Sabre

Actually, here in Maine where the indoor track temperature last night was about 25 degrees weaving to warm the tires actually does help.

ltc

No, actually it doesn't, assuming a standard concession kart, hard concession tire and relatively smooth concession surface.

Mike/A.W.E.

I live in Wilmington, DE and go to Mid Atlantic Grand Prix. I love the place.

They use the 6.5hp Sodi Karts.

Since we bacame a VIO POV dealer I have been meaning to take our shop camera to the kart track. The other night I did just that.

The karts are well maintained, but still vibrate like a *****.

My buddy and I intentionally tried to mount it poorly on the kart to see how bad the footage would be BEFORE we got serious.

Regardless of where we put it, or how it was fixed, the quality of the video blew us away.

Here is the video:
http://awe-tuning.com/pages/videos/v..._kart_demo.cfm

The sound is spectacular, and the vibration is an after thought. It was a great way to test the product.

We ran out of time, but plan to go back for more experiments.

I think mounting it on the kart is the way to go. Helmet footage gives me a headache.

I am going to say it in public. My name is Mike, and I am in love with this camera...

-Mil Spec.
-Remote that can mount anywhere.
-8Gb card.
-Runs on 4 AA batteries!!!!
-Wide angle lense.
-HD upgrade due out shortly.
-Multiple camera upgrade due out shortly.
-Works in 3 feet of water.

Best part. The recording unit has a screen on it. There is no need for a laptop to set up the viewing angle!


Hit me up if anyone has questions, or needs order info.

Linky to our site:
AWE Tuning - Products

BrandonH

Late to this thread which drifted from the original handling questions. To comment on the smooth vs. sliding, push vs. loose discussion:
One of the major defining distinctions between a kart and a car is not the absence of suspension, it is the absence of a rear differential. A kart _must_ corner on three wheels, unweighting the inside rear at turn in and re-weighting it at track-out. If the inside rear does not lift, it will push. If it lifts too much, the contact patches of the remaining 3 tires will be un-optimized which will make it loose.
This is why it is important, for example, not to lean IN while cornering. You want your body 90 degrees to the rear axle so it can maximize it's leverage in twisting the chassis to unweight the rear. Old karting videos of Ayrton Senna show him actually leaning to the outside at turn in. Much of the kart's design is driven by the need to get that tire to lift. It is why the kart is designed with so much caster: when you turn the wheel, you are jacking up the inside half of the kart with the front tire, which encourages the rear to unweight. Most but not all top karters look very very smooth as has been noted, cornering on rails. However sometimes you will see extreme looking wheel corrections in corners. What the driver is doing is dialing in lots of lock at turn in to accelerate weight jacking. Once the inside rear is unweighted, they will dial back the correct amount of lock to make the apex. (this is happening very fast of course)
Indoor tracks have very hard tires and very little grip which keeps speeds down and extends both tire wear and stress on the chassis. Most/many karters are skeptical that there is much knowledge transfer from indoor karting to 'real' karting, but my opinion is that it is at least valuable as a substitute for rain practice.

Mathemagician

Was just there last night for the first time. Man, was it COLD! Lots of fun, though, and a pretty interesting track layout. Do you go there regularly?

95m3racer

You have to Violently swerve around to get heat into the tires on those cold concrete tracks. It definitely, 100% makes a difference. From the first foot out of the staging/pit lane you should be violently swerving and almost drifting side to side to get heat into the tire. Do it for the entire lap. If you let them cool down for even half a lap, you'll lose a lot of grip.

ltc

Again, NO.....IMHO of course......