I’ve hesitated to write this story for a long time because I didn’t want anyone to think that I was just a pitchman. I hate feeling like I’m ever selling anything! Well, that’s not totally accurate, as I do like to convince drivers and sell them on how to perform better. And sometimes I like to use “tools” to do that. That’s where this story begins.
Back in 2018, I received an email from someone whose professional title was “Product Architect Leader, Area 51, Garmin International”. This fellow, Adam Spence, wanted to talk with me about a new product Garmin was considering to develop in the motorsport space. Of course, he had me at “Area 51”! [Note: Since that time I’ve become a paid ambassador for Garmin Catalyst. And, as this is my story, everything I share here is my own opinion.]
Soon after, I found myself in a room at Garmin’s headquarters with four engineers and a large whiteboard. I should mention, though, that two out of the four engineers were what you’d call hardcore trackrats and gearheads. Over many hours, I shared with them my thoughts on driver coaching, as well as the current state of data acquisition systems, and what I observed in terms of how drivers used them. Or didn’t use them.
At the top of my list of observations was that many, many drivers who owned data systems did not use them in ways that could really help them perform better and to become better drivers. The main reason was that these data tools were too complicated, and not user-friendly enough for a driver to use on their own at the track.
You should know, I’m a huge proponent of using technology to help improve one’s driving (I started using data systems back in the early 90s). I seem to spend half my life these days looking at data and video while coaching drivers. But I’ve always felt that these data systems were designed by engineers, for engineers, and we drivers had to adapt them to help us improve our driving. The Garmin Catalyst is designed by engineers and drivers, for drivers. It’s a driver’s tool. It’s like having a driver coach (like me), with you at all times – in the car, and between on-track sessions.
Over many years of doing chalktalks, seminars, and presentations for thousands of drivers, I would ask, “How many of you have a data system installed in your car?” I would see many nodding heads and hands go up. Then I’d ask, “How many of you use your data system on a regular basis?” Very few hands went up, and I can remember more than one occasion when not a single driver said they used theirs. Okay, at least not used it more than simply as a lap timer. In fact, it’s often joked about in the paddock that many data systems are used as expensive stopwatches and weight ballast!
Out of the discussions in our meeting came the focus for what Garmin was developing: something that drivers would actually use. That meant that it couldn’t rely on drivers having to download their data from the car to a laptop, figure out how to get the latest file to load up on a screen, and then have to stare at a series of squiggly lines to figure out what happened out on the track and, finally, how to use that to make them consistently faster.
If you’ve had the experience of having data, but not enough time to either use it, or even fully learn how to use it, you know what I’m talking about.
I left the meeting at Garmin thinking that we could soon see a data tool that would be developed by engineers and drivers, to be used by drivers. Cool!
During the meeting, I also gave the Garmin team my wish list for what a data tool designed for drivers would do. I thought it was a very ambitious, and possibly even unrealistic list.
When I finally saw and experienced what the Garmin team did with my wish list, I was reminded of the Henry Ford quote: “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they’d have said they wanted a faster horse.” My wish list asked for the fastest, most technically advanced, but user-friendly horse. But Garmin gave us a supercar! It does more than I’d asked for with my wish list.
At one point during the development of the Catalyst, I got a message from Adam asking me for a list of words and phrases that I would most often use when either coaching a driver from outside the car, or riding in the passenger seat and giving instruction. I had to ask why, and was then told that the Catalyst was going to talk to the driver while they were driving! This was one example of them giving me more than what I’d even wished for.
One thing I believe has helped me be successful as an instructor and coach is providing the right kind of corrective and confirming feedback, at just the right time, and this is something the team baked into the Catalyst. We, as drivers, respond to feedback not unlike a dog does. When we do something right, and are rewarded with a form of treat, we are more likely to repeat it; when it’s communicated to us exactly what to do, we’re also more likely to do that (well, some dogs… my dog may be an exception!). The Catalyst provides the right instructions at the right time, and then provides some form of corrective or confirming feedback afterwards. When I experienced for myself how the Catalyst does this, I was kinda blown away.
As author James Clear says, "When feedback is immediate, clear, and concrete, people learn quickly. When feedback is delayed, abstract, and opaque, people rarely learn." I think that’s the problem with most data systems – you don’t get the feedback until you’re back in the paddock, where you can’t do much about it (then you have to pull out the laptop, and interpret a bunch of squiggly lines on a screen). With the Garmin Catalyst, feedback is immediate, in real-time, when you can do something about it.
Prior to its launch, I spent two full days driving at Heartland Park providing feedback on the usability of the Catalyst. The focus was on things like the timing of audio cues, and even the color and location of buttons on the screen. For me, it was a blast! Two days of having a car and track to myself, and all I had to do was drive at the limit and give feedback on how the Catalyst worked for me? Priceless!
After all that track time, to say that I was comfortable driving at the limit was an understatement. Towards the very end of the second day, I set out with one objective: to listen to the Catalyst – to have it coach me on what to do to be an even better driver. It told me to focus on three things – what it calls my Opportunities – and I did. After just half a dozen laps, I had knocked 0.9 seconds off my very best lap time! I was shocked. I thought I was already driving the car at its limit, and yet the Catalyst found almost a second for me. I have to admit that when I got out of the car, my first thought was, “Well, that’s it. I’m out of a job as a driver coach!”
