Over the past year or two I've been researching buying a racing kart, which presents many challenges; one of which is finding a way to transport the kart to the track.
At first, I thought I would need some huge SUV or truck, or pay someone a lot to transport and/or store the kart for me, because at the few club kart events I'd been to, that's what everyone seemed to have.
But after researching and asking on ekartingnews here and here and here, I found it was possible to transport a kart in a smaller vehicle. In fact, the vehicles people transported karts in (fitting the whole kart into the interior of the car) include a Volkswagen Jetta, Toyota Celica and Toyota Prius! Also, a small open trailer which costs only a few hundred dollars or less and weighs a few hundred pounds or less can be towed by pretty much any vehicle, and since a kart typically weights less then 200 pounds, transporting one on a roof rack is also possible.
check out the threads for some impressive transporting pics.
Although buying a kart is likely on hold for me at least for this year as I'm finalizing some other racing plans, it's still good information to know. More on those other plans soon...
At first, I thought I would need some huge SUV or truck, or pay someone a lot to transport and/or store the kart for me, because at the few club kart events I'd been to, that's what everyone seemed to have.
But after researching and asking on ekartingnews here and here and here, I found it was possible to transport a kart in a smaller vehicle. In fact, the vehicles people transported karts in (fitting the whole kart into the interior of the car) include a Volkswagen Jetta, Toyota Celica and Toyota Prius! Also, a small open trailer which costs only a few hundred dollars or less and weighs a few hundred pounds or less can be towed by pretty much any vehicle, and since a kart typically weights less then 200 pounds, transporting one on a roof rack is also possible.
check out the threads for some impressive transporting pics.
Although buying a kart is likely on hold for me at least for this year as I'm finalizing some other racing plans, it's still good information to know. More on those other plans soon...
Here's a neat video of Ayrton Senna, Alan Prost and several other former F1 drivers at an invitational karting event in 1993.
Ayrton Senna Racing Karts Paris Kart Masters 1993
Included is some screencaps of Senna and some commentary on his technique.
The site also has some other good karting videos and tips too.
Ayrton Senna Racing Karts Paris Kart Masters 1993
Included is some screencaps of Senna and some commentary on his technique.
The site also has some other good karting videos and tips too.
12/06: first time in a TAG kart
Up until recently, the only karting I'd done was at my local indoor track. I'd considered trying a few other rental places, but there are no other ones close to me and I hadn't gotten around to going out of my way until recently.
A few weeks ago, I rented a TAG kart from Full Tilt Racing at Englishtown, NJ as part of a private group. At first driving 3.5 hours to run a rental kart with people I've never met seemed crazy but I considered a few things. First, the only other places I could rent a kart of this performance are equally far away (NJMP, Beaverun), second, the cost at the private/corporate rate was about half that of renting for a normal practice day, and third, on a normal practice day it might be intimidating being on the track with a bunch of competitive, more experienced guys. So now trying out the TAG kart in a casual environment for a very reasonable price seemed like the most viable option.
The karts we rented had PRD Fireball engines, and I believe most were Top Kart chassis.
The karting track at Englishtown is decent but far from spectacular. It's a parking lot track and has some painted curbs and cones to mark off the track. Obviously, pretty much no elevation change, and in the corners there were no cones, major shortcutting is possible. The layout of the track is nice though, as there are a mix of left and right hairpins of different radius, a sweeping carousel, and a few sections where multiple turns are tied together.
First time out in the kart, the first thing I noticed was the acceleration – very fast indeed, about what I expected. The next thing I noticed was it is absolutely brutal, more so then I expected. The cornering forces are high enough that, even still working up to speed and not cornering anywhere near what I thought was the limit, I already got a coughing sensation from the ribs being pushed up against the outside of the seat in the corners! Then there's the bumps – the track is not even that bumpy, but with no suspension hitting the transition to the concrete patches in the corners, and any other small bumps in the corners is absolutely jarring.
