Last Man Posting

[Kellard]

Friday

[Bellhead]

In other news, electric go-karts are AWESOME. The fake engine sounds? Less so.

[Technic[Bot]]

Anythin electric powered is awesome!

There were a couple horse pulled carriages on the city i live, they are slowly replacing them with electric ones. I prefer the latter

[Tornir]

In other news, electric go-karts are AWESOME. The fake engine sounds? Less so.

They should sound like TIE fighters.

[The Blue Fox]

In other news, electric go-karts are AWESOME.

I wanna go go-karting someday in my life. Knowing they be switching to electric makes me happy.

[Bellhead]

Depending on where you are, they may already have. Some places still use gas, but overall, it takes a lot more maintenance, not to mention air quality and heat production.

But with electric, and this happened to me, the kart crapped out and all he had to do was reboot it. Also, reverse gear helps. Also also, THEY HAVE A BOOST BUTTON! Well, ours did, anyway... It was very nice.

[Technic[Bot]]

I went go karting once.

But i was kinda to large for the kart or something, the car died mid run...

[Bellhead]

Yeah, and most of the ones you find are depressingly underpowered and slow.

[The Blue Fox]

Depending on where you are, they may already have. Some places still use gas, but overall, it takes a lot more maintenance, not to mention air quality and heat production.

But with electric, and this happened to me, the kart crapped out and all he had to do was reboot it. Also, reverse gear helps. Also also, THEY HAVE A BOOST BUTTON! Well, ours did, anyway... It was very nice.

That all sounds great.

I went go karting once.

But i was kinda to large for the kart or something, the car died mid run...

Yeah, and most of the ones you find are depressingly underpowered and slow.

That sounds not so great But maybe the issues with power will prompt go kart manufacturers to make better ones.

[Bellhead]

The issue isn't that. Most manufacturers make karts for children, who just want to have fun, so slower is safer. But for nutjobs like me who both want to and know how to race, and are not afraid to go sideways through a corner, slow is just annoying.

Even where we went, they had two speeds: "semi-pro" and "pro". Semi Pro is like stereotypical go karts; slow and safe. Pro is faster and stronger, and if you don't know what you're doing, you WILL spin out, and possibly crash, but still not fast enough for injury. Fun fact, I did some calculations on the way home. He said average was an 83-90 second lap, and the track was about 1/2 mile. My best was 81.291. At 90 sec, average speed would be 20 mph, and if my math is right, 80 sec would mean 22.5 mph average, and that includes 3 hairpin turns and two steep grade climbs. It might not seem that fast, but these karts are like 3 feet wide, maybe 5 long, on a track roughly 8 feet wide. And the hairpins... the track was only like 2 feet from the other direction. And 22.5 wasn't the top speed, either. These suckers were FAST.

Then, apparently, they have Elite League racing, which is supposed to be even faster. I can't really imagine that, since we barely held the corners as it was...

[The Blue Fox]

Right, right, I forgot we're dealing with go-kart racing here, not anything too fancy and/or crazy.

[Bellhead]

Yeah. Kinda nuts. But even doing 25 mph, hairpin corners are TERRIFYING. I mean, I could imagine getting a better time with more power and speed alone, what with the straightaways and whatnot... But the only way to get faster at the corners would be either better tires, or heating the tires up with a lot of sliding. Add in the elevation changes... Yeah. They don't need to be faster to have that much fun.

On a more brag-y note, our last race (me, my father, and my uncle) were the only three on the track, and we all know how to drive. Personally, I got their best time of the week, and they asked us all if we wanted to join League. Apparently we're fast, and that was my first time karting... But, ridiculous league dues aside, I don't need more speed to have that much fun on that track. I just need there to be no traffic slowing me down. And no, I'm not kidding. 81.291 best lap, by 0.3 seconds, out of everyone that week. My dad's and uncle's times were less than 1.2s slower than me, and we're all in the top 10.

As the old saying goes, "It's more fun to drive a slow car fast, than it is to drive a fast car slow." -Can confirm. Absolutely true.

[The Blue Fox]

I had no idea racing could be that nuts at such low speeds...
...kinda makes me wanna do go kart racing that much more now.

[Bellhead]

Manage your expectations. Like I said, most places have some pretty underpowered karts, most tracks aren't anywhere near that intricate, and a lot of places are outside with very wide tracks. Supercharged is.. Well, have a look. Long, narrow elevated race track with a mix of tight corners, hills, banks, hairpins... And, since they're all electric, they behave really well. And while any old kart will still be a lot of fun, there's nothing quite like pushing a good machine to its limits through the corners like we did that day.

But if you get the chance, the more technical the track, the better. No matter now little power you have, the goal is still to pick a good line and whip through the corners without losing speed.

[The Blue Fox]

I'll definitely keep an eye out for some good technical go-kart tracks to have a go around.