How to take a HAIRPIN in Karting (tutorial)
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 17. 06. 2023
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A hairpin turn can be tricky to negotiate as a beginner in Go Karting. In this video we cover the fastest racing line and speed secrets behind perfect your line on a hairpin turn!
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âą Koi
In general, I drive with people that either have no clue how to take an hairpine turn, or people who master it. So when attacking, I often throw myself on the inside, and take a small lead. The good thing on my local track is that the following corners are fast corners , so if you have a small lead, you can try to keep it even if you are slower as you are automatically on the inside part of the track.
I use to mess with people indoor karting ! Thankfully with outdoors we had pretty much same groups for rentals and as kart owners ! Get to learn a new track Saturday !!!! 6 hours to study it as a track Marshall for the race Saturday ! Seat time next month' ! This will be 18th year of karting ! The 1st three was indoors . Add Canadian winter with a good track and got to learn learn alot from local racers ! The 5 lap superstars always end up in tires with no help from me !! Even becoming a track marshal was unexpected ! Not once have I ever taken crap from a driver from a call I made against them It took 13 years to get a contact penalty ! Did ok for a washed up never was in mid 30's and now 54 and still enjoy it !
Iâm sorry, this advice only works for absolute beginners.
If you have a bit of experience in karting and youâre looking to improve your time, you have to use a different method.
1. Start wide, this is universally important
2. As you approach the turn, start turning while slowly increasing the pressure on the brake pedal.
3. This should create a sensation of something âpullingâ the kart into the turn.
4. Once you feel that acceleration wonât cause you to lose control and spin, you should switch from breaking to accelerating.
5. Getting out wide is, again, universally important.
This approach doesnât work for beginners, because it requires you to âfeelâ the kart, but this is absolutely faster than whatâs described in the video.
Weâre talking at least a 2-second gain.
Cheers!
with your approach, do you break traction/slide/get sideways/drift at any point? Or is it fully "not sliding" all the way, like in an F1 car?
It seems you described trail braking. I've heard it's better to threshold brake on rentals as they're slow; is this true or should I use trail braking?
Thanks for the step by step guideđ
very helpful, been racing 2 weeks ago and i suck haha, i will try that next time :) thank you
I think that the easiest way to show a beginner the best line though any corner is to teach them to find the line through the corner that will straighten out the turn as much as possible. The less that you need to turn the steering wheel to negotiate the turn then the better. Because 4 Stroke rental karts, including the twin engined 'pro karts' have such poor acceleration when compared to a more serious 2 stroke outfit such as the Rotax or TKM engined karts that compete in National and International Championships that can accelerate from 0-60mph in around 3.5 seconds, or even less when talking about gearbox karts and the top level Division One Superkarts, capable of 150(ish) mph (I used to work for a Division One team when I was younger) that can hit 60 from standstill in a little over 2 seconds.
So the best technique in a 4 stroke rental kart is to be as smooth as possible. The least amount of steering input, the quicker the lap times. The quickest drivers are the ones that are doing the least amount of work behind the wheel. And this applies all the way through all forms of circuit racing, right the way up to Formula One.
Going sideways might look cool, but it just scrubs off speed. And in a 4 stroke rental kart with such poor acceleration the last thing you want to do is scrub the tyres and kill the speed.
I also worked at an indoor karting circuit for quite a while when I was at college and the fastest drivers were always the ones that looked the most relaxed and boring. As if they were out for a Sunday cruise. It was because they were the smoothest drivers and looked as if they were hardly turning the steering wheel. You need to try and keep all 4 wheels pointing in the same direction as much as possible.
You mention 'slow in, fast out', quite a lot. And this was probably the very first thing that was drummed into me repeatedly by my mentor during my karting days.
The second thing i was taught was 'To finish first, first you have to finish'. Mechanical sympathy was also key. 2 stroke engines go faster and faster the more 'lean' you can run the engine. But there is a very fine line between the perfect fuel to air mixture and being too lean, which will cause the engine to seize or 'nip' up and cut out totally.
You would often see drivers smother the air intake with their hand at the end of a long straight. This was done because they were running the engine so lean that it would be right on the very limit of seizing up and by smothering the air intake at the end of a long straight where the engine had been running at maximum rpm, it would stop air from entering the engine for just a second or so which meant that there would be a nice extra rich fuel mixture entering the engine. As 2 strokes rely on oil that is mixed with the petrol to lubricate the piston, crankshaft, big end bearing and so on. This extremely rich fuel mixture would totally soak the engine internals with oil and hopefully prevent it from seizing up at high rpm.
Sorry for droning on and on and probably boring you to tears, but i truly miss my karting days of my youth and just commenting about some of them brings so many great racing memories flooding back.
I would encourage anyone that enjoys driving 4 stroke rental karts to try and have a go in a 2 stroke 'proper' racing kart. The difference between them is night and day and although they are extremely physically demanding to drive, the raw thrill of a 2 stroke in its power band at 14 or 15 plus thousand rpm screaming it's head of just beside you is absolutely unparalleled.
Late apexing is used on cars / karts with high power to weight. Rental karts, even most lower formula karts, do not have the acceleration to take advantage of a late apex.
i in general do a harpin turn with a fast in slow out because then its better
Fun fact, I bumped in a video of you, about 4 years ago, and (compliment warning) your vids improved really really well on all facts you ca nthink off. Well done sir
4 years ago should have been 4 months ago, sorry about that
I think i need to really concentrate on this late apex for hairpins you are talking about. I think i generally use a middle and maybe even slightly early apex. We'll see how that works out.
Hey man found you from tiktok and i have question: How to understand at what point you should turn to corner because im strugling whit that ;( Sometimes i think i turn into corner to early
Itâs all experimentation, ideally you can see someone whoâs quick at a particular track and copy their lines, braking points etc, however if you have no one directly in front of you on track you just trial and error, if you think you turn too early, find a reference point so that you can ensure youâre now turning a little later, then carry on with this process from there
Good guide. Do you ever brake hard while steering to throw the kart a little sideways on entering a very sharp hairpin⊠or are you only ever braking hard in a straight line before steering?
When you attack someone, you can do that. But to get a good lap time, you should not slide the kart too much in an hairpine, because your kart will have to re-create the speed youâve lost by sliding. At least, thatâs the theory đ
@marktrevarthen5017 You can brake as you are turning in, but you must be very careful not to exceed the level of grip the tire has because you could easily spin out. Both braking and turning require grip, you must be careful not to exceed the grip capability of the tire. Too much sliding will only scrub off speed and produce a slower lap. This technique is called trail braking and can help you squeeze that elusive extra 1/10 second out of your lap time. It is a more advanced driving technique and takes practice to master. Another technique that can be useful on tight turns is to stab the brakes very hard right after the turn in point to get the rear end to momentarily break loose and improve your turn radius so you can get back to the throttle earlier on the exit. If your go kart has enough power (which rental karts typically do not) you can also use extra throttle to steer the rear end of the kart which helps potentially improve lap time. Nothing helps more than seat time and following someone with more experience and pay attention to what they do. Hope this helps!
@@roba730 thanks, that really does help! 100% agree on your seat time point and I do learn a lot from racing with faster drivers... the trouble is, whilst it's easy to see what lines they are taking and how much speed they're carrying into the turn, it's harder to see how much brake they're applying (and how hard they're applying it) going into a hairpin. Great tips there, thank you.
You say âbrake in straight lineâ but video always shows kart turning while braking?
how long do you hold the brakes for?
Secrets
And what do I do if I have a triple hairpin?
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You have to show triple the bravery on braking late, I'd say so myself. Good luck!