All about PerfectPower

1) What PerfectPower is

2) What PerfectPower does

3) PerfectPower’s creator

4) PerfectPower Lab

1) What PerfectPower is

PerfectPower is the automotive reference on-board system in power and performance measurements!

It is basically a revolutionary smartphone application for measuring power and performance for automobiles which has quickly established itself as the reference smartphone application in the field by being at the same time the most reliable, the most complete, and the most autonomous…

But its results have so far surpassed the “standards” expected from measurements with a simple smartphone to reach the level of pro or semi-pro equipments that it has naturally become THE automotive reference on-board system in power and performance measurements, the one presenting the best price / results reliability / features variety / operational independence ratio, as you will discover below!

1) Exceptional and unprecedented results reliability for a smartphone application, comparable to that of professional equipments, since it measures acceleration, speed, and distance with an accuracy of +- 0.5%, and power and torque with an accuracy of +- 1%! For information, a friendly challenge of 10,000 euros & dollars was launched on this subject on May 1, 2024, which is still waiting to be taken up…

Note: Such accuracy is made possible by the accurate, permanent, and clever combination of the information of the accelerometer and the GPS of the phone, knowing how to take the best of both sensors while eliminating the specific disadvantages when used individually.

2) Unprecedented features variety not only for a smartphone application but also all equipments combined, since it allows to:

• Measure the standardized engine power (DIN, CEE, SAE, JIS, ISO)
• Measure the performance (accelerations, runs flying start, max speed, braking)
• Simulate the performance (accelerations, runs flying start, max speed, ideal max revs)
• Calculate gearbox ratios by rev calibration (as on chassis dynamometer)
• Measure freewheeling losses
• Measure lap times on track

Of course, as its name suggests, PerfectPower specialized in power measurements, which are the most interesting measurements of all in Automotive Physics!

3) Total operational independence, since it requires absolutely no connection to any external equipment (external GPS, car ECU, etc), which allows it to operate on 100% of the cars produced on the planet, and with only your smartphone as a measuring instrument! This does not prevent it from accepting communication via Bluetooth with certain high-performance external GPS in order to further optimize its results accuracy!

4) It only costs… 49 euros & dollars, when:

• a chassis dynamometer (professional power measurement tool) costs between 30,000 and 120,000 euros & dollars!
• a simple pass on such equipment is charged 50 to 120 euros & dollars (without guarantee of maximum reliability!)
• an optical reading system (professional performance measurement tool) costs around 15,000 euros & dollars!

Note: It is true that there are other power and performance measurement systems of equivalent price, such as the PerfExpert application (15 euros & dollars) that I co-created in 2010-2011 or the PowerDyn software (30 euros & dollars license), but they are far from being able to provide the exceptional level of accuracy demonstrated by PerfectPower, while being generally much less complete and not devoid of constraints.

2) What PerfectPower does

PerfectPower has the following nine features:

1) Power

• Engine power @ rev
• Engine torque @ rev
• Wheels power @ rev
• Max acceleration @ rev
• Max speed @ max rev
• Measurement time & distance
• Power / Rev & Torque / Rev curves

2) Accelerations (runs standing start)

• 20 m & 200 m & 400 m & 1000 m (metric) or 60 ft & 1/8 mile & 1/4 mile & 3300 ft (imperial) (with crossing speeds)
• 0 – 20 / 40 / … / 200 km/h (metric) or 0 – 20 / 40 / … / 200 mph (imperial)
• Max acceleration @ speed
• Max speed @ time
• Acceleration / Time & Speed / Time curves

3) Runs flying start

x – y km/h / mph on gear z (x, y, z chosen by you) ==>

• Time

4) Speed

Average speed over 3 s or instant speed ==>

• Actual max speed
• Speedometer calibration

5) Braking

x – 0 km/h / mph (x chosen by you) ==>

• Braking distance & time
• Average deceleration & speed

6) Rev calibration (as on chassis dynamometer)

x rpm on gear y for 3 s (x, y chosen by you) ==> Average speed over 3 s ==>

• Calculation of gear ratios

7) Losses measurement

Freewheeling deceleration at x km/h / mph (x chosen by you) (loss law of type a + bS^2) ==>

