Karting Thread

[lbsf1]

Just bought a second hand Tonykart EVR 2010 rolling chassis, collecting it on Sunday and have a week to get the engine on and it race ready.

After months of saving I have finally found one at a good price. I can now replace my ancient 2005 Chassis.


I'll post some pics when i get it.


Anybody got any more karting stories, this thread was getting abit deserted.

 

[Blake]

Awesome! It will be interesting to see how much quicker you are in new gear. How old is your engine?

I'm currently trying to sell my kart and engine package at the moment so I can buy a new CRG and Rotax, but I have no idea when that might happen.

We went racing at Coffs Harbour a few weeks ago and I qualified 3rd which I was happy with but then in the first heat I made a mistake and touched the grass on the exit of a hairpin and the wet grass dragged me into and 6 inch deep pool of mud and water, which wasn't very fun. Got everything cleaned up for the second heat and then lost a chain on the last lap while running 4th.

So I started from the back in the pre-final, made my way up to 7th, and then fnished 6th in the final. Ah well.

 

[gogatrs]

What chassis is it, could you post some pics?

It would make it easier for me to give advice and documents if I knew what make, is it an otk chassis (tonykart, alonso kart and others), or birel or Gillard?

Also how much mechanical knowledge do you have?

Junior rotax is what I race, so if you need a question answered about it then just ask me and I'll try to answer it.

Good luck, karting is a great sport. I love every minute of it and I'm sure you will aswell. You learn so much about engineering in such a fun way.

The chassis is a CRG Blackstar.
It was Eddie Tinnini's back up chassis at New Jersey for one of the international races.
So it's had one practice session under it's belt, so we get it for a used price, even though it isn't really used.
I'm going down to NJMP the first weekend of May to get some practice in.

I've got a healthy amount of tuning and mechanical knowledge.
I can tune in GT5 and rFactor quite effectively without consulting any guides.
GT5 doesn't help much, but I know that stiffer axle=more grip.
Longer axle=more grip in the entrance shorter is more grip at the exit.
I know about caster, camber, and toe.
I know about the jacking effect and Ackerman.
All that good stuff.

 

[lbsf1]

Awesome! It will be interesting to see how much quicker you are in new gear. How old is your engine?

I'm currently trying to sell my kart and engine package at the moment so I can buy a new CRG and Rotax, but I have no idea when that might happen.

We went racing at Coffs Harbour a few weeks ago and I qualified 3rd which I was happy with but then in the first heat I made a mistake and touched the grass on the exit of a hairpin and the wet grass dragged me into and 6 inch deep pool of mud and water, which wasn't very fun. Got everything cleaned up for the second heat and then lost a chain on the last lap while running 4th.

So I started from the back in the pre-final, made my way up to 7th, and then fnished 6th in the final. Ah well.

My engine is an 04 barrel Rotax, I think it is a pretty good year from what people have told me, second only to the 2009 barrels.

I got hit off in my first heat last month, not happy. Finished ok in the next heat and then spent the final at the back of a pack of 6 karts. I finished 9th, annoyingly the pack of 6 karts including me were all going at the same pace and i couldn't get past, so I know if I wasn't hit off in the first heat I could have been at the front of the pack and got maybe a podium.

 

[lbsf1]

Here are some picies,

The guy was selling everything as his son moved to car racing. So he threw in lots of spares, (front, side, nose pods), some bearings. We also bought some tracking lazers and wet rims from hit.

 

[Blake]

So have you raced the new kart yet?

This weekend we had Round 3 of the NSW State Cup (North) which I've been competing in. I qualified 3rd, finished 2nd in the first heat and finished 3rd in the second heat. I started 3rd in the pre-final, finished 2nd, and then finished 2nd in the final.

It was a good weekend, I was pretty consistant and I felt like I made good starts and raced well. After my bad weekend in Coffs it makes my 3rd place in the standings much more secure and gives me a chance to possibly challenge for 2nd place.