Another thing on my wish list that they delivered was what’s called the Optimal lap video. But the way they did it, and what it does, is beyond what I had expected. I have no idea how they make it happen, but it’s very cool. The Catalyst breaks the track up into segments or sectors, and keeps track of the best you do in each one. Then, it stitches together the video from each best segment into what seems like a seamless video of your perfect or optimum lap. The only way you can really tell that it’s pulled the best segments from various laps is when you see the sky or a car in the distance change. The best part, though, is that it’s smart enough to know that if you blow through the end of one segment to be fast in it, it won’t use it because it knows the next segment would be compromised, and you couldn’t realistically put both segments back-to-back!
And the cool thing is that you’ve actually done this Optimal lap – you just have to do put the lap together more often. You’ve proven that you can do the fast segments.
As you probably know, my sweet spot in coaching drivers is the mental game. A big part of the mental game is visualizing what to do to go faster, consistently. Well, the Optimal lap video shows it to you. You can watch it a few times and commit it to memory – your mental programming – making it much easier to go out and do that on track next session. This is the most powerful part of the Catalyst, in my opinion.
The more I’ve used the Catalyst over the past couple of years, mostly as my “assistant coach” (I created a short video on using the Catalyst as an assistant – click here to watch it), the more I’ve found other simple but subtle ways to use it. For example, I love to look at the “Top 3 Var” and “Top 5 Var” numbers, which shows the variance between your three and five best laps. To me, it’s the best way of indicating consistency, but maybe even more importantly, how much effort you’re having to put into your driving. If there’s a lack of consistency, it may be that you’re really thrashing to put in a fast lap – and maybe even overdriving. So, when I’m at the track and a driver asks me to review their data from a session on their Catalyst, those are two of the key metrics I look at.
Of course, the metric that all drivers use to indicate improvement is lap time, right? After all, isn’t that why we’re here, to drive faster? And yet, I’m sure you’ve experienced a time when your lap times were slower, but you knew you were driving better. Track conditions (including traffic) and tires make a difference! That’s why the Top 3 or 5 Var number is important, as well as the three Opportunities the Catalyst has found for you. First, you’ll know whether you should prioritize working on being more consistent, or look for more outright speed (which the Opportunities tab is going to help you with).
Back to my story… Just prior to the public launch of the Catalyst, an unmarked box arrived at my home. It was a pre-production model, and I was excited to see what should have been the final product, and test it out. I opened the box, only to find… no instructions. I called Adam to see whether it had been left out, and was told, “If you need instructions for how to set it up and begin using it, we’ve failed.” I quickly learned that they had not failed. It was simple.
It seems like the best new products solve a real problem, and disrupt an industry. And, it’s like the Garmin Catalyst has created a new category within what might be considered the motorsport data/telemetry/video world. They define it as a “driving performance optimizer.” To me, it’s like what snowboarding was to skiing. Sure, both sports involved sliding down a snow-covered mountain, but they’re different. And yes, the Garmin Catalyst uses data, but its focus is on helping you be a better driver and really optimize your time on the track, and your driving performance.
I know there are some who think that we have too much technology in our sport, but I’d rather embrace it. To me, it’s cool that we live in a time when more and more tools are available to help us be even better drivers, no matter who develops them.
When I go to the track these days, it’s super-rewarding and fun to see how many drivers are using a Catalyst. I’m sure anyone who has created something and then seen the public using it must feel like this. It’s a bit like Will Ferrell’s character in Elf jumping up and down, screaming, “Santa! I know him!” Even though I played a minor role in the creation of the Catalyst, and it’s really what came out of the Area 51 team, sometimes I actually feel like I know the little person inside the Catalyst!
In fact, let me finish this piece by telling you about a conversation I had a while ago with my daughter. I can’t even remember how we got onto the subject, but somehow, I mentioned that I’d helped Garmin with the development of a product. After answering her questions about how I got involved, in the process of explaining what the Catalyst does, I happened to say that a few people have referred to it as “Ross in a Box.” Well, my daughter fell out of her chair laughing at this! And we’ve had more than a few giggles together about that ever since.
Maybe this is why I sometimes feel like I know the little person inside the Catalyst.
If you have a Catalyst, I hope you’ve downloaded the “5-15-1 Process” document from my website. It’s a brief explanation I wrote as to how I recommend you begin using it. The idea behind it is if you have just 5 minutes to review your last session on track, here’s what I suggest you do; if you have 15 minutes, then do these things; and if you have an hour or more, then dig further into what the Catalyst tells you. To download it for free, click here.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention here that Garmin has a sale going on right now (for a limited time), where U.S. residents get $200US off the regular price of $999.99US, and Canadian residents get $280CDN off their regular price of $1,349.99CDN. Use the following links:
U.S. shopping link to save $200USD: https://tinyurl.com/yhzm97uf
Canada shopping link to save $280CDN: https://tinyurl.com/263xxza6
Maybe you want to play Santa for someone, or hint to someone they should be Santa to you?!
#garminpro
I absolutely love my “Ross in a box”. Any chance we could actually get your voice for the coaching prompts? Catalyst “Cate” is fine, but hearing your voice coaching me along would be phenomenal. Cheers!
Really nice article to have some insight to this development. However, as an engineer one other question that intrigues me the most is how Adam and the other guys you met pitched or got assigned to developing this project. Garmin undoubtedly does some very cool products, but I would think that the idea of this had to come from track rats rather than someone in management. Whomever had the idea to develop it and convinced their management to invest in it must be a great story in itself. We owe 'em a big thanks!