GPS timing
Modern timing via a GPS box or transponder in the car: it records position and time continuously and allows measuring points with no visible installation on the road.
With GPS timing a small box or transponder is carried in the car, recording position and time continuously. When the car passes a previously defined measuring point, the system records the transit time automatically – with no light barrier or pressure tube on the road.
For regularity rallies this is a major advantage: measuring points can be placed anywhere and invisibly, so crews must drive evenly along the whole route and not just at recognisable installations. Scoring also becomes easier, as the data is already digital. Major international events increasingly use this method.
Critics note that the technology sits oddly with the historic character of the sport and that accuracy depends on satellite coverage – in tunnels, gorges or dense forest it can suffer. Classic timing by light barrier, pneumatic tube or pressostato therefore remains widespread, and in the Sanduhrklasse GPS-based aids are forbidden to crews in any case.
Glossary from A to Z
Related terms
Light barrier
Photoelectric timing device that triggers the exact time as the vehicle passes – standard for timing special stages.
Odometer
A vehicle's built-in odometer and the simplest form of distance recorder. Usually too imprecise for rally navigation – the more accurate tripmeter is used for that.
Elektronik-Klasse
German name for the scoring class, mainly in pure regularity rallies, that allows all kinds of odometers and clocks in the car – including digital or GPS-based aids. The counterpart to the Sanduhrklasse.