Racelogic History
Follow our success story from our beginning in 1992 to today.
1992 |
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Racelogic founded by Julian Thomas in Buckingham, UK, with the goal of supplying electronic control systems to the motorsport world. |
1993 |
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Traction Control launched. Among the first customers were Aston Martin and Rolls Royce, using Racelogic Traction Control as their first driver aids. It’s now used as an aftermarket system by many end users, and a number of other manufacturers. |
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1996 |
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Switchlogic invented – an F1 style paddle shifter that could be installed on automatic cars to offer the option of manual gear changing. Reviewed (very positively!) by CCC Magazine on a BMW 325i in the same year. |
1997 |
Racelogic undertake project work on 6 Ferrari 550s for the Sultan of Brunei, who wanted automatic transmission. Ferrari didn’t make automatic versions of these cars, so Racelogic were called in to produce an electronic control module to interface the Ferrari engine ECU to a Mercedes transmission. | ||
1998 |
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Chris Smith joins Racelogic as Design Director. |
2000 |
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Harry Thuillier joins Racelogic as Commercial Director to enable the Company to grow and become more profitable. |
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2000 |
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The US Government switched off the deliberate scrambling of the GPS signal. This means that GPS went from being accurate to 100m, to being accurate to 3m overnight. With many manufacturers still using fifth wheels and expensive, unreliable optical systems, Racelogic decided that there was a future for high speed, high accuracy GPS in the vehicle testing market. |
2001 |
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Using the effectiveness and flexibility offered by GPS technology, Racelogic moved into the automotive testing and motorsport markets with the launch of the first VBOX (which stands for Velocity Box). |
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2002 |
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VBOX II DCF Launched, which sold over 400 units |
2003 |
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Racelogic awarded the MK Citizen Business of the Year Award |
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2004 |
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50th country sold to |
2004 |
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Innovation continued with the launch of VBOX III, a 100Hz GPS data-logger which offered the highest accuracy and reliability yet. By now almost every automotive manufacturer use VBOX systems in their test and development. |
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2006 |
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Applying their experience in high end GPS technology to the racing and consumer markets, Racelogic released DriftBox. Driftbox is a compact and affordable performance meter, which can measure parameters including speed, acceleration, and lap times to be analysed in software. DriftBox also measures drift angle, which is a popular feature for the worldwide competition drifting scene. |
2006 |
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Kevin Bursnall joins Racelogic as Technical Director. |
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2006 |
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Performance Box is released. With the same capabilities as DriftBox (without the yaw sensor to provide Drift angle) Performance Box is an even more affordable system. |
2006 |
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New office opened in Weilburg, Germany, headed by International Sales Manager Leander Speth. |
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2006 |
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2cm accuracy became available with the VBOX III 100Hz RTK system, which uses a VBOX BaseStation for positional corrections. |
2006 |
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VBOX II SL3 launched, which uses three GPS engines to record slip, pitch, and roll measurements. This is used in vehicle handling tests. A marine version was also released for use in marine vessel tests and is subsequently used by boatbuilders such as Fairline. |
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2007 |
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2008 |
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Due to expansion (and lack of car parking space!) Racelogic moved into new purpose built headquarters in Buckingham, UK with 16,000 square feet of space. First phase uses 9000 sq ft and caters for 40 staff. See the future for the second phase! |
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2008 |
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Amanda Clifton joins Racelogic as Operations Director. |
2008 |
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VBOX 3i released: Racelogic’s flagship GPS data logger. A fast processor meant that VBOX 3i can be combined with a Racelogic IMU (inertial measurement unit) for better measurements even when GPS signals are obstructed. |
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2008 |
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80th Country sold to |
2008 |
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Video VBOX released. Combines 3 products in one: GPS data logger; multi camera video recorder, and graphic overlay device. It means that GPS data (as well as data from external sensors such as CAN) can be overlaid over video from bullet cameras. Video VBOX found popularity in the motorsports market as well as automotive testing. Drivers can use the integrated video and GPS to easily see how they can improve their laptimes without having to consult an engineer. |
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2009 |
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Video VBOX Lite launched. As a more affordable version of Video VBOX, yet with much of the same functionality, this release made the technology available to track day drivers and racing enthusiasts as well as motorsport professionals. |
2009 |
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LabSat launched. With the ability to record, replay, and simulate GPS data, it was originally designed to calibrate VBOX units. However, potential was seen to offer this to manufacturers of GPS devices, and it is finding popularity in markets as diverse as navigation systems, mobile phone development, and defence. Garmin, Nokia, and Samsung make up part of the growing list of customers for LabSat |
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2009 |
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First VBOX ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) testing package sold, using VBOX 3i, IMU, Video VBOX, and BaseStation to provide 2cm positional accuracy. |
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2010 |
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Circuit Tools Software released after four years in development. It is designed to be easy to use and enable anyone from novice track day drivers to professional racers to easily analyse and improve on their laptimes, with integrated video and GPS data. What’s more, it’s free for Racelogic customers. |
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2010 |
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10,000th PerformanceBox sold |
2010 |
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50,000th CANTran system sold. CANTran is used to pick up vehicle speed and RPM from vehicle CAN data. The systems are commonly used in taxi meters and navigation systems. |
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2010 |
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Video VBOX Pro released, which replaced the original Video VBOX and offered a more streamlined case and logging for four bullet cameras. The first order went to the Australian GT series who use one in each of their 25 race cars to monitor incidents as well as promoting closer racing through driver analysis. |
2010 |
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40th staff member taken on! Racelogic employ staff members from 5 countries: UK, Germany, USA, Japan, and Australia. |
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2020 |
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In the next few years Racelogic will continue to expand into another 8000 square feet of office space and 60 staff. With a large R&D department, Racelogic will continue to innovate. The immediate future is to increase Racelogic’s GPS and video capabilities for the vehicle testing and motorsport industries, with further expansion into the marine, aviation, and navigation device industries too. |
