Those of you that know my wife Terri and I (my name is Ed by the way) are already familiar with the work our company does for corporate, retail, insurance and government companies and agencies. It should come as no surprise then that having access to the video and digital media production capability would cross over into other leisure interests, in this case our love for motorsports. During this past winter/spring (and yes this summer) we attended a few events where we tested newly acquired in-car camera mounts in addition to a direct to disc digital video hard drive recorder and on site nonlinear editing system. We have included a few of these clips on this page and more will be added in the near future. Please download and save these MPEG files to your computer for the most efficient playback (PC users should right click on the image and “Save Target As”). Also, these are large high quality MPEG files that will take some time to download! You’ve been warned.

The image at the right links to a 59 sec MPEG clip of four cars participating in a pro rally sprint. The video of all four cars was shot at the same high speed segment of the course just before the last downhill to the finish. Notice how the cars enter the camera frame from behind the trees at the right drifting across the loose soil accelerating into the high speed straight passing the camera position just a few feet away.

The in-car image at left links to a 2 min 11sec MPEG video clip of Alex Kuhner driving his Subaru RS #187 in a rally cross. The clip is a compilation of footage edited from different runs through the course with video taken from a primary broadcast quality camera for the exterior shots and a single in-car camera mounted in various positions utilizing clamp-on and suction mounts. The tests were more than satisfactory for a first effort with in-car video acquisition over some of the roughest terrain a vehicle can drive upon. Better padding for the on-board DV recorder and more secure connections in the video and power lines has been added to our kit to eliminate chroma impact error. Many thanks to Andy and Constatine (and wife) at Rallypark Northeast. Thanks especially go to Alex and Peter for their help and perseverance all day while working with camera adjustments and tape changes in car #187 during a very busy event.

We visited the Atco autocross action to see if our friends were racing, enjoy the event and shoot some video. We were happy to see and talk with old friends and make the acquaintance of quite a few talented drivers! It turns out that there may be a need for autoX video production as a service which we are considering providing under the umbrella of Grassroots Digital Media, our other company that currently does athletic college recruitment and skills video on CD and DVD-R. It seems that not every driver has that magic arrangement with a friend who is willing to act as event videographer and shoot each run and even fewer have a reliable method of mounting an in-car camera. Discussions with a few guys that day inspired us to plan on attending the June 27th Atco event (conditions permitting) to test the in-car components described above in 2 or 3 cars for drivers that agreed to act as "lab rats"so that we may attempt to perfect the process. More about the possible business aspects later. For now we’ve posted a few runs here from the Atco SJ SCCA event of June 13, 2004. These clips were shot shoulder mount from the start area.

Reminder, please download and save  these MPEG files to your computer for the most  efficient playback (PC users should right click on the image and “Save Target As”)

You Subaru drivers make me miss the ‘02 WRX sport wagon I had for 2 1/2 years. It’s currently owned by our very good friend Jet Acevedo who also happens to be an accomplished autocross participant. He drives that car with the precision and authority that I could only wish for in my dreams. In my video archives I have footage of him driving his previous Subaru, a black ‘99 RS in Camden, Glasgow, and even on a frozen lake in Albany, NY. Jet when you read this you gotta’ remind me to edit and burn that stuff to DVD-R. There’s some of your RX7 stuff from Englishtown we could put on there too. By the way, there was a black WRX wagon (and alot of other vehicles for that matter)  at the Atco event on the 13th that I didn’t get clean video of because your car may have been on the course at the same time as another car that I was shooting. That’s a problem that can only be overcome by having two matched production cameras covering the event at the same time. Terri is gonna’ have a chicken when she proof reads this ‘cause she can always tell when I get ready to spend big money. Reminds me of the way Boyd Coddingtons x-wife on that show American Hot Rod is hesitant to write the checks when the shop needs parts for a project. That’s where the similarities end in a big way ‘cause I think my wife is a hell of lot more attractive!

David, sorry about the soft focus near the start of this run. I was rushing to get back into a good shooting position and just blew it. The rest of the run looks to be okay however. Hopefully we’ll have good weather for the 27th when we can try covering your runs with 2 in-car cameras and these exteriors will be shot on a tripod for a much more stable result especially from a distance.

O.K., we’ll leave these Atco clips on here for awhile and add new video of the June 27th tests when we get them cut and compressed.

