Karting tips: Top 5 ways to improve your karting quickly (Part 2)

Let jump right into this,

3 -  Be lighter + fitter

More details on why in a previous post HERE and how to do this HERE

4 - Practice indoor karting

Say whaaat??? slower, smaller and more expensive, why would you every do such a thing? well many reasons, I started with indoor karting and I think its an excellent way to improve. the track is a lot smaller so you may think its easier to learn but in fact its harder to perfect. once you get a good base racing line you learn that its down to small precise details that get you ahead, Mika Hakkinen famously commented on Ayrton Senna's attention to detail and indoor karting is an excellent place  to hone and perfect these skills

I started at Daytona Manchester (Great place, Great bunch of people, would definitely recommend it)

5 - Set realistic targets

This is a big one, This one is epic and where most people get it wrong. And when every anyone says REALISTIC people seem to assume LOW which is completely the opposite of what I mean. The target of winning a race within 2 or 3 races may seem unrealistic, but you can still have this target lingering in the back of your mind. However, these realistic targets are all about what you're going to do about the unrealistic targets. Set about 3-4 progressive targets that help you achieve the unrealistic targets or at least get closer. For example a realistic target could be to finish your first race in the top 10, and another target to ensure you get to the track at least 2-3 times for practice before each race. They may not make you achieve your unrealistic targets but you will be closer

And there we have that segment wrapped up, I really hope you enjoyed it and found it usefull

As always
Be Well ----------------------- Mustafa S. Wandi

Karting tips: Top 5 ways to improve your karting quickly (Part 1)

To be competitive in karting it takes a lot of time to learn and develop as a driver and mostly you will learn this through experience, but there are one or two things that I have tried and they have had an immediate effect.

1 - Are you sitting comfortably?

-Comfort may be the last thing on your mind but perhaps it should be the first, seat position is very influential on how to kart behaves, it houses the heaviest component of the kart, you and it doesn't matter how light you are your weight will have an impact on the way the kart steers.
-So how can we take full advantage of this? well the more forward you put the seat the greater the turn in you have coming into the corner, yet more a more nervous rear end coming out. Putting the seat too far forward could be both unconformable and compromise lap time as you're loosing time on the straight, also for tracks that have long sweeping corners such as Three sisters you will loose a lot of time in opposite lock due to that nervous rear end.

F1 Post: F1 2012 Demo My first impressions

So its been a while but I still love motorsport and karting and all that biz but Ive been busy making my short film E-T-A . Here is my opinion of the F1 2012 demo released about a week ago, yeah sorry i am kinda late but ill make up for it in the full game as soon as that's released ill show some game play and do a review
hope you all enjoy.

Be Well ----------------------- Mustafa S. Wandi

Karting tips post: Braking, Slowing down to going quicker ("Braking for dummies")

OK, so even I was confused writing that title, but fear not, I know what I speak off... kinda?? regardless I shall try and share what knowledge I think I have and here comes some braking and karting tips flying at yo faces! For all you advanced folk keep your faces in the WandiSport direction for some tips on Trail braking.

So you wanna look all fly and shizz locking your brakes just before you turn? and you may have seen me do it at hooton in my latest vid, if not make sure to check it out, if not for the karting then do it for pendulum's TARANTULA (the music in the background) 

Truth is it aint all about lookin' fly. in fact locking up is a very unefficent form of braking. I could explain the physics behind it but id much rather you took my word for it, later on in your racing adventures you will learn "Trail braking" which includes a little bit of locking up.

Karting post: My Video from hooton!!

Howdy, its been a while hasn't it? Ive missed you all but I'm back! and here's the video from my day out in hooton, also gone are WandiWednesdays! unfortunately neither you nor me has the time for some midweek racing goodness so its changing to a weekend thing! let me know if you have any name suggestions in the comments section, but here's my videos from hooton enjoy.

Be Well ----------------------- Mustafa S. Wandi

Karting Tips post: Direct Drive vs TAG/Clutch (Part 2 TaG/Clutch))

Part 2, TaG/Clutch
Just need to quickly clarify that which engine you use is dictated by the regulations of the championship you wish to run in, if you wish to do open races or the TKM series you can choose what to run.
So same as before ill try and give a brief simplified explanation of what they are. First lets talk about the clutch, most kart clutches (shifter karts aside) are Centrifugal, to explain centrifugal force try to imagine a conker at the end of a string and as you spin the other end faster and faster the conker becomes further and further away from you. That in mind, lets move on how the rear axle is connected to the engine. this time its not connected directly to the crank, it is connected to a clutch drum that spins on the crank freely.

Inside this drum we have a TAB/HUB this has parts that expand under that centrifugal force we talked about, it has big metal conkers inside that expand and hold on to the drum (Labeled below). thus we have a connection between the crank and the rear axle and therefore POWER. We get the centrifugal force by spinning the crank (just like spinning the conker) and increase/reduce the amount by increasing/reducing throttle.

Karting Tips post: Direct Drive vs TAG/Clutch (Part 1 Direct Drive)

So you've worked your butts off either doing actual work or persuading your parents into buying you a racing kart, but which one do you go for? Here's a little karting tip.

Allow me to give you a quick brief of what Direct drive (often called DD) and Touch and Go (TAG) karts are, first off is DD, this is where the the rear axle is directly connected to the crank shaft of the engine, Confused? don't worry ill clarify with a picture

Picture from Karting1.co.uk posted by Joe Higham

The Crankshaft is the Shaft (duh! right?) that spins because the pistons in the engine move up and down and thus we get POWER, or acceleration would be more accurate. now when this shaft is connected to the the rear axle via that big golden thing called a sprocket it means as you spin the rear wheels you spin the pistons in the engine. And if you haven't figured it out yet that is how you start a direct drive engine, you push it until you gather momentum and the engine should start, (you also need to block the air intake (missing from the picture) so the engine can fill with fuel and you remove your hand when the engine turns over. so lets make a list of Good and bad stuff about such and engine.