Case Study

GridLab

A comprehensive sim racing analytics platform built for teams and drivers to track performance, analyse telemetry, and improve lap times.

Client

Internal Project

Duration

6+ Months

Role

Full Stack

Status

Live

Visit GridLab

The Challenge

Sim racing teams needed a centralised platform to track driver performance across multiple games. Existing solutions were either too expensive, too complex, or lacked the specific features teams needed.

The challenge was to build a platform that could:

Parse delta files from Coach Dave Academy and extract meaningful performance data
Track multiple drivers across different cars and tracks with easy comparison tools
Provide team management features with role-based access control
Work across devices with a responsive, modern interface
Scale efficiently without expensive cloud infrastructure

What We Built

GridLab is a full-featured analytics platform that transforms raw telemetry data into actionable insights for sim racing teams.

Delta Analysis

Parse Coach Dave Delta files to extract sector times, lap data, and performance metrics for every session.

Team Management

Create teams, invite drivers, assign roles, and manage permissions with a full admin dashboard.

Driver Comparison

Compare lap times across drivers, identify sector weaknesses, and track improvement over time.

Car Database

500+ GT7 cars with images, specs, and race class categorisation for easy filtering and selection.

Track Library

Complete track database with SVG layouts, sector maps, and historical lap records.

Responsive Design

Full functionality on mobile, tablet, and desktop with touch-optimised interactions.

Technical Approach

GridLab was built with a focus on simplicity, performance, and maintainability. Rather than over-engineering with a complex stack, we chose technologies that allowed rapid development while remaining easy to deploy and scale.

PHP 8.1 SQLite Vanilla JavaScript CSS3 Chart.js Three.js Nginx Cloudflare

Why SQLite? For a platform with team-sized user bases (not millions of concurrent users), SQLite provides exceptional performance without the overhead of a separate database server. Each team gets their own database file, making backups, migrations, and scaling straightforward.

Why no framework? Modern vanilla JavaScript is powerful enough for our needs. By avoiding heavy frameworks, we achieved faster load times, smaller bundle sizes, and a codebase that any PHP developer can understand immediately.

Development Journey

Phase 1 - Foundation

Core Platform

User authentication, team creation, basic dashboard structure, and delta file parsing.

Phase 2 - Data Layer

Analytics Engine

Lap time storage, sector analysis, driver comparison tools, and historical tracking.

Phase 3 - Content

Car & Track Database

500+ car entries with images, full track library with SVG maps, and search/filter functionality.

Phase 4 - Polish

User Experience

Responsive redesign, theme customisation, performance optimisation, and admin dashboard.

Ongoing

Continuous Improvement

New features based on user feedback, bug fixes, and preparation for public launch.

Results & Impact

500+

Cars in Database

50+

Tracks Mapped

100%

Mobile Ready

<1s

Page Load Time

GridLab has transformed how our sim racing teams approach performance analysis. Drivers can now easily see where they're losing time, compare their performance to teammates, and track their improvement over sessions.

The platform has been designed with scalability in mind, ready to onboard more teams as we move towards a public beta launch.