Next week will be the biggest meeting I've been to so far, Round 3 of the Rotax Pro Tour. I'm really excited because I'll be racing with some of the best Rotax Heavy drivers in Australia. I don't really have any expectations, I just want to be consistant and keep out of trouble.

 

[lbsf1]

Well, yes. I raced at ckc this week, didn't go well.

Brake pads were new so had no braking in the first heat, started 3rd, dropped a couple of places then the race was red flaged due to a crash.

2nd heat, brake pad fell out going into chicane, went up the back of someone else cause I had no brakes, managed to finish the heat in dead last.

3rd heat, started 7th finished 6th. With a new personal best of 24.51. Race was once again red flagged.

Final, we were warned before the race about all the crashing that had gone on, and that if it carried on the race would be abbandoned.

I started 12th. 2 false started later I got up to 6th (everyone crashed) my chain then came off near the end of the lap (we hadden checked the grub screws on the axle since he got it, so it had moved over), 2 seconds later the red flag was out due to the crash at the first corner, however since my kart wasn't working at the time of the red flag I finished 2nd to last.


I feel however we have another 0.5 sec to gain on chassis setup, which would bring us up to the front again.



And good luck in round 3.

 

[VRracingfan]

I'd love to do karting but it's too expensive and if your parents aren't into motorsport they're not going to get you to each race.

 

[gogatrs]

Whoah!
What a day!
We had the engine installed last weekend.
Brought it out to a track today.
This track is ~4 hours away, so we loaded the kart into the back of my mom's Ford Exploder and set out at 5 in the morning!
However, my Mom's Exploder is quite literally about to explode.
To the point where we're not going to be able to make it home in it.
So we're gonna ditch the kart at the track and drive a rental back.

Hopefully we can get my mom a new car for mother's day.
Then we'll drive that up to the track next weekend when there is conveniently a club race.

So besides that, the day went VERY well.
No problems, I learned the track very quickly.
It was just a day to break in the engine and get used to the speed, so I wasn't racing anybody (yet).

 

[Hollidog]

Hey guys, cant believe I just found this thread...
Ive been racing karts for 10 years and at the moment I am in Rotax Max Lights, but looking to move into KZ2. Before Rotax Lights I was in Junior Max and KF3. Never really liked KF3 but was pretty good in the 'Tax, placing 6th at Nationals one year, in a class that now has a GP3 driver, a German F3 driver and several other guys who moved on to cars in my own country. What did I do? I went to university instead, but am seriously jealous of my mates who are now living the life.

 

[lbsf1]

Hey guys, cant believe I just found this thread...
Ive been racing karts for 10 years and at the moment I am in Rotax Max Lights, but looking to move into KZ2. Before Rotax Lights I was in Junior Max and KF3. Never really liked KF3 but was pretty good in the 'Tax, placing 6th at Nationals one year, in a class that now has a GP3 driver, a German F3 driver and several other guys who moved on to cars in my own country. What did I do? I went to university instead, but am seriously jealous of my mates who are now living the life.

Wow, cool. 6th in nationals in germany (I guess from where the other drivers went to) in a country which has a strong motorsport heratige, is pretty amazing. Well done to you.

How is your racing going in rotax light.

 

[Hollidog]

Wow, cool. 6th in nationals in germany (I guess from where the other drivers went to) in a country which has a strong motorsport heratige, is pretty amazing. Well done to you.

How is your racing going in rotax light.

Sorry, nationals in New Zealand. Not quite as up there but not bad I think.
Havent raced in rotax light much this year. Karting has really been on the down in the last 2 years here. Kartsport NZ (governing body here) have killed all the junior classes by changing the engines add forcing changes in other classes, all of which has made it much more expensive to compete. I've been mostly testing with Sodi kart and GP Kart with their shifter teams and trying to work out what chassis and engine combination to buy. But I need to sell my rotax first.

