I did 26 sessions in one day @ SPK before they closed down for the evening. I did take 2 advil with my lunch/dinner though.
I did 26 sessions in one day @ SPK before they closed down for the evening. I did take 2 advil with my lunch/dinner though.
I haven't had problems with the recreational put-puts (clone-motored) carts that most places rent. But I took a daylong class at Infineon's cart track that featured serious single-speed carts and at the end of the day I was a beat puppy. The back straight was bumpy enough that my vision was heavily blurred.
It was great!
Appleseed wrote: I'd rather be sore from racing than busting concrete with a 20lb. sledge all day.
I've learned an easier method to breaking up concrete.......its a 6ft long 35lb prybar meant to move railroad tracks during construction. Drop that sucker from 12" and it'll crack up 6" of concrete all day long.
I need to get down to the local indoor track at some point, I want to test out my new motorcycle helmet's airflow capability.
Appleseed wrote:irish44j wrote: (I worked a summer years ago busting up concrete sidewalks with a sledge....I was never sore from that).Liar! Or you weren't trying hard enough.
no, I was just 19, not 38
Joey48442 and I went karting at a localish track, we found out that we are both old and I am pretty hard to pass.
Are you old, fat and flabby or just out of practice?
Do some stretching, do some sit ups, push the table away sooner and try this three more times.
Then decide. 
Dan
914Driver wrote: Are you old, fat and flabby or just out of practice? Do some stretching, do some sit ups, push the table away sooner and try this three more times. Then decide.
I think most of the problem was the lack of oxygen..
A few years ago, I got a shifter kart to autocross with. It beat the crap out of me and wore me out in one 60 second autocross run.
I eventually figured out that if you don't try to fight the g forces, and instead let the kart move you around in the seat a little, and relax the death grip on the steering wheel, it is WAYYYYY less exhausting. Plus, the benefit of letting the kart push you to the outside of the seat when turning is better weight transfer and better cornering. Win, win.
dinger wrote: I eventually figured out that if you don't try to fight the g forces, and instead let the kart move you around in the seat a little, and relax the death grip on the steering wheel, it is WAYYYYY less exhausting. Plus, the benefit of letting the kart push you to the outside of the seat when turning is better weight transfer and better cornering. Win, win.
I agree about fighting the cart as little as possible. As for the weight transfer, as I understand it, you're saying that the extra weight on the outside tires allows them to "bite" better. I always thought that you want to spread your weight as evenly as possible across the tires, allowing them to do their jobs. Thoughts?
I thought it's better to spread weight across the tires as well - which in a kart, it leaning into the inside of the corner. Which is what I see the drivers doing in kart races.
This also feels fastest when I drive a kart, have I been doing it wrong?
I did a couple of kart sessions at CMP while there for a Lemons event. Getting out of a 1:30 session in a car and hopping into a cart for a 20min session really puts the gap in capability between a car and cart in perspective. 
The thing that hurt most the following week was my neck and shoulders from keeping my brain bucket vertical. I'm convinced it was the cart and not the endurance racing.
kreb wrote:dinger wrote: I eventually figured out that if you don't try to fight the g forces, and instead let the kart move you around in the seat a little, and relax the death grip on the steering wheel, it is WAYYYYY less exhausting. Plus, the benefit of letting the kart push you to the outside of the seat when turning is better weight transfer and better cornering. Win, win.I agree about fighting the cart as little as possible. As for the weight transfer, as I understand it, you're saying that the extra weight on the outside tires allows them to "bite" better. I always thought that you want to spread your weight as evenly as possible across the tires, allowing them to do their jobs. Thoughts?
Remember that karts don't have a differential. Ideally you'd like that inside rear wheel to lift just ever so slightly to allow the kart to rotate and not scrub speed. Hence the large amounts of Ackerman in the front steering setup.
Also, a properly fitting kart seat should be tight enough that you really don't have the ability to push yourself around within it.
Im pretty quick on an autocross course, but stick me in a kart and im consistently FAST, lap after lap. At kart2kart up north of Detroit, every time ive gone i set a top 5 course time for the week. I've gone 3 or 4 times now, but I havent been in months. I need to go again. If i spent more time up there I'm betting i could get pretty close to the revord, I'm only about 7 tenths off.
Beats the crap out of you, though, i can only do 4 sessions if i feel like being worth anything the rest of the week.
Last time I did anything karting related was about six years back (I was 40+ even then) and it was in a 125cc "caged kart" on a polished concrete oval. It did rattle my teeth a bit, but it didn't take me long to adapt. I q'd tenth out of 24, won my heat and won the B Main (there was a "D Main") only to get DQ'd out of the A Main early on for dumping a local track favorite after he jacked me up for P3.
Some things never change, track politics being one, me being a bit aggressive for two.
GameboyRMH wrote: I thought it's better to spread weight across the tires as well - which in a kart, it leaning into the inside of the corner. Which is what I see the drivers doing in kart races. This also feels fastest when I drive a kart, have I been doing it wrong?
In my youth when I did a lot of karting, it always seemed that everyone faster than me leaned into the turns, and only those slower than myself didn't. I lean into turns, even in a full sized race car.... as if "leaning into a turn" has any effect on a 3000 Lb stock car
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:Keith Tanner wrote:DOH! I guess I'll have to wait until I get done with work then.GameboyRMH wrote:Wear pants.Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: hahaha! I was just trying to figure out how to do a selfie of my back.Back a mirror and shoot over your shoulder.
So you can ware pants.
I am not sure I want to know what you do for work. 