So, Terri and I mounted 2 in-car cameras in a ‘95 Miata driven by Chris Gilpin. The image at right links to a 41 second MPEG-1 video clip which is actually a composite of 3 cameras, the 2 in-car and the large production rig I was running on a tripod over by the start gate. The overall background video image in this clip came from the forward looking in-car camera suction mounted to the interior upper right corner of the windshield. This camera also had the Gforce/speed data overlay added. The left inset video block came from the other in-car camera which was clamp mounted to the passenger side of the roll bar. This camera shows a good view of Chris capturing his driver input, at least his steering and shifting. He had a good suggestion that we should consider mounting a camera in the drivers foot well to capture foot action, we’ll do that when we add a third camera head and on-board digital recorder! The right inset video block obviously came from the external camera I was running.

I should give you some info regarding the overlay on the background camera. Starting in the upper left corner we see the speed display accurate to 1/10 MPH. Just to the right is the horizontal bar showing lateral G forces with neutral (no motion) being center idle, left turns produce a deflection to the left of center and the opposite for right hand turns. The greater the G force the greater the visible deflection. At the far upper right is the numeric G force display with right turns shown as positive numbers and left shown as negative with about a .05 margin of error. The vertical bar at the left of the image is showing accel/decell forces with its numeric display just above, In the lower left corner of the screen you’ll see the current lap time at the top of the stack. In the middle is the time of the previous lap alternating with the max speed attained. At the bottom is the current time of day in military time. In the lower right hand corner is a course map in white with the magenta color indicating the section of track the car is located.The lap time/previous lap and speed do not apply to autocross venues, track days and road courses only. The device that produces this data overlay is being developed by Peter Beale of Track Out Design, a true genius in my opinion and a hell of a nice guy!

O.K. then, while viewing this clip look for the greatest G forces and where they occur on the course. All of the video and data overlay is synchronized and you may find as I did that it’s best to watch the clip a few times to dwell on each element as long as necessary to truly digest everything. By the way, if anyone would like to critique/make suggestions or view this or any of our stuff on DVD-R feel free to Email me ed@candcstudios.com

In-Car Video Up-Date South Jersey SCCA Autocross - Atco, New Jersey   July 11, 2004

Continuing our in-car video/data experiments on Sunday July 11th, we put the on board cameras and G-Box in the Honda CRX #92 owned/driven by David Hess. We were pleased to get very stable video with the addition of a second Bogen Super clamp for use on Dave’s roll cage and additional padding in the DV recorder case. In post production we built a composite of the three video sources the same as Chris Gilpins run of June 27th (see above) with the addition of a functional synchronized course clock keyed in the lower left of the video image. Many thanks to Dave and Chris for the use of their cars as testbeds to debug the video rig and to Sam, Dave, and Chris for their continued support and suggestions. It was great to meet Fitz, Ed, Patrick and others and get the positive responses while they reviewed the DVD content of Chris and other drivers from the June 13th & 27th events.

In-Car Video Up-Date Del-Val Miata Club Track Days - Pocono July 19 & 20, 2004

The following links from the Pocono event contain some of the most exciting in-car footage we’ve had the pleasure of shooting to date! Of all the experimental motorsports video we’ve shot this is the only on-track stuff with speeds exceeding 100 mph and other cars on the track at the same time. The runs were typically about 20 minutes of track time but we’ve posted shorter samples here.

Reminder, please download and save  these MPEG files to your computer for the most  efficient playback (PC users should right click on the image and “Save Target As”)

First we have 3 laps of Howard Marder driving his Red (black interior) turbo equipped ‘90 Miata. Howard was in the green group starting right behind his friend Sam Repici also driving a Red turbo Miata (tan interior). I asked that Howard stay behind Sam for 2 laps to get some on-track footage for use in Sam’s run we would be shooting later. This sample video is broken into 3 parts, each part is one lap for easier download. The first part shows the stage/start and the first “warm up “ lap. The second part continues with Howard behind Sam on a hotter second lap. The third part gets interesting! As agreed prior to the start, Sam gives Howard the pass at the start of the third lap with Sam high up near the wall, Howard below him and a third driver passes both on the inside. Watch as Howard in his street driven Miata, now filled with purpose, stays with the white race car! On-track ”traveling” music before start and continuous commentary by Howard on the in-car audio.

