I’m new to karts but did a fair amount of driving in cars before. I’m a little confused about downshifting. I’ve been told it’s bad for the engine to not downshift early/over rev the engine, which makes no sense to me. I’ve been told it stabilizes the kart. I’ve been told it helps braking power. None of these make any sense. Modern brakes are strong enough and apply power way more consistently than engine braking. So it shouldn’t be about stability or braking power. Also a set of pads is way cheaper than a transmission or crank for maintenance. But it does seem like (from YouTube videos I’ve watched and drivers I’ve talked to) everyone pretty much downshifts before they slow down. Often times hitting their first downshift as soon as they start to brake. Can anyone explain this to me? If I’m just driving for fun and want the engine (TM R2) to last as long as possible, is it worth it?
I’m a seasoned shifter driver, and have been doing my own engine work for a couple years now. If you want to save your engine then avoid aggressive downshifting, plain and simple. Downshifting to the tune of 16k-17k will severely decrease the life of the rod assembly, often to the point of failure if abused. That type of failure can lead to collateral damage of the piston, head, and even cylinder/cases if catastrophic.
From a driving standpoint, it can be common in a “race” scenario to use the gearbox for engine braking in certain circumstances. I think it’s most effective in higher-grip conditions, and specifically in corners where the driver is braking and turning simultaneously. Because the brake bias in a shifter kart is usually very front-biased, it means that bias isn’t necessarily optimized for all corner types. I can’t present any data to substantiate this, but one can pretty easily spot this behavior at big races.
More practically, there’s also value in having your downshifts completed before initiating corner entry, especially in the aforementioned conditions where, for instance, trying to navigate the middle of a long decreasing radius corner one-handed my come at the expense of control and stability.
Thanks for the feedback! The track I’m driving is new and always dusty so power has never been an issue. I’ll probably just stick to slowing down before down shifting unless racing.
I got you a solution for that one-handed stuff. 