Observation from racing with my now 17 yr old son… I’m kind of blown away how much physical/mental maturation has an effect on driving.
In the past few years Nick only gets in a kart 2-4 times a year. But, he’s a far more skilled and confident driver all around now, despite really limited seat time.
Somehow just getting older made him “better” in all ways.
Just his understanding of instructions from 5 to 6 has been huge. We can talk corners and things to try next session. We have hand signals pre discussed as reminders if he reverts back to the wrong way of taking a corner or setting up a pass
It may be that as they get older and gain general experience they have more agency over themselves, less needing to be told and more ability to self-discover and analyze.
Dean, I am wondering why I am looking over at you in the one picture.
Probably thinking to yourself, “Who is freakin new guy?"
I noticed that about myself too. I am ten times better that I used to be back in my competition days
…the older I get the faster I was… 
Integration over time maybe? For me, I started to realize intellectually why/how I was instinctively or intuitively doing the things that made me fast in my youth… which allowed me to ‘level-up’ everything. Or, at least, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. 
A bit of that, but also I was getting more confident in my abilities growing up which helped tremendously when trying to achieve my full potential
I honestly think, in the case of Nick, that he has no real “desire” to be a good karter and hasn’t expended much mental/emotional energy to that end.
He is just not scared at all now, and just goes out and does. I think because he is so “chill” about it all, he just allowed himself to be “good”.
Unlike his fragile father who obsesses over everything and used to shoot himself in the foot at every turn, overthinking it all.
Actually, after my reply to Tanguy, I was thinking that there are different roads to integration:
I also think that driving fast is a relatively intense experience, which may therefore quickly produces strong (low resistance) connections in the brain, so perhaps the random neuron firings of everyday life more often than randomly find themselves traveling down these driving wiring pathways; strengthening, and perhaps broadening, them over time with no real effort or practice. Perhaps this is what’s happening with the youngsters, or casual drivers.
Also, as Tanguy said, incremental success over time (and perhaps reflection on that) can improve confidence, which always will make it easier to release more of one’s true potential.
I also think that over time it is possible (maybe even probable) that drivers can develop the ability to extract more layers of resolution or meaning from a given set of sensations. With this increased resolution of feel/connection, controlling all aspects of driving can becomes easier, more fun, and more fulfilling.
Of course there is also the distinct possibility that I may be full of 
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A friend snapped a pic of @fatboy1dh and myself in our Comet LEagles at New Castle a couple weeks ago.
This seems to ring true.
Edit: as a for example when I started down this path I felt load but not tire so much. Now I feel tire and load. The loading was the the dominant sensation that drowned out the rest. the sensation of load has receded and now I can hear/feel tire where before I couldn’t.
Hey, @CrocIndy, I’ve got a couple of dumb questions… I’ve never seen a modern kart with the engine on the left, does it take a special kart design to do that (Australian maybe ), and what is the motivation/benefit for running that setup?
This seems to me to describe being ‘in the zone’ where you are acting on sensations or visual cues without thinking about it. I’ve experienced it playing soccer, softball and racing cars. You just know what is happening around you without looking and act on it without thinking. It seems to come with experience and is one of the reasons I enjoy playing sports (not so much anymore) and racing.
Sawzalls, grinders and welders.
Only real tangible benefit is 1 piece 219 gears without cutting them and clutch access honestly. I’m still slow.
The way I read it was a bit different. To me it speaks to getting to a point where the intensity of driving (sensation of speed, decision making, etc) all recedes and is replaced by a total comfort and confidence in your ability to make the kart execute on your intent. With zero mental noise or anxiety.
It occurred to me the other day, when Rental racing, that I have achieved this in those slow, heavy karts. I literally feel like I can make them do exactly what I want and that I trust it and myself completely.
Gone are the days of “aaaaah 3 wide into a corner, HALP!”, now it’s more like “okidoki let’s do this and here’s how it’s gonna go”.
The zone is something I can relate to but for me that’s always been more of a “transcendent” experience where I recede completely from the picture and am disassociated from the experience. I “wake up” when I realize what’s happened/happening and get pulled back into the moment.
I think the thing Warren said is relatable to me in that I feel more “empowered” and comfortable, confident and thus more “playful” with my driving. If that makes sense…
I think of the high-resolution feel as having three requirements:
Being able to achieve and maintain a zone state, where you holistically experience each moment and respond (drive) largely automatically based on how well that moment matches what you expect (which is based on your mental model of the track - aka driving plan).
Being able to operate in a dual-consciousness mode, where a portion of your awareness is handling the observation/monitoring of zone related activities/process, and your higher-level consciousness resources (freed by being in zone mode), can be actively directed toward whatever is important to you in the moment; e.g. race strategy, chassis tuning, high-resolution feel, etc.
Possessing a sufficient depth of understanding (explicit, implicit, or preferably both) to be able to ‘see’ and understand deeper layers of information and the relationships therein.
For example, all drivers can feel traction, or cornering loads at some level. However a novice may feel only overall traction, with experience, then they begin to distinguish between front vs rear traction. If they don’t learn about slip angles, front vs rear traction may be as ‘deep’ as they go. However if they learn about slip angles then they can start at least partially relating to this more detailed information instead of just traction.
But high-resolution feel is really useful when you understand the relationships between the whole process that is generating the traction. For example, where do slip angles come from… energy. Energy is transferred to a tire where it becomes load. Load helps the rubber of the tire interlock with the track (and/or rubber on the track) to generate traction… which produces slip angles. The traction generated acts on the kart’s center of mass, causing more energy to be transferred, and so the cycle continues until there is no longer enough energy to maintain the slip angles and generate that level of traction. This is typically when the kart ‘rotates’ and then you are back to the same energy cycle, but for the rear tire on the way out of the turn.
Anyway, bla, bla, bla; bottom line, if you understand the relationships, and you are running your brain efficiently, then you can choose to drive by whatever level of sensation (energy, load, slip angle, etc.) that you prefer. And, of course, you can change it up on the fly. Also, understanding the process, and being able to resolve the elements within, will allow you to be much better at anticipating/predicting what’s going to happen, which let’s you lead the process instead of follow it.
Plus you win the psychological war hands down! 
When did they start making left side engine mounted Comet Eagles.
