What Topics and Content Would you Like to See on KartPulse?

Further to this topic: Is Journalism in Karting Dead?

With 2018 coming soon, now is as good a time to ask as any…

  • What kind of content/topics would you like to see covered next year?
  • In what kind of format Video/Written/Other?

Reviews?
Technical articles?
Driving?
More memes?
Interviews?
Other…

As a newb I am always interested in stuff about driving/racing better.

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Let me ask you this… what do you think would help you improve the most right now?

Would be cool to have a monthly or bi-weekly tech article. Starting at the basics gradually adding more in depth information as you continue

ie; this is a kart and over view > kart assembly > mounting seat > axle stiffness > ackerman > engine tuning etc

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As someone who has been in karting a long time, I would like to see articles about tests conducted on different kart components, e.g.:

  • stress strain tests on axles, while both rotating and stationary
  • Seat comparisons, what dimensions they are stiff in and what dimensions they flex in, how these factors impact the karts feeling into, during, and out of the turn, under braking, etc.
  • Geometry differences between chassis, i.e king pin inclination and caster, distance from chassis centre line, and stub axle/spindle angles (does this angle have a name? it’s hard to describe), width between chassis rails, etc. - the subtle differences
  • editorials about unique chassis which don’t just conform to the regular chassis formula (a la Maranello RS8, TrackKart Hammerhead)

I understand some of these points are a lot to take on, but if enough people are interested, creating a patreon account so that tools and gear can be acquired to carry out these tests would be a great idea :slight_smile:

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Rake angle is what I’ve used to describe it. I’d love to do those kinds of tests too. I know some have been done in the past, sometimes the folks that did it were forthcoming with info, other times not. It would be interesting to test static and dynamic loads, damping etc.

Not quite the same, but along those lines @The_Karting_Channel and Inhave talked about doing some dyno days as a video series.

A patreon account is a great idea. How much would you pay? :smile:

I would probably pay $10-20/month at first, and if the content was high quality and fresh enough, and scientific, I would pay up to $50 a month :slight_smile:

The karting community is in dire need of reliable knowledge sharing which is backed up by evidence, and not just anecdotes. It is something I am working on within my club as I grow my own understanding. I begun to develop software which modeled the front end of a chassis to analyse the effects of track width, stub/rake angles, king pin caster and inclination. It was quite successful as a personal learning tool but I never did get around to finishing it off.

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Agree strongly here. A lot of anecdotes… expressed as facts.

That’s pretty cool. This inspired me to kick off this topic, come tell us more…:

Honestly don’t know. I’m just always interested in instructional/technique stuff in general.

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Why isn’t ‘More Podcasts’ an option on this list?
Oh wait, I’ve just given myself more work to do… lol :stuck_out_tongue:

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Came here to say this, as crew I am really focused on tuning and would like to see some kind of laddered tuning guide. Every season I have worked on adding a new parameter or two to my tool kit. I could use a better understanding of how kart setup works as a unit versus change this to get this. I would like to get better balance in the setup.

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Can you say more about this.
Also, paging @Eric_Gunderson1

All I’ll say at this point—Yeah, that’s gonna get handled.

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Good pun! :point_up: :smirk:

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Little late to the party here, but agree on quite a few points above. It seems like you guys REALLY want to grow the sport of Karting (which I love BTW), but the #1 headache for me when I was looking to get into it, was there is no place (that I have found) that goes over the differences in depth of all the classes. Most of it was contacting someone selling a kart, and hoping they give you the truth about what you class you can run in. For instance I didn’t know (don’t laugh) that the TAG class was rear brake only. I was looking at 2 different chassis that were set up for shifters with no engines attached, and was told 'oh ya this will be perfect for you". I no joke almost picked up a Miata to build a Spec Miata car, cause I was so worried I was buying the wrong thing.I know alot of clubs/places run their own rules, but still this was the biggest headache/unknown from someone trying to get into a sport for me.

Would be fun to see threads like “what did you do to your kart today”, and Build threads as well.

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Karthunters! I would love to see more content detailing individual kart builds and the people behind each project. Kind of like Speedhunters or Narita Dog Fight. A few good pictures and a little bit of writing go a long way.

There are TONS of awesome kart builds out there: Restoration efforts, crazy unlimiteds and laydowns in the enduro scene, and the Unlimited All Stars crew… Enough content for hundreds of articles. But is the interest out there?

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@Double0fox not sure when you got started in kart racing, but “Karting 101” was made in part to address this. It has a whole section devoted to karting classes, and talks about the different types of karting.

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Hey there @Double0fox ! Didn’t want to leave your response hanging. I’d definitely love to hear more about your story in detail.

This problem is very, very real. The number of classes, crossover and ambiguity can be a real PITA. that’s one of the reasons I think we’re seeing the spec chassis and series like the VLR and Margay Ignite do well. It basically eliminates decision fatigue. When you buy it, you know it’s going to work, work well and that you’ll have others to race against. The Briggs 206, same thing when it comes to the motor.

It’s a problem probably as old as karting and there’s no easy solution. Each club is trying to cater to their own group and there isn’t really a single body with klout and resources to incentivize something homogeneous and universally appealing. Really the only exception has been Briggs with their 206.

My approach (and the approach on the forums here) with some starting out has been to try and understand what their unique situation is (Budget, goals, location, time commitment) then work backwards to make a suggestion on what’s likely to work well. Typically racers and even clubs will try to all the options to folks starting out and it confuses the bejeepers out of people.

The other thing I we try to help make racers more savvy customers, asking questions that help them navigate some of the BS. Classic example is “Sounds like xxx chassis wins all the things at yyy races so I should buy that”, 8/10 the answer is probably a no.

Have you caught our #interesting-karts category yet? The name is under consideration… I’d definitely like to see more stuff on there. We highlight the projects on our social channels too, so if you know anyone working on a build, encourage them to share it with us here.

Why not “Kick off a topic for what did you do to your kart today” and let’s see what happens.

As far as the build threads, it does not have to be anything amazing. Hell if you went through, and changed out bearings, and took pics along the way. I would be down to have a read through. I have pretty much went through mine head to toe, except the engine itself, and took a ton of pics along the way. I just like to see everyone’s day to day on their kart…but I might be a minority on that. But I didn’t wan’t to post it cause I am not sure anyone will consider it “interesting”.

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