Quote:
Originally Posted by racerbruce
Well said MK,
Allow me to share my one-time experience driving a 6-speed race kart; this was a full-on competitive kart powered by a 125cc Honda 2-stroke tuned with racing expansion chamber, carburetor, etc and had Brembo brakes, racing slick tires, etc....the race track was a purposed built race kart track built in an area with significant elevation change, high-speed sweeping turns, off-camber turns, etc....I was wearing a hard sponge-type collar just below my fully enclosed helmet to assist with lateral G's....I was push started and it is hard to describe just how fast the race kart accelerated - it is blinding fast; I am very aware and experienced at the radical power band of a high performance 2 stroke engine as I used to race motocross competitively in the 250cc class (see my post on this on zpost); once I completed a lap to warm the tires, I took the kart to redline on the straight (you don't use the clutch to shift) and approached a left hander....I thought I had driven the machine as deep as possible approaching the turn before braking while traveling FAST in sixth gear, and jumped on the brakes....THE KART STOPPED NEARLY IMMEDIATELY....my nano-second thought was that I was now static on a race track and I'm going to be hit from behind....that was how extreme the negative G's and braking performance was....after recovering from this, I put together four consecutive laps pushing the race kart as hard as my skills would allow....and then pulled into the pits and stopped in front of the kart's owner....I put my visor up and he knelt down and asked me why I pulled in....I told him I COULD NOT TAKE THE LATERAL G'S AND MY NECK WAS GONE!!!!; he laughed.
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I had pretty much the exact same experience..a few pals and I paid the owner of a kart track (every summer for a few years) to hire his single speed race kart to do timed laps against each other...4 laps was about the limit for our necks and wrists....and we were all pretty fit in those days. The acceleration and grip was astonishing.
After our first day I recall driving home in my 911 turbo and thinking it had somehow been transformed into a slow roly poly gripless luxobarge!