The Karting Thread

Good to see you've finally been! :D

Since we posted here we've been to Teesside more than Warden Law, and it's much better. The Warden Law karts were so poor and slow in comparison the last few times we went - a large gap in handling and power, and utterly terrible in the wet.

I got a GoPro back in 2012 and filmed the first time we went to Teesside - it was absolutely bucketing it down and the track had some rather large lakes, but even on slicks the karts has plenty of bite and sod all understeer. See a "highlights" video below:




PS all of the spins and moments were in practice (Schumacher style checking the limits? ) except the worst one of them all, the last one where I got stuck, which was at the start of the 2nd lap when I was already leading by at least 5 seconds. Doh! And yes, the camera is pointing down too much - it was the first time I'd used it and it's hard to guess the necessary angle!


Compared to Warden Law when it was just a bit damp:





If you want to compare the cold tyres at Teesside to the ones from Warden Law, the full video of qualifying and the race from the day of the "highlights" video above is here: Teesside Autodrome - full qualifying and race


There's a few more post-2012 karting videos including three short blasts at Extreme Karting in Falkirk - "Senna vs Mansell" (a local girl who I couldn't pass), "Jason Plato" (I hit everything in sight and blamed everyone else) and "Mark Webber" (I went backwards). Gavin Wilson - YouTube

Here's a short snippet of Teesside (the short National circuit) in the dry to give an idea of how much quicker it is.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2016 01:13PM by gav.

Wish there was something like that in my area, looks like great fun.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

Those videos are brilliant, the helmet camera is an awesome idea. IIRC you posted the first one in another thread just after you'd made it, about 4 years ago? I remember you describing having to get out and push the kart on the wet grass and your Converse providing no grip at all or something. That looked more like rallying! Your overalls must've been in a total state by the end of it, mudbath city. (From what I remember that was a typical day in the UK in 2012 though.)

I like the look of the middle one - full race coverage FTW. I've not watched it yet as I want to take the time to watch it properly(along with the others you've linked to) and give it the time and attention it deserves - I will soon though.

The 3rd one is a big speed differential, yeah. The cornering speeds are pretty impressive, I guess you must get used to them to the point where they seem normal though. Nice Jean Alesi-style reaction(OK, maybe calmer than him!) after getting punted off.

Teesside and Warden Law look like fantastic tracks, I don't know if they're the best in the UK but they must be right up there, such a variety of corners... From the videos, Teesside reminds me of Oulton Park.

It's taken time to properly sink in, how fun the experience was, and I'm hoping to go back soon, hope I can build on what I learned the other night. The only after-effect of driving the kart is that I have slightly sore arms(Which I only really noticed after I got on the bus today, for some reason...!) but if I started karting regularly I guess my arms would toughen up accordingly.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2016 05:38AM by EC83.

I had a feeling I'd already posted it, but I did a search for "karting" and "Teesside" and they returned nothing, so I thought I'd do it again.

At Teesside we were provided with waterproofs to put on over the overalls, but all they did was delay how long it took for the water to soak through. It was a bitter April day, 4 degrees IIRC, but obviously being wet tripled how cold it felt. I vividly remember the guy doing the safety briefing telling us to go and get a second layer of gloves as they had to prise someones fingers from the wheel after the race before...

An old pair of Converse are brilliant for racing, as when they're worn the soles are really thin and you can really feel the pedals and get that bit more control. I always wore socks for sim-racing, and indeed tend to manipulate the pedals with my toes alone, just for the extra feel.

In fact that reminds me of a video I made as a promo to VTR's entry for the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2007, where you can see my feet at work. Ignore the flat northern accent pretending to be Brundle!


Right-click > save as.

I'll stick it on the Youtube channel too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2016 11:38AM by gav.

I'll be heading to Eastern Creek for a little run around in a few weeks. It will have been well over a year since visiting there so hoping that I'll get back into the groove reasonably quickly and will be able to push to beat my fastest lap which from memory is a 45 something or other on the short track. The fastest times I think are 42s or something so I've got a bit of time to find!

I visited a place when in Phuket/Patong last year and they had wonderfully overpowered 125cc karts for the size of the track - you could just about drift the entire circuit which was a tonne of fun!

Yeah, the search engine seems to be b0rked - it's been ages since any of my searches have returned anything too. :-/

Great little piece, that's the first time I've heard you speak, and you did actually manage a few Brundle-esque moments too IMO. (I personally hate hearing myself speak on recordings, there always seems to be something embarrassing about it. You come across as very natural, I'm pretty sure I couldn't.)

Still working on finding a time to watch the other videos right through - I will do it! The last few days have been a bit bonkers.

And Gareth, that sounds cool RE sliding the karts about. I'll be trying that next time, I hope - I'm guessing you need to be pretty comfortable with how the kart feels first!

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EC83
Still working on finding a time to watch the other videos right through - I will do it! The last few days have been a bit bonkers.

I didn't post the link expecting anyone to actually watch them, which is why I just stuck the short videos up. I only uploaded them those years ago as there was a dearth of videos of the tracks when we were considering Teesside, as we wanted to get an idea of what the karts and track was like before we went - I suppose that's the competitive element!

The Teesside national track is ridiculously fast and tiring though. The first corner can be done flat out (though I felt a short lift 2/3 of the way around was quicker), the 3 hairpins only require little braking due to how wide the track is and that slightly banked corner, while easily flat in the dry, is surprisingly hard work on the body considering its a hire kart. Indoor karting feels fast because of the confines of the track, but Teesside's twin-engine hirekarts are properly fast - you can see from how slow they start from a standstill how long they have to gear them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2016 11:20AM by gav.