Easy camera and mount for track days?

[Rfpauly]

That looks great! Are you running the Lightspeed event on 12/6?

I was inspired by this thread and @johnny.silva7 posts

https://www.civicxi.com/forum/threads/the-fl5-track-junkie-thread.52760/page-238#post-1006507

https://www.civicxi.com/forum/threads/the-fl5-track-junkie-thread.52760/page-238#post-998216

and came up with my own version - we'll see if it works well in a few weeks at Laguna Seca

 

[iforgettopee]

That looks great! Are you running the Lightspeed event on 12/6?

I am! Are you? if you are, see you there!

 

[Rfpauly]

I am! Are you? if you are, see you there!

I wasn't planning on it, but I will see if I can make it work!

 

[derbo904]

OT: what kind of laptimes you guys running there? and what mods?

Mine is still bone stock and I want to benchmark a stock car with pads/fluids before trying to beat my E90M3 1:40laptime.

 

[Rfpauly]

My car is stock except for Castrol SRF, Counterspace C1XB/C1X pads, Nankang CRS tires, Honda OEM forged wheels, and pulled pins, and I'm running 1:44s.

I just bought some adjustable front ball joints that should give -3 camber and I'm thinking that will stop the front tires from rolling over and deliver a couple of seconds, and I'm leaving a couple of seconds on the table in turns 2, 6 and 9.

A 1:40 should be doable for me, at 73 years old, and I'm sure that a younger, better driver can take seconds off of that.

 

[iforgettopee]

I was inspired by something similar that another user posted, and came up with my own version - we'll see if it works well in a few weeks at Laguna Seca

Thought I'd share an update for those who come across these photos later...
I cannot recommend this. I have stock suspension with H&R springs and the seat back shakes/vibrates like crazy just driving around town let alone doing anything at speed. Watching the video made me feel like my eye balls were spasming in my head.
The only way to make this work is to have image stabilization on, and if you've ever had image stabilization on in a car before, the panning effect is the other issue you'll be dealing with.

I'm going to stick with my helmet POV cam and windshield mount.

 

[derbo904]

Relevant, that LaPole telescoping unit I mentioned awhile back is being in use here with this Prelude video.

 

[TypeRbuilder]

I have instaGO and insta360 and love them! Suction roof mount and in car mount.

 

[GeorgeMiller]

Thought I'd share an update for those who come across these photos later...
I cannot recommend this. I have stock suspension with H&R springs and the seat back shakes/vibrates like crazy just driving around town let alone doing anything at speed. Watching the video made me feel like my eye balls were spasming in my head.
The only way to make this work is to have image stabilization on, and if you've ever had image stabilization on in a car before, the panning effect is the other issue you'll be dealing with.

I'm going to stick with my helmet POV cam and windshield mount.

That is a huge heads-up for anyone thinking about a seat-back or headrest mount! It makes total sense—when you’re on H&R springs, you’ve basically traded away all the "give" in your suspension for better handling. Every pebble on the road is transmitted straight through the chassis, up the seat frame, and directly into the camera sensor.

The "eye-ball spasm" effect you’re describing is likely a mix of high-frequency vibration and rolling shutter (that "jello" look where the image seems to wobble).

Why the Helmet POV is the way to go:

• The Natural Gimbal: Your neck is actually the best image stabilizer ever made. It naturally filters out the high-frequency vibrations that your seat back is soaking up.
• True Perspective: Helmet cams give that authentic "driver’s eye" view, capturing your steering inputs and where you’re looking through the apex.
• The Panning Problem: You’re right—software image stabilization (EIS) tries to "predict" movement, but in a car, it often mistakes a sharp turn for "shaky footage" and tries to smooth it out, creating a weird, delayed panning effect that feels totally disconnected from the actual driving.

If you captured any of that shaky footage and want to grab some still frames to show the "vibration blur" as a warning to others, you might find that modern video editing software exports frames in WebP by default. To make those stills easy to share on the forum without losing the "evidence" of the shake, you can use https://webptojpghero.com to quickly convert them into standard JPEGs.

Thanks for taking one for the team and testing that setup—it’ll definitely save someone else a headache (and some blurry footage)!

Sponsored