Dude, I had no idea someone could take the mental challenges and strategies to this level. I am a amazed honestly.
This is an amazing thread… I’m in a fairly similar situation to you Elias. Limited track time and budget, with only small and gradual improvements on race weekends (also 18 and looking at studying engineering at uni). Some of the info on here to help improve is amazing. Thanks everyone!
I would agree that mentally running through the track before a race helps a lot in getting up speed on race day. I find changing and tuning setup yourself to be really useful as well. Maybe ask your mechanic his thinking behind changes? Why he is changing what, and how it affects the kart? Could help with your understanding as how things work.
I’ve also learnt a lot just reading through setup advice on this forum, and anywhere I can find it on the interwebs. There is plenty of info out there if you have the time
Sounds like Purdue is the correct choice 
(Boilermaker here). Plus you would be a short 1-hour drive from Indy if you need a quick rental kart fix, and have three great kart tracks within two hours, including NCMP.
Karting will always be here for you to come back to if you need to take a break to focus on more important things (speaking from experience), but if you need to scratch the itch there are plenty of opportunities here in Indy.
Elias,
Are you aware of the energy cycle in a turning sequence? Do you understand what’s going on in terms of weight moving around and how that affects things?
Similarly, do you ever try to be aware of the front tires as you turn, trying to understand where they are in terms of grip and what is being asked of them?
For trying to get feel, I’d consciously try to make the front tires your hands and use them to feel what’s going on. Literally the tire is the palm of your front hand. Marry this sense of front end with the energy cycle.
Sounds flaky but it’s not, really. You can feel things, it’s just a matter of what you are listenting to/focusing on. There’s a lot of mental and other noise in karting that distracts.
Warren has written a bunch about this and it changed things for me pretty significantly. I’d recommend really reading (and talking with Warren) more.
Truth. It will be waiting, and if my son is any indication, it’s like riding a bike. You won’t forget. If it’s important to you (racing), you can enjoy this the rest of your life. And, it gets easier with adult resources.
You are really going to sell Purdue without mentioning the Purdue Grand Prix?!?!?! Come on, Evan.
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And harder with adult responsibilities (and body aches).
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Good call, I think I was distracted by our kid’s back-to-back blowouts this morning 
(speaking of adult responsibilities…)
Grand Prix is a perk I should have definitely mentioned, whether you aspire to enjoy behind the wheel, or behind the fence (drink in hand) 
For me it was a maddening experience though. Not sure if it’s changed in recent years, but there were so many ticky tack rules and regulations at the time. It was fun, but I was basically a one-man team aside from some friends that helped with the grunt work, so that made it difficult.
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So I gotta try and translate it. I think I could do that with more seat time.
that sounds like me! I learned how to use iLogic in inventor just prove a point once
Honestly I am kind of shocked how accurately I can recall and simulate that turn.
Just applied today! Ive got a friend who races F3 and goes to Purdue
To some extent. I understand loading and unloading, what a kart can do when its loaded, etc.
ive never actively thought about it, but ive tried different strategies of turning in. Im not 100% sure what youre getting at though
ive heard of it. Id be interested in that as well as FSAE.
Im enjoying falling off massive jumps skiing and waking up like I slept on a cloud while I still can
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Trying to get a sense of how you think. For me, driving is mostly feel. For you, it appears to be more intellectual. I guess I’m asking you to try to be aware of grip, to literally try to feel it. I find that with practice, you can learn to feel the tire and what it’s doing. This is valuable as you are putting down power as it can help you find additional grip in parts of the turn. You can sense efficiency/inefficiency from the tires chatter, the feedback it gives you through hands and seat.
Thanks for the kind words, but we’re just scratching the surface.
Excellent!
Translating is about taking sensations (either in real time, or replayed from memory), and associating them to something you can understand intellectually, so really, no seat time is required… only brain time. 
