Driving technique question

[lorcan458]

As a lifelong fan of F1, now in my 40s, I decided that now's the time to have a bit of fun with kart racing. Having to hold my breath in the corners (at a lowly 1.5 Gs) and having my neck, forearms and shoulders introduce me to muscles I had never met before has given me a much greater appreciation of what it must feel like to drive an F1 car.

I did a couple of hours of hot laps on both an outdoor and indoor track so far and in both cases I had something very odd happen to me and I'm hoping you can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Both issues happened on left turns.

The first situation was that I came into a full-throttle left and my front tire was 3 or 4 inches from the apex of the curb, it never got closer, but my left rear tire hit the curb. The second case was even stranger. Different kart, indoor track. There was a very long left corner and I kept my front left tire a few inches from the rubber tire barrier guard at all times and my rear left tire hit the barrier, hard.

The karts didn't look like the rear track width was wider than the front. I didn't measure, it but it seems like there might be more going on than that.

Any ideas what is going on? Thanks!

[rjbetty]

Er, that sounds strange. I've never got the chance to do much karting unfortunately so I have no idea. But I know at least one regular poster seems to have done quite a bit of it (and seems very good from what I can gather) so hopefully he can help.

[Rollo]

The karts didn't look like the rear track width was wider than the front. I didn't measure, it but it seems like there might be more going on than that.

This is the only logical explanation that I can come up with. The rear must be wider than the front. Simple physics dictates this.

Objects are lazy. They like to keep on doing what they're already doing.
If you threw a rock into space and there was nothing out there to stop it from doing what it was already doing (ie moving in a straight line), it would keep on doing what it was already doing forever.
The word "inertia" comes to use from that Latin root for slothfulness.

The way I figure it, if the corner is bending to the left and you are keeping your front left wheel to the apex, inertia should want to throw you away from the apex in the same way that a kid swinging about a gumboot will let it go off in a tangent to the circle it was being swung in.

I figure that the kart should suffer from understeer and push, and throw you away from the apex - not drag the rear left wheel towards it.

[The Black Knight]

As a lifelong fan of F1, now in my 40s, I decided that now's the time to have a bit of fun with kart racing. Having to hold my breath in the corners (at a lowly 1.5 Gs) and having my neck, forearms and shoulders introduce me to muscles I had never met before has given me a much greater appreciation of what it must feel like to drive an F1 car.

I did a couple of hours of hot laps on both an outdoor and indoor track so far and in both cases I had something very odd happen to me and I'm hoping you can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Both issues happened on left turns.

The first situation was that I came into a full-throttle left and my front tire was 3 or 4 inches from the apex of the curb, it never got closer, but my left rear tire hit the curb. The second case was even stranger. Different kart, indoor track. There was a very long left corner and I kept my front left tire a few inches from the rubber tire barrier guard at all times and my rear left tire hit the barrier, hard.

The karts didn't look like the rear track width was wider than the front. I didn't measure, it but it seems like there might be more going on than that.

Any ideas what is going on? Thanks!

It depends on the kart but the rear of karts are wider than the front so I suspect you're just hugging the corner too much and at a particular point throughout the corner the curve is closer to the racing line you're taking than it is at the point through which you judged the corner entry. Try driving around the curb slowly and if you see this is the case then you probably have the point where you hit the curb. Then the next time keep this in mind for your entry point to keep a smooth line throughout remembering that the exit of the corner is the most important part. If you need to compromise your entry to gain speed on the exit then you're better off doing that.

Better still if you have a picture of the kerbs and corners whree this happened to you on it'd be better but either it's the case of the above or else you didn't hit the wall at all and there was something mid corner that unsettled the kart which caused you to spin and that has been known to happen as well.

[Firstgear]

I haven't done a lot of karting, but I'll throw my opinion into the ring anyway.

Unless you have four wheel steering (and you don't) your rear wheels won't track along the same path as your front wheels around a curve/corner. Think of how a bus takes a corner: It sweeps a very wide path with the front wheels to keep the back wheels from going onto the curb. Your kart (and any normal car) will do the same thing, only to a much lesser degree due to the shorter wheel base.

So if you're quite close to the curb with your front wheel, your rear wheel may rub the curb. Now because your kart will be rear wheel drive, I suspect the rear wheel is rubbing and then climbing the curb - not hitting it. What you describe as hitting the curb may actually just be the kart dropping back down and smacking the pavement after climbing the curb a bit.

Again, this is just my gut feel opinion. Please feel free to ignore or correct me.

[Tel 911S]

Having done quite a bit of Karting , [ many years ago ] , one of the things is that most Karts are wider at the rear than the front .
This is probably true for hire Karts as well as the racing ones , for with a live axle it does make the turn in more positive .
Also from your post , where you say a full throttle corner , this could mean that you are following a line with a certain amount of understeer which will mean that the rear is taking a tighter line than the front wheels .
Normally a tight corner requires hard braking which will let the back drift wide on the corner entry & therefore reduce the cutting inside .

But the real answer is to practice , practice , practice & then it will all come easier .

[CapitalKarts]

From what I've read, researched and experienced I think your attacking the corner to fast and to soon. As mentioned above, it seems like your experiencing under-steer. Try braking later, hard and turn around the corner bit by bit, not in one motion like you would in a car.