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COTA Karting

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grandpaul

grandpaul

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Paul
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Zuniga
Had seen adverts for commercial public karting at COTA, and always thought it would be like Pinballz / Andretti or other amusement centers; no, it was at least one notch higher. They claim 55MPH top speeds, it felt like it.

Anyway, got a Christmas present of a 2-round outing and did better than I expected - 5th (out of 11, one lap down), then 3rd, on the lead lap (8 laps).

The guy there said 1 minute was a decent lap, I got 60.297 seconds even after getting WHACKED by some numbskull that locked up the brakes behind me. Only spun once as part of another whack that happened in a tight corner, the guy pushed me wide.

As usual, it's over way too quickly. 10 minutes is not enough to even get your line smooth. The first race I had good brakes and bad acceleration (felt like less torque); 2nd race I had better torque/acceleration but poor brakes (fading, then locking up).

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The facts that it was my first time on the track and it was at night, didn't help me much. I know I can do better next time.

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They also have 2-seaters, but I saw a guy and his daughter get T-Boned at pretty high speed, after they swept wide (coming back onto the course). I wouldn't take a little kid out there at those speeds; it looked like a dang hard hit...
 
I went to K1 racing one time and thought I was was doing really well when this woman passed me. I thought I'll just follow her line. That lasted about half a lap and I never saw her again. Of course she did have her own carbon fiber helmet that she brought with her. I looked at the board to find her name and later googled her. I saw a video of her driving a Mercedes SLS at Nurburing following a professional driver.
 
Yeah my wife got me this as a Christmas gift two years ago and we went and had a blast doing it. When I was there, there were too many bubbas out there just driving with the right pedal pinned and using other cars as turning and braking assist (I.e., ramming them) for my tastes. And I did find the go-carts were not really capable of getting into limits. I mean, you did have to lift coming into corners and then pin the throttle after the apex but then you could run everything that wasn't an active turn at WOT and never ever had to use the brake, not that the brakes actually, you know, worked.

FWIW we go to South Padre Island frequently and never miss the opportunity to hit the boadwalk go-cart track there. Love it. I haven't done any of these electric indoor go-cart tracks. I used to go to the good old Malibu Grand Prix in Austin all the time starting when I was a kid and right up until they closed down. That was a much more fun go-cart experience for me.
 
Tigerkf said:
I went to K1 racing one time and thought I was was doing really well when this woman passed me. I thought I'll just follow her line. That lasted about half a lap and I never saw her again. Of course she did have her own carbon fiber helmet that she brought with her. I looked at the board to find her name and later googled her. I saw a video of her driving a Mercedes SLS at Nurburing following a professional driver.
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That story reminds me of one of my track day coaching sessions on motorcycles. I had a female racer coaching me all day. There was a guy there with another (male) coach that gave off that hot shot vibe. He was passing our group the most of the day.

During the last session my coach told me she was going to break off and go have some fun. That hot shot dude tried to go with her, I assume with intention of passing her to show how good he was. I jumped in behind them to watch the show from a distance. But after about 6 turns, he ran off the track trying to keep up with her, lol. The male ego can be a dangerous thing :)
 
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Heh. It's not just male ego, IMHO. I read a story in R&T or C&D (is there a difference?) 20+ years ago about the writer's experience at one of these Bondurant driving school weeks. They started the whole thing in (90s..) VW Golfs and then worked their way all the way to open-wheel Formula Ford cars by the end of the week. And then on the last day during their session, the instructor joined the open-wheel drivers on the track and proceeded to pass and lap all of them in one of the Golfs. Kind of like when the Stig used to obliterate the boys in their supercars while driving some random Hyundai.

There's just no substitute for experience.

I used to joke that mountain biking was a combination of guts, fitness, and experience. There is a finite limit to how much guts you can apply before you crash, and incremental improvements in fitness can be elusive to realize. But every time you ride you add to your experience, and there's a point at which no amount of guts and fitness can overcome that level of experience, which is why young guys who are 10% body fat and think they are bulletproof get smoked on the trail by guys in their 60s all the time.
 
Jarrett said:
That story reminds me of one of my track day coaching sessions on motorcycles. I had a female racer coaching me all day. There was a guy there with another (male) coach that gave off that hot shot vibe. He was passing our group the most of the day.

During the last session my coach told me she was going to break off and go have some fun. That hot shot dude tried to go with her, I assume with intention of passing her to show how good he was. I jumped in behind them to watch the show from a distance. But after about 6 turns, he ran off the track trying to keep up with her, lol. The male ego can be a dangerous thing :)
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I had no ego about it just thought I would follow the line of someone who knew what they were doing but she had other plans!
 
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