For example, over the years I have associated the sensations of driving to:
- Color (red = deceleration, blue = cornering, green = acceleration
- Driving on Rails; which is imagining that I’m driving on a slip vs g curve extruded out around the turn to essentially represent the traction ‘rail’ that I am driving on. The rail is small at turn-in (due to lack of loads), grows until peak lateral G is achieved, and then tails off at exit. That’s for the front tire, the load pattern is different for the rear tire, so ultimately the translated feel is it’s kinda like driving a berm in motoX. Actually I still use this one sometimes because really we all drive on ‘traction rails’, but the interesting bit is that we are actually creating the rails we drive on based on how we manage energy and load the tires.
- The Energy Cycle, which I my attempt to describe/relate to the interactions between driver inputs, energy movement, tire loading, slip angle & traction generation, and forces acting on the kart, throughout the cornering process.
I encourage you to take a look at this document, which explains the concepts of Speed as a Liquid, the Energy Cycle, and Sensitivity as it relates to driving based on the Energy Cycle.
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To break down what Dom is saying, while you’re driving it’s not just about having the right line and braking points, which is the logical aspect of it, but understanding what the kart is doing, the feel, and adapting to it, which goes into a combination of feel and intellect.
When you go through a corner, you will probably need to think about whether the front is doing what you want, or if it is not turning in enough or too much. When you recall a corner after the race, I always ask on turn in if the kart is doing what you want or if you have to adapt your driving to what the kart is doing. That leads to whether changes need to be made to the front end or not to get the kart to turn in ideally. Over time, you’ll be able to do this without thinking about it.
After that, it’s thinking about the kart handling from apex out, whether the rear end wants to step out or starts driving the kart to the outside too much. That’s where most rear end adjustments come in (its more technical than that, but the way I usually conceptualize tuning is that front end adjustments change the turn in, rear end adjustments change the corner exit). All of these inputs you get from the kart are feel, and you can go back to tuning intellectually, but you have to develop the feel for the kart before doing that.
Oh I get that. Sometimes it can bite in and sometimes it needs some effort, lots of different things can happen. At least for me
Yes, but do you know when it’s happening on track? It’s hard, I’ve had times where I thought the kart felt fine until we looked at data and I needed 3 more mph at the apex, and I realized I needed to free up the kart because if I got off the brakes any earlier as the kart was, it was going to push off the track.
Part of the challenge is recognizing these issues in the moment and being able to drive/tune around it. I’m not asking if you know what it means, I’m asking if you can tell when it happens when you’re at the track.
Couldn’t say right now. Been a while since I’ve been in a kart
Thanks for sharing that document, this kind of data interlocks with my brain wrinkles. 
You’re welcome, and welcome to the KP community!
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I got you man. It’s kinda tough when you have limit budget. From my understanding, the total cost of a KA100 race shouldn’t be anywhere less than $600. It includes the couple hundreds entrance fees and at least one set of new tires. If you already has ton of experience, just bet all the money on winning the biggest race in your region. So that someone could notice you and sponser you for some portion of the cost. Otherwise, I highly suggest try to use the money to have fun with those 4-stoke rental karts and create your own Youtube Channel. I believe that there’s many legit races in your region. After reaching coupe thousands followers and 100k+ views in total, you should be able to find some small sponsership. If I were you, I would “invest” my money on building your social media profile. Remember that, racing is 70% of business plus 30% skills. So, come up with your plan like building your own business. That shouldn’t take too long, if you want the money and sponserships that can support you to enter KA100 competitions.
A club KA100 race shouldn’t be more than $150 maybe. Tires will last multiple races, on the high end the fuel costs should be 2 gallons a day, which is $35 if you’re running race gas. Race entries vary but I think $60 is pretty standard, not 100% sure on that though. $600 sounds like a regional race cost.
It’s not that easy unfortunately. Even nationally almost nobody is sponsored outside of select top level drivers, I mean like 3 or 4 in the country. Most of the sponsors that are seen in karting are family friends donating money for fun. Realistically, there’s no return on investment in karting, so no company is going to throw a significant amount of money at a driver.
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