 

[JacoJa]

I'll probably be having my first ever wet race meeting on Sunday, and I've never driven in those kinds of conditions before (because in never EVER rains in Perth). I've practiced in damp conditions before with slick tyres, and I was completely rubbish. I couldn't get my head around how it all worked, as it handled very differently from what i'd expect from a car.

Would any of you pro's have any advice on setup/driving style for when wet tyres are used?

 

[lbsf1]

I'll probably be having my first ever wet race meeting on Sunday, and I've never driven in those kinds of conditions before (because in never EVER rains in Perth). I've practiced in damp conditions before with slick tyres, and I was completely rubbish. I couldn't get my head around how it all worked, as it handled very differently from what i'd expect from a car.

Would any of you pro's have any advice on setup/driving style for when wet tyres are used?

Widen the front and load on the castor.

Read this.
http://www.karting1.co.uk/wet-karting.htm

 

[Hollidog]

I'll probably be having my first ever wet race meeting on Sunday, and I've never driven in those kinds of conditions before (because in never EVER rains in Perth). I've practiced in damp conditions before with slick tyres, and I was completely rubbish. I couldn't get my head around how it all worked, as it handled very differently from what i'd expect from a car.

Would any of you pro's have any advice on setup/driving style for when wet tyres are used?

What class are you in? Dial in about 4 degrees negative and 4mm toe out. Increase your gear ratios. Make sure all your bars etc are tight. Rear wheels in as far as they can go. Also make some sort of cushion and put it in your seat to raise the centre of gravity. You can also raise the ride height if it's real bad.

Brake early, take wide lines, be very gentle on the throttle. When you turn in lean forward and put your weight over the outside tire when you get to the apex sit back and to load up the rear end. Aim for the parts of the track that are slightly duller than others as these will be drier. Stay out of big puddles for a number of reasons. You will get freaking wet, you will probably blow your engine and you'll be slower.

This will sound strange but get a potato and slice it half and wipe it on your visor. It'll help keep the rain off and when you go down the straight turn your head and the rain should go off.

When your not in the kart do your best to stay dry. Buy some wet weather gear and wear them over your suit. Put rubber gloves over your gloves.

Um yeah thats about all I can think of.

 

[gogatrs]

I'll probably be having my first ever wet race meeting on Sunday, and I've never driven in those kinds of conditions before (because in never EVER rains in Perth). I've practiced in damp conditions before with slick tyres, and I was completely rubbish. I couldn't get my head around how it all worked, as it handled very differently from what i'd expect from a car.

Would any of you pro's have any advice on setup/driving style for when wet tyres are used?

In karts, since you're not strapped in, you get thrown around a bit from side to side.
Use the tuning suggestions above to increase the jacking effect so you can get more weight on the outside tires.
Now, since you're not strapped in, when turning, your body naturally wants to go to the left when you turn right.
Instead of just letting this happen naturally, really throw your weight to the side to get as much weight on the outside tires as possible.
Just my 0.02.

 

[The Bman]

If only there were any proper kart tracks near Pittsburgh, PA...

 

[gogatrs]

My first club race is this weekend!
yippee!
I'll post how everything goes...

 

[lbsf1]

My first club race is this weekend!
yippee!
I'll post how everything goes...

So how did it go?

 

[gogatrs]

So how did it go?

I'll post more in an hour or so.
Doing homework now.
I have to say that it went awesome though.
More details to come.

 

[gogatrs]

OK, sorry if this counts as a double post, but I figured this thread could use a bump.

OK, I'm gonna remind everyone that prior to this weekend, I have been in this kart for three days. And these three days were not under racing conditions and were at different tracks.