• Losses (force) @ speed
• Losses (power) @ speed

8) Performance Simulation

1) Accelerations (runs standing start)

• 20 m & 200 m & 400 m & 1000 m (metric) or 60 ft & 1/8 mile & 1/4 mile & 3300 ft (imperial) (with crossing speeds)
• 0 – 20 / 40 / … / 200 km/h (metric) or 0 – 20 / 40 / … / 200 mph (imperial)
• Max acceleration @ speed
• Max speed @ time

2) Runs flying start

x – y km/h / mph on gear z (x, y, z chosen by you) ==>

• Time
• Max acceleration @ speed

3) Max speed

• Max speed @ rev (+ gear engaged)

4) Ideal max revs

• Ideal max revs (with speed) to reach on each gear for the best performance

9) Lap Timer

• Lap times on track (30 laps or 1 h max)
• Instant & Total time
• Instant & Average speed
• Instant & Total distance
• Track selection or free choice (GPS coordinates to enter)

Note 1: PerfectPower allows you to select all the units of your choice for the different physical quantities measured or set:

• Acceleration: m/s2, g
• Speed: km/h, mph
• Distance: m, ft
• Power: ch, hp, kW
• Torque: m.kg, lb.ft, Nm
• Pressure: hPa, in Hg, PSI
• Temperature: °C, °F
• Weight: kg, lb
• Displacement: L, cm3

Typically, two systems of units are used in the world: the metric system (the world reference system, created by France in 1795 and renamed SI -International System of Units- in all languages ​​in 1960), and the imperial system (based on the old British Imperial System created by the United Kingdom in 1824 and which is mostly used by the USA and the United Kingdom).

The first leads to the use of the units m/s2, km/h, m, ch or kW, m.kg or Nm, hPa, °C, kg, L or cm3, while the second leads rather to the use of the units g, mph, ft, hp, lb.ft, in Hg or PSI, °F, lb, L or cm3, even if in both cases some of these units do not necessarily belong “literally” to the corresponding system (for example the g is a particular unit corresponding to the acceleration of gravity on Earth, and the L and the cm3 have nothing imperial and are in fact units derived from the SI), but it is rather common usages related to a country or culture.

But what is sure is that wherever you live on Earth, PerfectPower is bound to allow you to select exactly all the units you prefer to use!

Note 2: In the same way, PerfectPower also allows you to select the power correction standard of your choice, among the five currently used in the world:

• DIN 70020 (1013 hPa / 20 °C in metric system) (29.92 in Hg / 68 °F in imperial system)
• ECE (990 hPa dry air / 25 °C in metric system) (29.24 in Hg dry air / 77 °F in imperial system)
• SAE J1349 (977 hPa dry air / 29.4 °C in metric system) (28.85 in Hg dry air / 85 °F in imperial system)
• JIS D 1001 (1003 hPa dry air / 20 °C in metric system) (29.62 in Hg dry air / 68 °F in imperial system)
• ISO 1585 (990 hPa dry air / 25 °C in metric system) (29.24 in Hg dry air / 77 °F in imperial system)

3) PerfectPower’s creator

PerfectPower has the particularity of having one and only creator, myself, which means that I am in charge of absolutely everything in this project: the development on the two sales platforms (Google Play -Androïd- and App Store -iOS-), the tests on road, the management of the website, and of course the after-sales service.

This offers definite advantages for both the developer (totally independent and homogeneous project management by definition) and the user (a single interlocutor necessarily having the answers to any questions they may have), with only one drawback: the project’s development speed is limited by definition!

However, a single glance at PerfectPower’s history will convince you that not only is this disadvantage very relative, but that, on the contrary, PerfectPower ultimately “advances” much faster than many group projects, and this is no coincidence given my nature, which I will briefly discuss in this chapter.

