How To Win Your First Kart Race - Starts, Traffic and Trophies! (360° Video!)
16Good video to watch to see how to win a rental karting race, all about a good start, carving through traffic and not bottling it before the chequered flag!
On mobile use your touchscreen, and on PC use [ and ] to zoom in and out, and W A S D to look around! Available in 8K on PC!
Date: 27 September 2020
Track: Daytona Sandown Park
Kart: SODI RT8 390CC Prokart
Weather: Dry
Briefing delivered by: Tom Chilton
Camera: Insta360 One X
Bad outro music: Me
SODIKART RT8
Sodi RT8 Chassis
Honda GX 390cc Four Stroke Engine
Top Speed 50mph
Power: 12 BHP
Torque: 27.4nm
Peak Revs: 5700rpm
The Sodi RT8 is a very different animal to the DMAX kart. With the Sodi at our outdoor tracks, you’ve got a torquey 390cc single cylinder, 4-stroke engine that has a lot of low-down pull. Conversely, the DMAX have a high revving 2-stroke engine that needs to be revved hard to extract the best performance.
The ideal way to drive a Sodi kart is to be smooth with the controls. It’s essential that you brake in a straight line and turn the steering wheel after you’ve finished braking; it’s not ideal to trail-brake into the corners with these karts as the relatively narrow rear width means that if you do trail-brake, it can set up a ‘hop’ through the corners which can be quite uncomfortable.
Once you’ve turned in, stamp on the throttle and let the torque drag you through and off the corner. The light steering is quite precise on initial turn in, but then if you’ve carried a bit too much speed into the corner, it can turn to understeer in the middle phase of the turn. Be accurate and get on the power early to get the best from them.
The Sodi karts weigh 150kg. Our drivers may weight anything between 50 and 150kgs. With the average driver making up about one third of the combined weight of the driver and kart, the positioning of that third of the weight is important as the driver’s position within the kart fundamentally affects the handling of the vehicle.
Owner drivers set the seating position as per the chassis manufacturer’s instructions and then adjust the pedal positions to suit the individual driver. This gives the kart the best handling characteristics possible and is fixed. A number of other factors can affect the kart and can be changed; for example seat design, seat stiffness, the addition of metal seat stays etc.
In one of our Sodi RT8 karts, moving the centre of mass longitudinally along the kart by adjusting the seat position can have a huge effect on the handling. If you are struggling with the kart understeering for example, by moving the seat forward you move the weight towards the front and therefore more load is going into the front tyres. This will decrease the understeer, but move it too far forward and you’ll end up with the opposite problem of too much oversteer!
If you’ve got too much oversteer, move the seat backwards a little to plant more weight over the rear axle and thereby reduce the amount of oversteer you are suffering with. As the pedals are independently adjustable to the seat, almost everyone can find that happy balance. Don’t assume that the most comfortable position is the fastest because it may not be.
Why not take the opportunity in an arrive and drive session to come into the pits, adjust the seat and the pedals and try to find a position that suits your driving style and that reduces your lap time. Our marshals will be happy to assist and offer advice.
#kart #karting #daytona
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