Driving Gently

[lovef1]

Hello there peeps,

I had my first endurance race yesterday. I have noticed a couple of things, although i've lost weight, my fitness is still pretty crap. Secondly, I don't know how to be gentle with a kart. The steering is pretty heavy, so I tend to jerk it a bit, rather than a progressive turn. How can i b more "gentle" with the kart?

[GT-Driver]

I do karting sometimes aside from touring car racing. The steering is hard but on the other hand it is very nimble, precise and sensative. Most of the time to just initiate a turn yu dont need more than a muscle tension flex on your thumb and then turn in progresivly. Some turns only on a very rare cases might need the sort of flicking you are taking about,

such situation might be like when you need to enter a corner with a slight drift for a gained advantage for the following corner(s).

smoother + more straight tires__ enables more throttle application = Faster.

Be as smooth as possible as rough as just necissary.

hope that helps,

[Peat]

Remind me lovef1, what kart & tyre is this?

[lovef1]

@Peat, i'm driving a 100 cc kart, similar to the club 100's, and we're using mojo tires. i find it hard to be gentle. I'll try to paint a picture for you guys, heading into a corner under braking, the brake is so "firm" that whenever i step on it, it snaps loose. This results in my kart being out of shape on the entry and i have to fight it all the way through the corner, making me lose loads of time. Thing is the karts are all equal, so it must be my driving. Any suggestions, my next race is in 2 months time, anything i should be working on?

[FAS33]

Originally Posted by lovef1

Hello there peeps,

I had my first endurance race yesterday. I have noticed a couple of things, although i've lost weight, my fitness is still pretty crap. Secondly, I don't know how to be gentle with a kart. The steering is pretty heavy, so I tend to jerk it a bit, rather than a progressive turn. How can i b more "gentle" with the kart?

gentle driving in a Kart??, never heard of such a thing. hard, fast(no braking) and drifting the corners should always be the go! it's the fastest way to take a corner.

[Peat]

I've had a thing about this and i agree with FAS33. A kart endurance is just a long sprint, you drive as fast as you can or 9/10ths at least for a safety margin.

It sounds like you still have fundamental issues in controlling the kart to get consistent laptimes.

Practice, practice, practice. Is there anyone in your series/club that offers tuition? Sounds like you need direction, something people the other side of a computer screen can rarely do.

[ghinzani]

I find that I tend to overdrive when I try to hard. Its a matter of physically restraining yourself, dont chuck it into the corner, brake earlier if needs be, be smoother on the throttle and steering, and the times come. It sounds wierd, and chucking it around it my favourite thing to do but it isnt the quickest way sadly.

[jjordan]

Sounds like it would be darn nere impossible to be "smooth and precise" when the rear end wants to lead into the corner. Get your brake sorted out so you can drag it a little to settle the kart on entry without it trying to pitch you. That and as they said practise, practise, and again.

[lovef1]

if i could, i'd practice every day of the week, unfortunately i'm low on the dough... i read how some drivers practice "in their head".. have u guys ever tried this... btw thank you so much for the feedbacks...

[ghinzani]

Never in my head, but there are kart racing games I believe. Used to be one called Super 1 I think that had UK tracks. I think Irace or something has kart stuff too.

[Scooter185]

simraceway has a Kart that you can get for $0.75 abouts (maybe even less) using a PC sim is probably the best way to get in some time from the comfort of your own home.