What can I say about myself in a few words? My name is David, I am French even if since November 2021 I live 50% of the time in the USA (in New York) and the other 50% in France (in the 28), and I am a passionate and solitary engineer working for my own account since 2005 in the optimization of the mapping of sports cars (competition or road) and since 2012 in the creation of reference tools in the field of automotive power and performance measurements.

In the past I worked for a few years in companies, for example as a Calculation Engineer at Citroën Sport where I worked on the Xsara Kit Car (1998 French rally champion and “mother” of the Xsara WRC three times world rally champion afterwards), as a test bench Developer at Air France Industries to test and improve the ECUs of certain Airbus (A320, A330, A340) and Boeing (777), or as a design Engineer in the banking sector, but my solitary nature always had the last word and I left one by one all these jobs where I always ended up no longer supporting the bad projects management policies (in my opinion) and/or the constraints and absurdities of teamwork where I had the feeling of wasting time more than gaining it, and I am now happier than ever to work alone (or in an extremely small team on certain specific activities but in my own way and with people who look like me), where I fully respect my nature and can work with an optimal efficiency!

The PerfectPower Lab that I discuss in the next chapter is a perfect example of the only way of working with other people that I accept.

To end my presentation, here are five key points:

• I am a passionate about Physics and especially Automotive Physics
• I have a physics training (two Master’s degrees in Physics, one in “Aerodynamic, Combustion, and Thermic” and the other in “Mechanical Modeling”), and I have been practicing computing as a hobby since the age of 9 (for example, I have self-trained in smartphone programming on Android as on iOS)
• As said before, I belonged to the sporting automotive environment as a Calculation Engineer at Citroën Sport where I especially developed the crankshaft of the Xsara Kit Car and was responsible for performance measurements of the Saxo Kit Car, and I rubbed shoulders with many Automotive Physics specialists such as Jean-Pierre Roumegoux, Research Director at INRETS (French institute specialized in Automotive Research) and creator of the SIMULCO software (simulation of cars consumption)
• The field of power and performance measurements is a field that I perfectly master since I have been interesting in it since my youngest age (9 years old), and at the age of 12, I had already created performance (car & motorbike, train) and consumption (car & motorbike) simulation softwares for my own pleasure. I then refined the calculation precision of these softwares with the increase of my knowledge, until obtaining for my car performance simulator identical results to the one used internally by Citroën Sport when I worked there later, the “Lap” software
• I also have a perfect mastery of chassis dynamometers that I regularly used for 15 years (from 1997 to 2012), having especially enabled me to help dyno manufacturers and to train some new owners of these instruments. I therefore know all the qualities but also the obvious limits of chassis dynamometers, and I thus allow myself to affirm that my PerfectPower application is the most reliable and least expensive alternative -euphemism- to these professional equipments…

4) PerfectPower Lab

The PerfectPower Lab is a virtual workspace of my creation, made up of REAL enthusiasts of sports cars, power and performance measurements, and engine development, also having exceptional skills in at least one of these fields, and finally (and perhaps above all…) sharing a minimum of my ethics based on the permanent search for perfection in everything we do but also for precision in the figures we announce for the cars we measure and/or tune, without EVER giving in to the easy way…

This is for me the one and only way to create a high quality workspace, both exceptionally efficient and superbly homogeneous! Of course, as you’ve probably guessed, it’s necessarily extremely limited, but quantity has never been a value criterion for me, on the contrary, beyond a certain number of people, quality diminishes; that’s just how it is in this world!

Limited is even an understatement, since it is currently made up of six members: Vincent, Cedric, Yoann, Stephane, Edouard, and me, of course! You will find below a presentation of our respective roles in the PerfectPower Lab.

Of course, the PerfectPower Lab isn’t just virtual, it also has a very real workspace, which is where we (its members) work and exercise our passion, separately or together, but what’s notable is that it’s not unique, and each member has his/her own workspace or spaces! So, for example, I can work on PerfectPower in my New York apartment while Vincent works on a BMW M3 E46 in Paris and our works completely come together in spirit even if they are of a different nature and carried out in two places separated by almost 6000 km: you see, this is the PerfectPower spirit, and it is this combination of a common working spirit and an absolute flexibility of nature and place of work that makes the PerfectPower Lab a virtual workspace, before being real!

