FredC

you and ajcr are funny....


so indoor karing doesn't help with:
1. car control?
2. car feeling?
3. race craft?
4. physical shape?

Funny guys....

Jay Gratton

I know I am late to this, but I would go with F1, the 2nd choice is for kids. Still fun, but it is a kids place.

ajcjr

Fred i am not being funny but that is my .02 as i stated. I have driven both and i have friends who race both. One friend told me he gets bad habits driving indoors. Again its my.02, even though Obama is president i think i can still speak my opinion.

TheOtherEric

+1. The indoor "corporate" karts are so completely different from proper outdoor racing karts it's just night and day.

DanR

I for one am not saying that indoor 'corporate' karts compare to outdoor shifter karts but I do feel back to the original coment that indoor karting deos help with driving your porsche on the track. Will it enable Paulo who races to knock a second of his race at LRP next year...... maybe not. But will it help him over the winter maintain focus, car control etc. I think yes

I think there are deffinitely transferable skills. I would be willing to bet that someone who has spent their life in 'corporate' karts would find the jumpp to the track easier than a fresh track student. why, well I would contest that there are transferable skills which would help. These may diminish a little the more experienced you get but they should not hurt!

I did a 6 hour endurance race the other week and a guy there was almost 2 seconds faster than me per lap. I am pretty sure that if I can get that time down in karts it will also help me on the track in my P

FredC

Sure you can. But I think your I think your opinion may misinform my buddy Paolo. That's all.

Toby Pennycuff

When I did the 4-day Grand Prix Road Racing school at Bondurant back in 2005, I did the Shifter Kart experience on a Tuesday night. What a GREAT experience! Very humbling as well. Granted, I was a nerd just trying to learn, but the session instructor was this young kid of MAYBE 18-19 years old. Will never forget the sight of him coming down the front straight of the kart track flat-out in 6th gear and executing a PERFECT SLALOM maneuver down a line of almost 20 cones.

It was unbelievable. The Shifter Kart session was probably the most fun of the entire 4-day experience (outside of the USN Seals tying my instructor to a palm tree upside down for mouthing off to them). And was I ever SORE on Wednesday morning. 2.5 hours in a shifter kart was really strenuous. Even if you don't do a kart school, do the Shifter Kart experience. You will LOVE it!

TheOtherEric

Yeah, sure there are some transferable skills. But in terms of making you a better driver, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rank like this:

2 - playing GT4 or Forza
3 - indoor karting
6 - driving your car
10 - race karts (15+ hp)

I'm sure some will go ape-sh** over that, but it's just my 2c.

DanR

WOW - I cant believe you think GT4 where there in no sensation of speed or feel or control etc etc is similar to karting. Maybe I am lucky as our local indoor karting center is brand new and the track we ran last week was a 60 second track and the karts get reasonable speed, but they wet the track and I learnt a s*#t load driving even a corporate kart indoors on slick tires vs sat on my *** playing a computerized game.

ltc

If I didn't feel as though I were qualified to comment on karting (and in this case F1Boston karting), then I wouldn't.

There are better ways over the winter to improve driving skills (I simply mentioned one that was directly karting related)...it's just that IMHO F1Boston would be near the bottom of the list.

ltc

Not trying to be funny at all.

There are some indoor kart tracks that would give you a chance of developing items 1-3 above, but F1Boston is not one of them. There is an indoor track in Phoenix (very close to Bondurant, perhaps 15 minutes) that hosted the World Championship for indoor karting a couple of years back...

As far as physical shape, I think there are better ways to do this besides an indoor 4 cycle arrive and drive kart at F1Boston.

Want to learn car/kart control? Take a kart out in the rain...MUCH better than skidpad training IMHO.

DanR

that was my point above and I agree

Animus

indoor "arrive and drive" karts may not be a "10" on the transferable, sports car driving skill development list. However I do think with these karts, you can work on fine tuning your senses? That is, using your body as feedback, so that you can sense tire slip, better braking, smooth driving style, which you can then use in any driving experience. However if you're already racing, you should have these down already. I know these are different sensations from indoor to sports car (and I suspect indoor to outdoor karts), but you can still working on sensing the experience. Ultimately you will learn the kart track and can't get much more use out of it. So its just for fun nd rubbing fenders.

That said, I'll go race at F1 Boston for an rennlist league.....

ltc

They're more like a "2" than a "10".

The chassis are very stiff (they don't lift the inside rear tire in a turn), you don't fit the seat properly, the balance isn't even close, the alignment is done by eye (and use flexible tie rods), caster is set to minimum, most are driven with the throttle held down for the entire lap and the brake used to control speed (hence loading up/binding the chassis).
It is a VERY different feel/sensation/experience from a proper(outdoor) sprint kart.

Yes, I agree "seat time is everything", but this isn't what I would consider prime seat time, especially at the cost for the seat time.

FredC

It is getting funnier by the post...

But you are right, there are better tracks than others to get valuable seat time. For me though, I will take all the seat time in 4 stroke indoor karts (at any track conveniently located) to keep reflexes, habits, and feelings as crisp as possible during the winter. There is now way in hell indoor karting didn't help me at lrp last april... after 7 months of total inactivity in a race car...DE or race. To me it is the most convenient and economical way to keeps skills from deteriorating in the dead season...