For years, in case you’ve needed your automotive to give you detailed efficiency specs and monitor day data, you’d have had to purchase a Dodge to benefit from the SRT Efficiency Pages. Now, Honda is right here to steal the efficiency data throne with its LogR app, which I acquired an opportunity to strive in the course of the Indy 500 weekend.

(Full disclosure: Honda invited me out to the 2023 Indianapolis 500 and in addition gave me an opportunity to check out a few of its newest and best items of tech, together with a chance to hit the monitor with a Honda Civic Kind R to check out the LogR app.)

Permit me to be sincere with you all for a second: I didn’t get an opportunity to drive the Civic Kind R. Simply earlier than the Indy 500, one among my beloved feral cat rescues bit my proper hand, and after my karting stint, I’d irritated the damage to the purpose that my thumb had swollen and I used to be unable to actually have full mobility. Consequently, I didn’t really feel snug utilizing that very same pained hand to maneuver the gear shifter as we took on an unfamiliar monitor. As a substitute, I rode together with my pal and colleague Alanis King and our lead driver Ryan Eversley. I used to be nonetheless capable of discover the LogR app; I simply couldn’t do the driving.

So, with that out of the way in which, simply what’s the Honda LogR app, and what does it do? Basically, it’s a datalogging app that really connects on to your Kind R’s infotainment system, so all of the automotive’s onboard sensors and knowledge trackers can funnel data proper into your telephone. In the event you used the app when it debuted on the final technology, then you definitely’re lacking out on the brand new options within the revamped interface.

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In the event you’re a giant knowledge nerd, you’re going to like the Log R app. You possibly can watch gauges to observe nearly every thing very important within the automotive, nicely past something you may see on the digital gauge cluster. Swipe over, and also you’ll additionally have the ability to take a look at friction circles for all 4 tires and a “3D Movement Show” that provides you a real-time animation of your Kind R’s placement on the monitor.

The large bonus from the Kind R app, although, is its suggestions. It’ll provide you with a grade and allow you to know how one can enhance your lap time, reminiscent of braking earlier or maximizing exit velocity, primarily based on the monitor you’re at. You could find your actual braking factors, acceleration factors, your driving line, your Gs, and a lot extra, which implies you may completely faux to be a Formulation 1 engineer advising their driver (your self) on the best way to get probably the most from the machine. In the event you’re much more aggressive, you may add your lap instances to Honda’s database and examine yours to the lap instances of different drivers world wide. Not unhealthy.

What occurs in case you’re not lapping a well known monitor like, say, the Nurburgring? What occurs in case you’re hanging out at a a lot smaller course, like Putnam Park? Honda makes that simple, too; the LogR app has a mapping perform that permits you to hint out the route you’ll be driving. Then, it’ll save that knowledge as you begin laying down quicker and quicker laps. You’ll by no means lose out on a chance to go ever quicker.

In the event you don’t need an app, Honda has you coated: all this data is out there within the Kind R’s infotainment system, so that you’ll have the ability to evaluate your lap instances and friction circles after you’ve parked however when you’re nonetheless within the driver’s seat.

I can hear you, Potential Kind R proprietor: possibly you’d love to go lapping at your native monitor, however you merely can not for no matter cause. You don’t should be a efficiency fiend to make use of the LogR app; it may really grade your day by day driving with an “Auto Rating,” which primarily compares your driving type to what Honda engineers contemplate to be “good” driving. Meaning it tracks issues like easy clutch operation, acceleration effectivity, turning radius, and extra to be able to provide you with suggestions on the best way to grow to be a greater driver, even in your day by day life.

These are all fairly vital upgrades in comparison with Dodge’s Efficiency Pages, that are confined to in-car use solely and solely tracks your data with out offering suggestions on the best way to enhance. Honda is coming for the efficiency crown.