering G by eye.

A scatter plot lines them up for you. Start with the familiar G-G plot: cornering G against braking and acceleration G, colored by oil temperature.

A G-G scatter plot of cornering against braking and acceleration G, colored by oil temperature

Unlock the dashboard, open the gauge's menu and choose Select Channels. There's a new Z Axis tab. Put oil pressure on it, and the plot turns 3D. Clear it again, and you're back to the flat plot.

Choosing OilPress for the Z Axis in Select Channels

Drag to spin it. Turn it to face the cornering G axis and the answer is right there. Pressure holds around 45 psi through most of the lap, then falls toward 10 psi once cornering passes about 1.1 G. You can see how much grip the car uses before the oil lets go, and whether it happens turning one way or both.

Oil pressure against cornering G, falling at both sides past about 1.1 G

*The oil readings in this example were added to a real lap of Sonoma Raceway to show the idea.*

Catch it while the car is on track

Oil starvation doesn't always show up on the first lap. A car can start the day with healthy pressure in every corner, then slowly burn oil off, or lose it through a small leak. Each lap the level drops a little, and the pressure starts to fall at lower and lower G.

The scatter plot works during a live session too, filling in as the car streams. Keep it on your dashboard from the pits, and you can watch the dip creep in before it turns into a damaged engine. Then call the car in for a top-up, or a look underneath.

Any channels, any axes

Oil pressure is one example. Any channel you log can go on any axis, and the Heat color adds a fourth. Try brake pressure against speed and braking G to see how consistent your stops are, or coolant temperature against RPM and speed to find where the car runs hot. Whenever you wonder whether one thing depends on two others, this is the gauge to ask.

Spin, zoom and shape it

Drag to spin and tilt. Lines through the cursor show where it sits on all three axes. Scroll or pinch to zoom: all three axes zoom together and snap to round numbers. Double click to put the view back.

Each wall of the box has a handle. Drag one to stretch or squash that side, so a short, wide box fills a wide gauge.

A short, wide box filling a wide gauge

Read every value at the cursor

Open Customize Gauge and turn on Show values. Each channel's value at the cursor shows in the corner of the gauge, with its units. It follows the playback bar and every chart as you scrub through the lap. Show values works on the flat plot too.

Compare laps. Select another lap and each lap's cursor and values are drawn in its own color, one row per lap.

Two laps compared, each with its own row of values

Try it now

Open any session, unlock the dashboard and set a Z Axis on a scatter plot, or add one with Add gauge. It works on any dashboard, on a session page or in an Analysis workspace. If you already have a Podium account, a short video tour appears on the session dashboard the next time you visit, and you can watch it again under Tutorials.

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