Presentation of the six members of the PerfectPower Lab

Vincent and I in his M3 chased by Edouard in his Civic EG K20 on the Lurcy-Levis track (France – 03)

A typical day at the PerfectPower Lab: Tuning a BMW M3 E46

Here is an illustration of a typical day at the PerfectPower Lab, with the tuning of a mythic car: a BMW M3 E46! This tuning has been carried out by Vincent and me with PerfectPower, that we systematically use in our work of adjusting the mapping of sports cars (competition or road) entrusted to us.

In this illustration, you can see the power and torque results obtained BEFORE (original -or stock- map) and AFTER (final map) our tuning work on this BMW M3 E46, whose manufacturer data are 343 ch @ 7900 rpm and 365 Nm @ 4900 rpm in metric system (mainly used worldwide), or 338 hp @ 7900 rpm and 269 lb.ft @ 4900 rpm in imperial system (mainly used in USA and UK). For the needs of this illustration, let’s use the metric system!

So for our part, we measured 338 ch @ 7700 rpm and 357 Nm @ 5100 rpm before work so in 100% original mechanical and electronic configuration, and 357 ch @ 7700 rpm and 369 Nm @ 4800 rpm after work so with the mapping optimized to the maximum!

However, to be completely honest, we mounted just after the measurements in 100% original mechanical and electronic configuration a large volume carbon air box (the one that originally equips the BMW M3 E46 CSL delivering 360 ch), which enabled us to develop more power and torque at mid and (especially) high revs, but we lost a little bit of it at low revs, below 2800 rpm exactly as you will see on the curves: unfortunately this is often the case with certain mechanical modifications, which do not necessarily allow to gain at all revs (especially on already extremely advanced engines from the factory!), which any true specialist knows perfectly well!

But in the end, the gain obtained on such an engine already tuned very finely from factory by BMW Motorsport is no less spectacular, with 19 ch & hp and 12 Nm gained!

Comparison BEFORE (original map) / AFTER (final map with CSL air box)

Results in metric system

Comparison BEFORE (original map) / AFTER (final map with CSL air box)

Results in imperial system

Of course, we used PerfectPower throughout this tuning work (and not only for the initial -original- and final maps!), performing measurements for each tuning & map tested and analyzing the results by comparison / superposition of curves, which allowed us to optimize the mapping of this BMW M3 E46: we call this engine development, and when you do it on a chassis dynamometer, it will cost you a few hundred euros & dollars for the rental of the dyno (unless of course you own the dyno yourself, but this will still cost you the trifle of 30,000 to 120,000 euros & dollars for a new dyno…), whereas with PerfectPower, this will cost you only… 49 euros & dollars, and of course you can use it as many times as you want!

As for the efficiency of the development achieved, if you configure and (above all) use correctly PerfectPower, then it will be completely identical between the two equipments!

To complete this illustration, I publish below the results of another BMW M3 E46 of similar mechanical configuration that we tuned the week before on one of the most efficient chassis dynamometer on the market (a Rotronics Autoscan FI 4×4 synchronized, 120,000 euros & dollars new). I point out that normally I no longer use chassis dynamometer since 2012 since I precisely developed PerfectPower to be able -among other things- to measure and tune myself all the cars I want on the road and with my own tools, but unfortunately for the cars that are not allowed to drive on the road like this BMW M3 E46 prepared for the track, I have no choice!

I let you compare the results between PerfectPower and the chassis dynamometer, you will see that they are identical at all levels: maximum power, maximum torque, maximum power and maximum torque revs, and curves shape! Know that this is perfectly usual with PerfectPower, as I let you check it in the PerfectPower Vs Dynos section (soon available), and I am absolutely convinced that PerfectPower will soon supplant chassis dynamometers in the heart of all true sports cars and power and performance measurements enthusiasts…

Results Rotronics Autoscan FI 4×4 synchronized