The fourth clip is a small piece of Sam’s run from later in the day. Sam, sorry I didn’t notice you were using a closed face helmet until you were on your way. Next time I’ll let you use the headset mic for your commentary. I have another run to post ASAP of Dan Pallone (1990 silver Miata #8, blue group) so check back later. Nice runs guys!- and thanks for putting up with me while mounting and adjusting cameras in our cars.

Special thanks to Jeff Jury , Gar Webb, Brad Kravitz and the rest of the gang for allowing us safe access to areas of the Pocono venue without which we could not get these on-track shots. And thanks to all participants for the candid video at the drivers meeting after lunch on Tuesday, I’ll try to get a few of those clips posted ASAP.

You can read the GREEN paragraph above for some important info about the on screen data display to which I should add a description of the extra items. In the lower left corner of the screen you’ll see the current lap time at the top of the stack. In the middle is the time of the previous lap alternating with the max speed attained. At the bottom is the current time of day in military time. In the lower right hand corner is a course map in white with the magenta color indicating the section of track the car is located. These video samples are composites of the forward looking in-car camera with the G-box data display overlaid, the in-car ”driver” camera showing the drivers steering input and shifting, and the external camera I was shooting from the start gate whenever the car was “in range”. I removed the “driver” camera from the upper left of the screen during the second lap of Howard’s run to show an example of the data camera only. On the DVD product, the runs are available on the menu as individual cameras or as synchronized composites as shown here.

Del-Val Miata Club Track Days - Pocono July 19 & 20 Addendum

As promised, here is the start and one lap of the silver #8 1990 Miata owned and driven by Dan Pallone during a run with the blue group. This is one of the rare early Silverstone Metallic cars that Dan keeps beautifully clean. He has added a recent set of Katzkin leather seat covers that look and feel glove soft. I wish we were doing a show ‘n shine that day at Pocono, the collection of Miatas and other cars were just beautiful! O.K. Dan, the DVD-R has the entire run on it but this should hold you for a bit until the disc gets to you. Sorry for the delay in getting this posted.

Ed   8/17/04

Well, Terri and I had a great time with the EMRA crowd at Pocono East. They run a very organized and safe event which we were privileged to attend while working with Rich Schmitt and his brother Bob shooting in-car and external video of Rich’s ‘94 Miata R. This three part on track footage of Rich was shot during one of the practice runs leading up to a time trial run for which Rich took a first place trophy home in the ST2 class. Our experiment that day focused on getting the in-car rig installed with both cameras secured with safety ties and aimed, audio levels set, GPS receiver positioned and recorders rolling as quickly as possible. We then had to get to the East course start gate quickly to set up and level the tripod, mount up the external camera and be rolling for the start of the run. Everything worked out well although we still would like to do one more track day to confirm the ability to switch the rig from car to car quickly.

 The challenge is in mounting the cameras solidly in different types of cars. There are many interior variables in street cars that we’ve had to deal with and some race cars are so small as to have little or no space to position the data/recorder bag on board. A roll bar or cage vs. none in some cars (at some events) poses another problem of having no solid hard mounting point requiring quick thinking to adapt standard alternative camera mounts from our bag of tricks So far we’ve fortunately found a solution to every situation, hopefully that will always be the case! We expect to complete our in-car testing phase by the end of August with a Meadowlands M Club autocross Friday the 20th and either a Pocono South event with the NASA guys or the Southeastern Divisional autocross in VA Beach VA on the 28th and 29th. We’ll be seeking test drivers depending on which event we can get last minute shooting clearance for. Interested drivers attending either event should E-mail Terri with  your contact info and a description of your car ASAP . We need 3 or 4 cars and there will be no charge to the drivers. Each will receive a DVD-R of the event for their participation in the test.

Anyway, these clips pick up the action about midway through the run where Rich catches up to another car who in the 2nd clip gives him the pass on the section just before the hairpin turn to the right. Rich then runs another complete lap smoothly with no traffic ahead of him. See the GREEN paragraph above for an explanation of the on screen data.

Thanks to Rich and Bob for the time they spent with us while fitting the camera rig in the car . We actually had Rich run the rig on the track twice due to a pesky audio power supply which has since been replaced, but then that’s what these tests are for!

We would also like to thank Eric Kress, Bob Hill, Rob Myles and the entire EMRA organization for their hospitality and assistance.

