So the weekend came round and we decided to have some karting fun. A little apprehensive cos it's the long weekend and we weren't sure if the Causeway would be jammed up. Anyway we took our chances and the traffic turned out to be smooth, fortunately. After lunch we made our way to the Permas Jaya go-kart circuit. It was beginning to drizzle but we decided to have some fun in the wet.
The karts were on slicks but we didn't want to pay the extra RM10 to change the tires. Where's the fun in that? :D First turn... understeer. Second turn, understeer. And so it goes. Hitting apexes seemed to be more a matter of luck than skill. Braking earlier didn't help either. Even trail-braking to assist with the turn-in was proved to be of limited success. Same thing with getting out of the corners. Understeer was the operative word. So I gave up driving proper lines and went for the Scandinavian flick: tap the brakes in the middle of the turn to upset the balance of the car and catch the oversteer at the exit. Daniel seemed to be extremely successful at this and was all but uncatchable.
At the end of the first run it was starting to pour so we waited for a while before going back out again. This time the circuit was very wet. On top of this my kart kept stalling out since I would hit the corner really sideways and water would get into the intake. After helping me restart the kart the marshall headed back out on his 125cc and spun backwards into the tire barriers, crashing heavily. Daniel said the guy was literally ejected out of his seat.
The rest of the day we spent hunting for car accessories for Shireen's Suzuki Grand VItara and ended with dinner at Han's at Seletar. Good fun, should do this more often. :)
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1 comment:
Went straight to photos and missed reading the text the first time.
In the wet you need to brake very early and then neutral open throttle from turn in to apex and then from apex to track out roll on the throttle gently. Throttle should never be closed - always at least partway open to torque the axle within traction limits. It is opposite of cars because of the solid rear axle.
The throttle-to-turn effect is masked in the dry at all but the highest speeds but in the wet it is evident at very low speeds. Another reason why wet driving is useful, exaggerating tendencies so in the dry you are still aware of them however diminished they are.
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