Went Karting yesterday
07-01-2007, 11:26 AM
#1
Team Owner
Thread Starter
Went Karting yesterday
We went to MRP yesterday in Indiana.
First a word about the track. Great track and great equipment. For rental stuff we were all very impressed with the quality and condition of the karts. We saw them working on them all the time and obviously are on a decent schedule in regards to being maintained.
After my few laps I was less then impressed with the whole experience. We started off in 9hp Rock karts. Hard tires and turning was not something they liked to do.
Then we got in the 14hp 100cc Yamaha's. Lots of grip but most of us were pretty jaded by the other karts.
I sucked pretty bad my first sets of runs. I won't talk times but my overall improvement was 26 seconds by the last session
I had a hard time getting used to the brakes and looped the kart quite a few times getting settled with them.
It took me until like the 4th session to have an incident free session. It took a lot of getting used to.
There seemed to be a dead spot in the grip. I'd turn in, its grip, then it would feel like you were at the edge but you could turn in hard and it would corner harder with no real loss in speed.
Took me a long time to get used to it and once I did I was pretty close to everyone else in lap times. I could see that I could mirror those faster times, the karts was more than capable, but I did not get used to some of the turn in points.
Coming off the straight your doing about 55-60mph. You can turn in WOT and make it but its a pretty small turn in area. Turn in too soon and you hit one helluva bit curb, I hit it a few times and it bounces you around quite a bit.
After getting used to it I enjoyed it quite a bit but I need to understand more of the dynamics of the kart. One hair pin I had a tough time with and finally got right. Went in very late, turned in and went flying through it.
One corner down I went through that same corner and have no idea what happened. Rode up onto the extension as I had before and all I knew is a second later I was spinning in the dirt and have no idea why.
We'll do it again and after reviewing the day I know what I need to do faster. Most of us had the same comments, we all could have driven to the same times, it was just a matter of the ***** to do it
First a word about the track. Great track and great equipment. For rental stuff we were all very impressed with the quality and condition of the karts. We saw them working on them all the time and obviously are on a decent schedule in regards to being maintained.
After my few laps I was less then impressed with the whole experience. We started off in 9hp Rock karts. Hard tires and turning was not something they liked to do.
Then we got in the 14hp 100cc Yamaha's. Lots of grip but most of us were pretty jaded by the other karts.
I sucked pretty bad my first sets of runs. I won't talk times but my overall improvement was 26 seconds by the last session
I had a hard time getting used to the brakes and looped the kart quite a few times getting settled with them.
It took me until like the 4th session to have an incident free session. It took a lot of getting used to.
There seemed to be a dead spot in the grip. I'd turn in, its grip, then it would feel like you were at the edge but you could turn in hard and it would corner harder with no real loss in speed.
Took me a long time to get used to it and once I did I was pretty close to everyone else in lap times. I could see that I could mirror those faster times, the karts was more than capable, but I did not get used to some of the turn in points.
Coming off the straight your doing about 55-60mph. You can turn in WOT and make it but its a pretty small turn in area. Turn in too soon and you hit one helluva bit curb, I hit it a few times and it bounces you around quite a bit.
After getting used to it I enjoyed it quite a bit but I need to understand more of the dynamics of the kart. One hair pin I had a tough time with and finally got right. Went in very late, turned in and went flying through it.
One corner down
I went through that same corner and have no idea what happened. Rode up onto the extension as I had before and all I knew is a second later I was spinning in the dirt and have no idea why.We'll do it again and after reviewing the day I know what I need to do faster. Most of us had the same comments, we all could have driven to the same times, it was just a matter of the ***** to do it
07-03-2007, 09:38 PM
#2
Former Vendor
It sounds like you had a great time. I still have my kart out in the shed!!!
One reason for your unexplained lose of grip is bottoming out. If you hit something that throws a loaded tire in the air, you will be having a wild ride. This is true in cars too, chassis or if you bottom out a shock with a bad suspension setup.
Randy
One reason for your unexplained lose of grip is bottoming out. If you hit something that throws a loaded tire in the air, you will be having a wild ride. This is true in cars too, chassis or if you bottom out a shock with a bad suspension setup.
Randy