58 replies to this topic

[100cc]

Quote

Originally posted by Viktor

Power: 8 hk
Topspeed: 75 km/h

since you're in Sweden, sounds like it might be a 85cc Raket, manufactured by radne... if not probably another one of radne's engines. Should be good

I hope its not one of those four stroke rental karts though, they just don't compare.

[mclarenmerc]

Does anyone know of a gokart track in the Phoenix Metro area?
TIA

[karlth]

A few very good tips from Alex Wurz:

Indoor karting

Indoor kart-tracks have their own rules. They are teeming with bends that positively force drift onto you. The point is to avoid drifting at the decisive sections. A kart coming out of a bend drifting covers more meters than a stable one, you can see that with the naked eye. At around 36 kilometers per hour you travel about 10 meters per second. A kart drifting while cornering travels three meters more, which makes a whole three tenths of a second. Multiplied by five bends that already makes one and a half seconds!

With lifting or braking at the entry to the bend, you lose a hundredth or tenth of a second, coming out crosswise you lose whole seconds. If you are at an angle to the course at the exit of a bend, then you were too fast at the entrance. Going in slower, and in return accelerating a stable kart as quickly as possible out again, leads to better results. Why stable? Due to the fixed axle typical on karts, full power is only transmitted to the track when the kart is driving straight, that is with zero steering angle.

The point of lowest steering angle is ideally the vertex of the exponentially extended part of the curve, as this is the earliest possible point. Anyone who drifts over the vertex has already lost, since they are giving away valuable meters.

After explaining how you should come out of the bends, the question of braking still remains. When you have to brake too hard to negotiate a bend without drifting, then you have to adjust the angle. Adjusting the angle means deliberately allowing the kart to break out of the line. A short swing of the steering wheel is usually enough to achieve this, possibly you have to help with the brakes by locking the wheels.

The result is that the kart is already facing the right direction at the beginning of the bend. You skid closer up to the vertex and take the rest of the bend straight. The only important thing is that the drift is finished at the vertex and both rear wheels have grip for the power transfer.

Long, drawn out, fast bends, where the kart threatens to break out of the line, can be neutralized by careful tapping of the brakes. Braking stabilizes the rear axle, which means you can stay on the gas throughout, as much as the road holding of the kart allows.

It cannot be stated enough how suitable indoor driving is for learning driving technique. As nothing about it is " overpowered" , the view of the essentials remains wonderfully clear: getting the feeling.

[Janzen]

I am no expert, and hardly can give advice, but wanted to share my last outdoor karting experience.
The equipment was close to the ones mentioned above. But plenty for an amateur like me. My friend drives at a the track pretty often as his son is racing a little.
So we went to the track and got myself a car and headed out on the track, spent some time to get used to the car and breaking points, I have been at the track a couple of times before. My friends son is like 13 yrs old and keeps same pace as us bigger guys. Ofcourse I usually blame everything on my weight since I am about 95kg.
Well anyway after a little driving we started to comptet with my friend , and though he can lap about 1 sec faster per lap than me, it is really fun with karts because you can have nice battles anyway.
Ofcourse it started to rain, and this was new for me, I first noticed a drop or two on my vizor but did not really understand the gravity of it, until came to fast corner on the circuit huge slide just catching it, pulse is racing now, slow down a lot and take it easier the car is really twitchy on braking and understeers oversteers and what ever, but I have never had this much fun, And it makes you find new ways to drive because just turning the wheel does not really turn the kart. Anyway a few laps and it is raining too much now time for a pit stop.(BTW my friend did about 10 sec slower lap time with slicks and wet track)
It is a short shower and soon the sun is shining again, We decide with my friend to head out and dry the track some more, Now here comes actually the reason why I thought I had to share this with you. Almost immediately I thought the car was very hard to turn into the corners and had problems slowing down but I just thought that it was because of the wet track, I modified my driving style and started to slide into the corners with using my weight especially at the hard braking corners, the track dried more and was allready almost dry in parts and we were again having some battles with my friend, and after awhile decide to call it a day. I started to come into the pits and just before the pit opening I apply the brakes and almost nothing happens " **** no brakes I push it anyway as hard as I can goes off track to shed some speed and finally stops.

Lessons learned, I was to inexperienced to notice the brakes were gone on the damp track, wont happen again. But also learned that by engine braking and adapting driving style I did not loose very much on the damp track : we were actually doing battle with my friend. Sorry for the long post

[Antigua]

Quote

OT - Going karting, any tips?

Yes, keep away from a track where Jos Wallstappen possibly attend. He might hit you, once the race is finish because of your 5 laps advance. Still wondering why Schumimi loves him?


Willy Frère.

[MrSlow]

karlth (the first post)

Lot of great tips here, I think I will rent a kart tomorrow and try some of them.

"My" tip has already been posted, but if I post it anyway Tim will realize the importance of it

Relax! Specially the hands, on each straight, try to remember to move your fingers a bit. Take a hand off the wheel and move when possible.
And use gloves.

You will be extremely tensed, specially when you start to get up to speed, and you will be holding the wheel with all your strenght, pushing the throttle with all your strength and so on and after 10 minutes your thumb-side of your hands will cramp.

Furthermore, they will propably tell you that you should not use the left and the right pedal at the same time. You should ignore that

Do a gentle braketest in a straight line, sometimes the brakes are extremely effecient, sometimes they are hardly noticable. On the track I use to visit they are very good, each time someone spins going into the first corner.... It is generally a good idea to try to avoid the brakes on the first lap on cold tyres.

[smithy]

Can someone explain the physics of this to me...?

At my last karting experience, I spun wildy after hitting a puddle with my inside front wheel right on the apex.

I would have expected:
a) nothing to happen, as the inside wheel would have been lightly loaded and not contributing too much grip, or
b) if the inside front WAS providing grip, to understeer out of the turn as that particular wheel lost grip.

As it was, I spun toward the inside - I was turning right and I spun right. This implies I lost grip on the outside which didn't touch the puddle.



BTW, we never heard back from Tim...... do you think he's still out there "going the distance"?

[MrSlow]

Well, could be many things... You probably wen't too fast

A possible explanation, if the puddle was deep:

The extra resistance on the corner of the car made it a bit upset. Also, when the wheel hits the puddle it will, again from the extra resistance, want to turn in more. Unless you compensate for that with the steering wheel (not really compensate, just make sure it does not move to much because of the force) the car might consider itself having enough reasons to spin.

[smithy]

Hey!!!! I never suggested I was fast!!! I put it down to an inferior power to weight ratio!


Now that you've started me thinking, a couple of things may have happened:

* the puddle was deep enough to cause enough resistance to upset the kart as you suggest (I got splash back up to my face), or
* there may have enough resistance to slightly pull the wheel even further to the right, thus contributing to the spin to the right, or
* there was enough deceleration to shift my weight forward enough to unsettle the rear thus causing it to come around on me, or
* in the deceleration caused by the resistance my foot may have tapped the brake, or

a combination of all of the above.


Regardless - a valuable lesson. Stay away from the wet bits!