I have been karting for a while now, and certainly commend those who I race with that run two classes. Typically it takes a few races for my body to adjust. I raced in Chumpcar in 2013 after karting most of the season and cars are defiantly easier to drive and easy on your body. The car I raced did not have any of the modern elements such as power steering, ABS, but I felt like MS, but my lap times did not reflect that LOL.
kreb wrote:dinger wrote: I eventually figured out that if you don't try to fight the g forces, and instead let the kart move you around in the seat a little, and relax the death grip on the steering wheel, it is WAYYYYY less exhausting. Plus, the benefit of letting the kart push you to the outside of the seat when turning is better weight transfer and better cornering. Win, win.I agree about fighting the cart as little as possible. As for the weight transfer, as I understand it, you're saying that the extra weight on the outside tires allows them to "bite" better. I always thought that you want to spread your weight as evenly as possible across the tires, allowing them to do their jobs. Thoughts?
Box_of_Rocks said: Remember that karts don't have a differential. Ideally you'd like that inside rear wheel to lift just ever so slightly to allow the kart to rotate and not scrub speed. Hence the large amounts of Ackerman in the front steering setup.
^^^^^^ What he said. Since the kart doesn't have a differential, you want the inside rear tire to lift. That way the inside tire doesn't fight the outside tire, which has to spin faster than the inside tire as the kart corners.
I can relate to "too old, weak, and flabby for karts." I tried indoor Karting once at "Fast Times" in Indy. They have unique two-story track. There's a section that goes from the lower level to the balcony, around, and back down, that's basically a multiple-apex 540 degree right-hander. You're more or less in a full throttle, right-hand sweeper for about 12 seconds straight. By the middle of the third race, I couldn't keep my head up all the way. My weak neck muscles were giving out and my head was flopping over to the left.
Well folks...the reason I went karting in the first place was because some guys at the office apparently blow off work and go from time to time. What a great group of coworkers, right? I'm a new employee and I heard them talking about it starting about a week ago. The trash talking went on for about a week. That's about the same time I started my sandbagging. I pretended to have an aversion to karting. At first, I acted as if I didn't understand the whole idea. "Indoor go-karting, whats that?" "Are you serious?" When they told me they made you wear helmets, I was aghast! I told them I was scared and may call in sick. Unbeknownst to them, I had already been at the track a few times, I went Tuesday night to practice andd I even considered private lessons but couldn't make the timing work out.
Today was the day and we practically had the track to ourselves, for the most part. I acted more befuddled then usual. I signed in as a new customer, I purposely misspelled my name so that I couldn't be looked up on the computer. We had three races and I extracted promises from everyone that we wouldn't race during the first one, instead we would just get familiar with the track. For several laps, I drove around in a manner later described by my coworkers as "driving miss daisy." I sat as upright as possible and let everyone pass me at least twice. Then I hit it. I ended up getting the fastest time in all three races. The only other person on the track was some kid who carried his seat with him from kart to kart. Let me repeat that...the kid carried his seat around with him! He did better than me and in one race managed to pass me near the end. Someone else mentioned "politics".... I think I saw some of it...whenever real racing broke out the kids managing the track began waving those "move over someone wants to pass you flag." Hilarious. They waved it at me when the track expert wanted to pass. I refused. If he is truly faster and can find a way to get around me, have at it! I didn't intentionally block him and like I said, he only managed to get passed me once, near the end of the third race. By that point I was wore out, out of breath (due to the lack of fresh air) and literally bouncing off the walls.
Were your coworkers surprised?
pretty much yeah. We were separated enough on the track to where I only passed a couple of them so most did not know of my deception. When they read the printout they thought my time was 1:29 and the computer wasn't able to count that high. It took every ounce of self control to drive half throttle and let everyone pass me but I figured I had to keep my act up for as long as possible.
In reply to plance1:
I did that once, but it was only 1 race so I couldn't do any acting. I was with a group of 3 other guys, 2 of whom I knew. it was for one guy's birthday, his wife gave him tickets to a kart track (awesome wife, BTW). One of the guys seemed fairly full of himself, he actually made the comment "As a manual driver..." in a smug tone. It was some kind of SUV with a manual, so props to him for buying a manual, but not for thinking its a sports car. I did my normal smile and listen that I do with anybody who's talking, i'm not very talky usually. I think it was a 15 lap race, I started in last place, passed everyone on the first lap, lapped everyone by lap 8, and lapped one of them again by the end. I felt very smug, but kept my lap times to myself until asked 
I too am old, weak and flabby, BUT..
I ran 14 races this year, with practice, qualifications and 2 races every other week, include many in the 90plus degree Georgia sun!
I finished second in points, to a younger guy who I had been coaching for a year.
Some pointers, even for rental karts ( I own several of my own karts, both modern and vintage)
Wear a kevlar rib protector. Common injury is bruised/broken ribs
Wear a neck brace. Helmet plus head weight makes you a bobble head, when you are pulling 1 plus G forces
Karts have caster, usually 15 degrees on pavement karts but adjustable on newer chassis, built into the front geometry to progressively lift the inside rear tire as you turn in. This can be done by changing the width of the rear track. Rental,karts,have this built in so that the karts don't under steer.
Karts still best bang for the buck in motorsports..racing karts since 1958-and I turned 67 years old past October!
Appleseed wrote:irish44j wrote: (I worked a summer years ago busting up concrete sidewalks with a sledge....I was never sore from that).Liar! Or you weren't trying hard enough.
speaking from long ago experience … you get over the soreness after a bout a week … after that it's just tiredness at the end of the day
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