Indoor Kart Experience

I was home for the weekend and went here. www.Karts1.com. It was amazing, the acceleration made me just want to go faster, the brakes were so real feeling, that when I pushed them all the way I could feel the back fishtailing (which is why I probably didn't push it all the way much) and on the back straight I could feel the sensation of speed into the second slowest turn (first is the hairpin). Eventually I did start using the brake to turn the kart around corners, and that's dangerous; Danger is fun.

I raced 2 races for 16 dollars total. The first race I drive with 2 other people, and started at the back, the whole time learning the turns and what i could and couldn't do, then when the 2nd place guy spun I slowed down behind him and waited for the crew to pull him around. Then I had really close racing with this guy and I kept looking for places to pass him, too bad we were both sideways for most of the race, indoor tracks are slippery.

For the second race, I started first out of about 8 people. I drove through the out lap so fast I actually lapped someone in the first lap...that's when it started happening, teenagers crashing into the walls, causing the crew to turn off our karts via remote, which is why I never got a good laptime, but I WAS first place and lapped 2 to 3 people. Before I lapped the first girl (cute but dumb) she forgot to brake and ran RIGHT into a barrier in turn 1, almost hitting a crew member LOL "are you alright?" -- "barely" and then I decided, next time someone spins...I'm passing them. There were so many crashes in that race, and I was more sideways and countersteering then ever trying to gain speed, and though we kept getting shut off, I had so much fun. I can't wait to start 2 stroke karting.

On a side note, comparing sim racing...the gaming did help me perfect my line, a lot, but the speed, the acceleration, the anxiety and excitedness, you don't get that from gaming. So I did race the way I play my game but I'd rather do this, it's just real.

so you finally got yourself onto something like real race track eh?
What you really want though, is to find a place with petrol karts, preferably twin engined for 60+mph. And just so you know, the grip on tarmac isn't all that great either and karts being how they are, most people will oversteer as force of habit. Don't even ask what it is like when it rains.

And stop it with the thing about racing lines; it isn't rocket science and on real race tracks where things like surface qualities and cambers come into play not to mention the state of your car, its brakes and its tyres, the "ideal" line drawn on a flat 2D track is not always the best line for racing; that's something that only real track time can teach you. A game no matter how good can only show you a facsimile of what it MIGHT be like.

You would have to be crazy to begin with to believe everything in video games.

Sims do teach drivers how to pick the best line, and some pro racers use simulators as part of their training regimen. Sim racing today goes beyond a simple 2d track and they do take things like tires and suspension into consideration. I went to a Jim Hall Kart racing seminar (the guy who sponsors this forum) and I used a lot of the techniques I learned from playing GT4. By the end of the day my laptimes were just a few hundredths of a second slower than the instructors time.
Of course the conditions and equipment were better than they would be in an indoor arena, but the things they taught during the seminar were things I already knew from playing GT4...and that includes picking the fastest line, when to brake and accelerate, trail braking, etc... While they were lecturing about technique I was thinking I already know all of this and once I got comfortable with the kart and the track I remember thinking this feels just like my PS2 rig at home (I have the Logitech steering wheel/pedal).

This is a good week, tonight I went to the indoor track again and I'm also going Sunday to race with my cousins. But tonight was different, and the difference wasn't that I got faster. It wasn't even that I was able to strategically pass 2 karts in the row. The first time time and second time I raced on the track's backstraight, I was going faster then I had before, and to tell you the truth, I was scared of going faster. Tonight, not only was I not afraid at all, I was CRAVING to go faster, on every straight, through every turn. I even came majorly close to the walls, drifting sideways, and continued to push.

I learned a lot of stuff too, how to enter from the outside, close in to the apex and fly back to the outside. I worked on maximizing radius through the chicanes because I was using more throttle then ever, and lastly, I was braking rough last time, this time I braked and wasn't afraid that I'd spin. No, instead I slid through some hairpins because of it. Damn I had fun and learned so much tonight, can't wait for Sunday Night!!

OH I Almost forgot, Next Saturday I'm getting my expensive 6 hour 2cycle karting class. I think it's a 2 cycle...is a Comer engine a 4cycle? Why can't they just give me a TAG??? Well I will be renting one soon which means I'm buying the gear right now. I even worked on a special design to get my crash helmet painted. When it's done, that's gonna be my new Avatar!!