I just found it at the bottom of my closet...still works great! Planning to use it this spring/summer for my first autocross in 10 years.

 

wtf is that... looks cool...

 

it's called a g-analyst(hence the nameplate). made in Canada
it was used in the mid to late 90's to measure the g forces in 4 directions...
acceleration,braking, right & left. It helped racers measure the limits of the traction of their tires. The term they used was "friction circle".
Its was d/c in 1998 or there abouts.
didn't turn out to be to helpful...

 

You got most of it! Actually it was made by Valentine Research in Cincinnati, OH (makers of the Valentine One radar detector). They started making it in the late 80's, and discontinued it about '97 not because it wasn't helpful, but because they could no longer get the necessary components. I bought it in 1992 and used it for a few auto-x seasons, and found it to be quite useful in figuring out which corners I could have pushed harder, and which areas I could have braked harder or later. Yes, it measures absolute G forces in all four axes, which is kinda neat, but the main thing is that it was very helpful in figuring out relative performance from run to run.

I never used it on a track (couldn't use it in a Skip Barber Formula Ford!), but I think it would have been useful there as well. Main issue was that it only has an 8 minute recording memory (unless you connect it to a laptop), although that ought to be enough to capture a few hot laps. Valentine is sending me a special cable to hook it up to my laptop to record longer sessions and import into Windows. I'll try to post some screenshots.

These days, there are a couple of other options out there for low-cost data acquisition, like the G-Tech Pro Road Race version and the GEEZ!

 

That's cool...yeah, the GTech does that now.