For the first half of the session I was slowly picking up some speed all around but obviously still nowhere near the limit. Then a horrible thing happened! My neck started getting tired and I could not hold my head straight anymore, and this was only halfway though the first of four sessions! Clearly, the occasional neck exercises I've been doing were not enough! I tried to throw my head into the corner, leaning it in severely, but I still couldn't do anything to keep it from tilting to the other side from mid corner on. I was able to continue at about the same pace but was no longer thinking about picking up the pace but rather hanging in there for the rest of the session.
The rest of the session were pretty much the same story. I was unable to push any harder because of my neck. It was vary frustrating to feel limited by a physical strength issue. I know I wouldn't have been awesome on my first day in a racing kart, but I'm confident I would have been significantly faster and learned much more if the neck was not an issue.
Although I haven't driven the karts much yet, IMO besides being 10 times more physical, they were remarkably similar to driving the indoor karts. All the steering and pedal inputs are very close to what you'd do on the indoor track. And although there is a greater sensation of speed, the feeling of how fast things come at you is about the same too since the indoor track is smaller and tighter. Based on my limited experience, I would say the Indoor / Outdoor karting symbiosis, is definitely real as a lot of the skills transfer over.
I've been seriously considering getting my own kart to race competitively, so it was a great experience for me to get to a outdoor sprint track for the first time and get a feel for things. Obviously though, I will have to get more practice on these high powered, outdoor karts before I can commit to racing them.
A few weeks ago, I rented a TAG kart from Full Tilt Racing at Englishtown, NJ as part of a private group. At first driving 3.5 hours to run a rental kart with people I've never met seemed crazy but I considered a few things. First, the only other places I could rent a kart of this performance are equally far away (NJMP, Beaverun), second, the cost at the private/corporate rate was about half that of renting for a normal practice day, and third, on a normal practice day it might be intimidating being on the track with a bunch of competitive, more experienced guys. So now trying out the TAG kart in a casual environment for a very reasonable price seemed like the most viable option.
The karts we rented had PRD Fireball engines, and I believe most were Top Kart chassis.
The karting track at Englishtown is decent but far from spectacular. It's a parking lot track and has some painted curbs and cones to mark off the track. Obviously, pretty much no elevation change, and in the corners there were no cones, major shortcutting is possible. The layout of the track is nice though, as there are a mix of left and right hairpins of different radius, a sweeping carousel, and a few sections where multiple turns are tied together.
First time out in the kart, the first thing I noticed was the acceleration – very fast indeed, about what I expected. The next thing I noticed was it is absolutely brutal, more so then I expected. The cornering forces are high enough that, even still working up to speed and not cornering anywhere near what I thought was the limit, I already got a coughing sensation from the ribs being pushed up against the outside of the seat in the corners! Then there's the bumps – the track is not even that bumpy, but with no suspension hitting the transition to the concrete patches in the corners, and any other small bumps in the corners is absolutely jarring.
For the first half of the session I was slowly picking up some speed all around but obviously still nowhere near the limit. Then a horrible thing happened! My neck started getting tired and I could not hold my head straight anymore, and this was only halfway though the first of four sessions! Clearly, the occasional neck exercises I've been doing were not enough! I tried to throw my head into the corner, leaning it in severely, but I still couldn't do anything to keep it from tilting to the other side from mid corner on. I was able to continue at about the same pace but was no longer thinking about picking up the pace but rather hanging in there for the rest of the session.
The rest of the session were pretty much the same story. I was unable to push any harder because of my neck. It was vary frustrating to feel limited by a physical strength issue. I know I wouldn't have been awesome on my first day in a racing kart, but I'm confident I would have been significantly faster and learned much more if the neck was not an issue.
Although I haven't driven the karts much yet, IMO besides being 10 times more physical, they were remarkably similar to driving the indoor karts. All the steering and pedal inputs are very close to what you'd do on the indoor track. And although there is a greater sensation of speed, the feeling of how fast things come at you is about the same too since the indoor track is smaller and tighter. Based on my limited experience, I would say the Indoor / Outdoor karting symbiosis, is definitely real as a lot of the skills transfer over.
I've been seriously considering getting my own kart to race competitively, so it was a great experience for me to get to a outdoor sprint track for the first time and get a feel for things. Obviously though, I will have to get more practice on these high powered, outdoor karts before I can commit to racing them.