So, Saturday we got to the track unloaded, put the kart together, fueled up, etc.
But by the time we did all this, we missed the first practice session.
Which means, I had to learn the track in 30 minutes total and be ready to race the next day.
I never even had time to do a track walk before the practice sessions!
So I went out, found the line, and began moving the braking points back farther and farther.
The last session, I went out after watching the seniors and masters go out and tweaked my line a little bit.
I ended up getting into a pretty good back and forth battle with another guy.
So that's the end of that day. Thirty minutes of track time to be ready for the race.

Turns out, it rained over night.
But the track was dried up after the minis and micros were done.
However, that meant we had to take off the rain tires we had just put on. Which we couldn't do in time and missed the practice.
I had time to walk the track afterwards the day before, so I tweaked my line a bit more during qualifying.
With 8 other guys, I qualified 3rd, even though I had to come in early due to balaclava issues. (Damn, now I feel like Alan McNish :facepalm
I was only 6 tenths off of first and 1 tenth off of 2nd. WooHoo!!!

So we started to grid up, when suddenly, it starts to pour. Absolute downpour.
The track was flooded within five minutes.
The officials decided to give us ten minutes to toss on rain tires, which we did.

OK, a quick break in the action for a flashback.
I've done indoor karting in New York where I was pretty good. They've completely soaked the track for me there twice. Thank god they don't put rain tires on those karts cuz that helped me A LOT.

So, we rolled out for the pre final.
I passed second place on the first turn down the inside. (woohoo, my first pass ever!)
Then, me being my ignorant self, spun on the first lap on a turn where I shouldn't have been going on the rumble strip.
I was able to pass all but one guy as I worked my way back up to second place.

At this point, I was pretty pumped. Especially when I learned that I was an entire second faster than the leader. (Holy 🤬!)

For the final, it was still raining.
But that wasn't a problem as at this point, I felt like I could beat Ayrton Senna.
So I gridded up in second on the outside for turn one.
Me an first pulled away from the rest of the pack before the first lap had ended.
But I was a complete idiot and spun on the exact same turn under the exact same conditions.
Dammit!
So I restarted the kart and began picking through the pack, one by one.
I passed second, and waved for him to follow me so we could catch the leader. But he was already way behind me somehow.
So I saw first place, I got closer, and closer, and closer. Keep in mind that I lost about 25 seconds when I spun.
On the last lap, I passed him on the first turn down the inside and held him off for the rest of the lap.

Not bad for having a big rookie X on the back of the kart huh?

I must say that the rain tires help A LOT.

I guess it's just turn the kart in, do your best to get it to rotate by using the brakes, and if that doesn't work, give it some gas.

Not a bad way for my parent's to spend their anniversary, right? lol

 

[lbsf1]

Wow, well done mate.

Driving in the rain is A pretty awesome skill to have.

 

[gogatrs]

Wow, well done mate.

Driving in the rain is A pretty awesome skill to have.

Thank you!
I picked up some pretty good rain driving skills indoors as I said.
I owe that (and pretty much the rest of my racing skills) to the chief instructor there. He is one of the best out there and he's a good guy.
But as I said, it's the same with driving in the dry except there's a helluva lot of entrance understeer and exit oversteer.
You just have to know when you can put your foot down.

To those of you struggling with practicing on slicks, the rain tires will help to get rid of some of the push-kick, but obviously won't make it like driving on a dry track. The main advantage of the rain tires is that they make the kart much more predictable...

 

[lbsf1]

Thank you!
I picked up some pretty good rain driving skills indoors as I said.
I owe that (and pretty much the rest of my racing skills) to the chief instructor there. He is one of the best out there and he's a good guy.
But as I said, it's the same with driving in the dry except there's a helluva lot of entrance understeer and exit oversteer.
You just have to know when you can put your foot down.

To those of you struggling with practicing on slicks, the rain tires will help to get rid of some of the push-kick, but obviously won't make it like driving on a dry track. The main advantage of the rain tires is that they make the kart much more predictable...

Yeah, Even on a slightly damp track it is incredibly slippery on slicks. You can effect how much you understeer lots by driving style, but trying to get the power down will always be difficult on a wet track, dry or wet tyres.

