Thank you for posting my videos! I have fun making them so I’m glad at least someone enjoys them.
I use adobe premier pro, which is paid software, but I could have made what I made in something as simple as the built in windows movie maker, or whatever they call it these days. I think its just video editor? Its free and should already be on your computer.
I had a blast with @E13 and @AndreLafond last weekend. I never raced in the rain before so I learned a lot from them. I’m glad they were willing to have me along. As you can see from the video, I definitely messed up a few times but that’s learning.
It was good fun, sad you couldn’t make it.
The rain was pretty wild, you’d just turn in all the way and wait for it to grip up, which it would pretty quickly once it got off the rubber. You could feel the steering get heavy and the kart start rotating. The weird thing with our last kart was it wouldn’t grip up, instead of the sudden understeer to grip on the previous karts, this one would continue to push forward unhappily.
Another part of the track was INCREDIBLY slippery, as in, 10% throttle would give you wheel spin slippery
Had another great day at the track last weekend. Slightly different layout than I had driven before (turns 3,4 and 5) but felt like I took to it fairly quickly. The biggest thing is that I managed to finally figure out my kart’s balance. Without snipers (I have some on the way now), I had been setting the front end alignment and toe with toe plates. These work okay but they are not very precise. But, I finally managed to get it right and boy, did I have WAY more mid corner and exit grip! I had been dealing with snap oversteer issues where I would just constantly loose the rear end in the mid and exit of a corner. After playing around with just about every setup change, I narrowed the issue down to my steering not being aligned left to right. I re-did the alignment and measured everything 1,000 times and it paid off.
The main driving technique I was working on was my braking. Or rather, coming off the brake into the corners. I realized I was getting a bad habit of releasing the brake abruptly going into corners instead of easing off. That was upsetting the kart and probably contributing to my issues. After watching the Norberg video of his feet, I realized that he was trail braking into most corners. Ironically, the RPG team was here in the morning practicing for the Beaver Cup and Norberg was there driving which was neat! Turn 1 is a heavy braking zone with a tough, slightly less less than 90 degree corner with a tight exit. I felt way more in control on corner entry and could really feel the bite point of the tires. Because I was not just braking hard, coming off completely and hoping my corner speed was correct, I felt way more confident through the corners because I could modulate my speed via the trail braking. I ended up being able to carry way more speed into the corner, brake later and not upset the kart on corner exit as much. Felt like a breakthrough day!
On the flip side, after 6 sessions and way more grip, my left ribs were killing me. I wear a Bengio but being 6’2", a lot of my torso is out of the seat. My standard Greyhound seat isnt very deep and where it curved inward, it puts a ton of pressure on the front of my lower ribcage. I think the seat is just a bit too small but also, I am going to see if switching to a NEK style seat will help alleviate the pain. Thankfully, I couldnt race sunday anyway because there was no way I could have raced if I wanted to I was in so much pain the next day.
Let me know if you have any tips or comments on my driving!
I think those extenders would be good if the seat wasnt too small. Just sitting in the seat puts quite a bit of pressure on my lower ribcage through my Bengio. I am going to try a different seat whether that is a NEK or just a larger standard seat. I’m going to go into the shop next week and sit in a few different ones that they have there. What is nice is that I am roughly the same weight and height as the guy who owns the shop so he offered to have me sit in a few of his karts with different seats.
Yesterday we drove at a very small track Located in Gislaved where the famous Jocke Ward started his team Ward Racing in.
Very small track, 31.3s was my fastest of the day. The bumpiest track I have ever driven on, very technical and unforgiving. But it still was fun, quite bruised up today😂
No you were fine haha, I was referring to the backmarkers. What computer do you have? If you have windows, then the one that comes on it is solid and I use it. Mac probably has a decent one too.
Davinci Resolve is what I use. It is free and crazy powerful. For simple highlight reels, cutting and trimming, it is pretty easy to figure out. There are a lot of youtube videos out there to help too. It is very nice!
Finally! Haven’t driven my KZ since September last year. I felt at home right at the first session, love it to bits. Especially when you get into a rhythm and the gears just go up and down in a synchronized manner
Drove faster today than what I did qualify at last years race at this track, good considering my tires had been stored cold in freezing temps during the winter
Really nice driving Andre. Some committed driving and really good passes. The braking noises are great! Engine sounds good too.
I love how you drove the longer radius turns.
If I ever get absurdly wealthy I’ll start a team kalled the Killer Bees and get a few of these cars and have them painted all bee like in black and yellow, would be very badass. You can be my first team driver. Now to go make that pile of money.
Actually, now that I think about it, it would be a lot of fun. Imagine having Tanguy as our Binotto or Horner. We’d give the poor man a nervous breakdown. I’d hire Warren as the mysterious racing hermit god that suddenly appears and says profound things when most needed and then vanishes into thin air. And we’d have TJ on retainer for our helmets, of course. Pretty sure we could steal some of our IMSA and GT mechanic pros away to wrench for us.
Come to think of it, we could probably field an actual complete full blown racing team with the talent here. But, who wants to be our Lawrence?
Borderline criminal! Jokes apart, great to see you back! You also have a PCR/Vortex ICA correct?
To me, it’s the quintessential kart experience. 100cc old school direct drive and modern KZ. Both super challenging, both awesome in their own way