Ed Candelora

August 17, 04

Reminder, please download and save  these MPEG files to your computer for the most efficient playback (PC users should right click on the image and “Save Target As”)

Rich Schmitt trophy presentation in ST2 class.

  On Saturday the 24th we put the in-car cameras in the Viking SRX-7 co-driven by Derek and Jerry Fink in the EM class. These two guys demonstrate the devotion and commitment to the sport (and each other) that I think is becoming all too rare these days. It shows in the precision with which they drive and the world class engineering/construction of their car, which by the way is a product of Jerry’s company, Laminar Concepts in Media PA. These video clips barely scratch the surface of what the Fink men and their car are all about. You really need to meet them and see the car up close and in person to fully appreciate what we were privileged to be a part of at the Ripken event. Many thanks to Derek and Jerry Fink for allowing my “crew” access to you and the car at a time when you guys were obviously in deep concentration on the task at hand during a very tight competition.

O.K. then, first clip above covers some pit prep to the car and roll out to the grid with a brief shot of the Fink’s dog “Shelby” during one of the lighter moments.

At left is a link to Derek’s 2nd run on Saturday with the “driver” camera center up in the screen and the external camera I was shooting lower right. The external image will drop out for a moment while Derek was out of sight at the opposite end of the course. See the GREEN paragraph above for an explanation of the other on screen data. BTW, the nature of these MPEG-1 clips is that they suffer some loss of resolution by default. Those that would like to view any of this video on DVD-R may E-mail me at ed@candcstudios.com to make arrangements.

The picture link at the right will download Jerry’s last run of the day on Saturday. I’ve intentionally left the external image out of this clip. The DVD-R contains a menu driven interface allowing the viewer to choose the composite version of all cameras or any one of the three cameras individually.

The resulting time of 38.057 in this run put Jerry and the Viking up to first place in EM which he held on to on Sunday.

The clip immediately below is of Jerry getting his first place EM trophy. Congratulations and thanks again for allowing us to work with  you!

Reminder, please download and save  these MPEG files to your computer for the most  efficient playback (PC users should right click on the image and “Save Target As”)

While we’re viewing some trophy presentations, at right is a link to a clip of two of my new friends from the Chesapeake Area Roadsters Miata Club getting theirs at the Ripken event. They are Mike Kline (1st in SM2) and Mark Clark (2nd in STX2)

We’re very happy for you both and glad we were there to see you guys acknowledged by your peers. I wish we could have gotten some on course video of you as well, maybe next time! Mike, you must have shot some great in-car video with that most excellent camera mount you created. I still say you should manufacture those things for retail sale. I’ll be first in line to buy one!

Reminder, please download and save  these MPEG files to your computer for the most  efficient playback (PC users should right click on the image and “Save Target As”)

The blue WRX at right driven by Carlo Santos is one of the few video clips we have of a night event. It was raw and wet that night last October and the footage was shot with existing light. I didn’t know you could drift an all wheel drive car like that! Carlo looks to be especially competent and the crowd really loved it. Take a look at the smoke from all four tires right before the end of the clip.

The two clips, at left and below, are rather long for download (sorry).They represent only a small portion of a drifting expo by the Signal Auto “Drifter Twinz” two cars sponsored by the Tanabe Company Ltd. of Japan. I have the entire presentation of about 10 1/2 minutes if anyone wants to see it but this may give a hint of what looks to be a real thrill ride. This event was actually the inspiration for pursuing the in-car video idea on a more controlled and refined level. We were attending that day with Jet Acevedo and his friend Dave and both had their personal camcorders. My daughter and I were in the press area; she was shooting digital stills and I had the production TV camera. Somehow between the two Signal display runs Jet and Dave scored a ride in the Signal cars (with their camcorders) and I shot the exteriors shoulder mount from the press area. The first of these two clips is the “saddle up” of the Signal drivers with Jet and Dave in the pit area and the second clip is a small piece of the actual on course drifting at speed. There is some rather “interesting” in car stuff here! Oh, and if someone could translate the Japanese dialogue between cars I would really appreciate it a bunch!

Other example clips will be added to this page as time permits. Edit: actually this page is getting out of hand and will be replaced shortly by a true product/service site with seperate samples aranged by motorsport types. This will make it easy for visitors to download and view only the samples of the type they choose.

Ed & Terri Candelora 8/17/04