 

[gogatrs]

Do any of you guys kart online on GT5?

And also, I've decided that I really want to invest in an onboard camera.
Problem is, that I know nothing about cameras.
What do you guys use?
Is gopro's motor sports camera the only option?
Here's what I'm looking for:
HD, needs to be relatively high quality
I'd like to be able to mount it where ever. My helmet, radiator, etc.
I plan on using it in the rain.
I only need an hour or two of battery life/footage capacity.
It can't be used/preowned, so no eBay.
I'm 14 and my parents use "we're paying for your racing," as an excuse for not paying my weekly one dollar allowance, so it needs to be reasonably priced, as in under $300.

I've thought long and hard (hehe) about this, and decided that I'm either going to get a G27, or a camera.
I decided on the camera since I already have a DFGT.

Really wish I could've posted footage of my last race.

Another thing, we're looking for a laptop to keep the mychron data on. Any suggestions for that?

 

[magic_town]

Just thought I'd come in and say I would recommend racing karts to anyone! It's great, I've just started, only done one race so far. I've come from racing motocross, so I was already addicted to racing, and karts has ended up being better than I thought!

 

[lbsf1]

Do any of you guys kart online on GT5?

And also, I've decided that I really want to invest in an onboard camera.
Problem is, that I know nothing about cameras.
What do you guys use?
Is gopro's motor sports camera the only option?
Here's what I'm looking for:
HD, needs to be relatively high quality
I'd like to be able to mount it where ever. My helmet, radiator, etc.
I plan on using it in the rain.
I only need an hour or two of battery life/footage capacity.
It can't be used/preowned, so no eBay.
I'm 14 and my parents use "we're paying for your racing," as an excuse for not paying my weekly one dollar allowance, so it needs to be reasonably priced, as in under $300.

I've thought long and hard (hehe) about this, and decided that I'm either going to get a G27, or a camera.
I decided on the camera since I already have a DFGT.

Really wish I could've posted footage of my last race.

Another thing, we're looking for a laptop to keep the mychron data on. Any suggestions for that?

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_from...11&_nkw=md80+camera&_sacat=See-All-Categories


Thats the camera we use. I got one a couple of weeks ago and are gonna be using for the first time this weekend racing at my local track. I'll put it on youtube so you can see what the footage is like.

Its a cheap as chips camera, gets decent footage, however rain could be a problem (but I'm sure you could bodge something up to protect it). Worst case senario is it breaks and you spend another $10 on another one.

That way you can get both your wheel and camera.

Also just use a normal house laptop to take down the track for data, thats what we do, just keep it in a locked breifcase when not in use to deter theives.


Also magic, welcome to the world of karting, sounds like you are really enjoying it, look forward to hearing about your progress.

 

[lbsf1]

Here is a video of the final of my last race meeting on saturday.

 

[ckellyusa]

Hah, I had forgotten bout this thread. Thanks for reminding me.

Just think, a little over a year ago I was the second person to post in this thread and here I am racing now, woohoo!

I'll have to add images when I get home, doesn't seem to be working at the moment.

But yeah, racing has been sooo much fun. Anyone one else around here in Dallas, TX?



Oh, and I guess I'll add. I use the GoPro HD helmet cams and those work great too!

 

[gogatrs]

@ckelly, It's funny that you're username is that. I know someone with the exact same first initial/last name as you...
'cept, they live in Florida, not Texas.

I want a helmet cam soooooooo bad.
A little bit outside a fourteen year old's budget lol.
I'm trying to decide whether I should save my money for a helmet cam, or a G27...

Next club race is this weekend!

Something I want to ask you guys, would it be wise of me to hop in a regional race after only two weekends of club races?
One in the rain, one in the (well, I don't know yet cause it's this weekend )
I'm in the Northeast for the USRMC and I'm in the Junior class.
Is it too competitive? Or should I give it a shot?