The Sniper Adjuster Pill System.
Before you blow off this article because you don’t have a Sniper Adjuster system on your kart, you might want to look into it. The reason I say this is the Sniper pill system is the only system that allows you to unilaterally change your camber without affecting/altering your caster setting and vice versa. As I discussed in the Tuning With Caster (FKI Free Trial Issue) article, even making a small caster change with the 20 hole TonyKart caster pill set-up will slightly affect and change the camber setting (and this is a great system). The Sniper Adjuster system is only $58 and can be fitted to most karts with a 22 mm caster pill opening.[i] Perhaps most importantly, you can make both caster and camber changes very quickly (5-10 min) WITHOUT having to re-align your kart. That being said, having used the system, there are a few tips to ensure you make the changes accurately as well as quickly…
[i] Editors Note – The Sniper Adjuster system will not fit on all karts. Check with the dealer on your kart’s yoke dimensions as two 4mm holes need to be tapped into frame (and you will need to buy the tap). The system is available for karts with both 8 and 10 mm kingpin bolts. Check with your dealer to be sure your current bolts will work or you can purchase some for about $10 each. You will need a “Neutral” or center pill on the bottom which you most likely already have but will want to check.
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Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) is a very common and useful tuning aid for 2-stroke engines. SwedeTech Racing Engines is asked many times a week, “What should I run for EGT?” Well, that depends mostly on you and your data findings, as optimum EGTs for any given engine type can vary widely depending on a number of factors. Consequently, you are better off testing and determining the best EGT for your engine specifically. Here are some tips to help you arrive at a conclusive answer…
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You need to be in the right position to pass. How do you get there? Read on.
You’ll hear it all the time in the Pitlane or the Driver’s Meeting, “I’m a better qualifier than racer.” Or, “I’m a better racer than qualifier.” If I had to pick between the two, I’d take the latter every time. While it’s true that on some tracks qualifying is 90% of the race because the track may be particularly difficult to pass on, most of the time, your race craft is going to get you the results and there is nothing more essential to your race craft than the Art of Passing.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been bumped by the guy behind me at the apex of a corner. I know that most of the time it is not intentional but if it is continual I always think, “What the hell are you doing?” Why? Not because it is annoying but because the guy is ruining any chance of passing me using what we will term as the Classic Pass technique. While on the subject of labeling passing techniques, let’s break the Art of Passing into four categories: The Classic Pass, The Dive Bomb, The Cold Tire Pass, and The Two to Tango Pass (which will become self-evident later in the article). We’ll start with the Classic Pass…
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Ackerman at work. If you look closely you will see that the inside wheel (driver's left in this case) is turning sharper than the outside wheel. (Click on image to enlarge)
We have touched on the subject of toe and we have discussed Ackerman in previous FKI’s[i] but do you realized that the two are related? Most karters don’t. Since most chassis manufacturers recommend that you set your toe on the stand so that it is “neutral” or “zero” on the ground this is as far as most karters take it. The theory being that with zero toe your kart will not scrub speed down the straight. But does your kart lose straightaway speed if it is slightly toed in or toed out on the ground? And, what does all this have to do with Ackerman? Read on, the results may surprise you…
[i] For more on toe please refer to: Myth Busting the Mystery of Toe – FKI February 2011. For more on Ackerman please refer to: Chassis Tuning – Mystery Area – FKI April 2011.
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I’m sitting in line for the scales after the Main at this year’s SuperNats when everyone starts asking each other what gear they were running. After talking to one of the drivers who went into great detail on how he arrived at his final gear choice, I realized I need to elaborate more on gear choice and write an additional article on the thought process, theory, and data analysis you use to find that last tenth with your gear choice. So here goes…
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When viewing your Dyno Sheet from SwedeTech Racing Engines, the first question you might ask yourself is, “Where Are My Dynamometer’s Horsepower Numbers?”
Great question! We don’t supply dyno numbers. We do not want to understate the importance of having the proper tools and equipment to build a racing engine and the dynamometer is a huge asset. However, we want to educate our customers on when the dyno numbers are important…
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Is that a picture of a new chassis on Zanardi's website? No! That's my year old kart after being Spotlisized.
I have often been asked at the track how I keep my kart so clean. I was considering doing an article on this subject anyway and then a subscriber asked to see an article on “chassis preservation” in the FKI survey, so here we are. Now, before you possibly blow this article off thinking it will not make you any faster, I beg to differ. Why? Well, in my opinion, there are a number of reasons.
First and foremost, if you clean your kart often, you will find things and many times these things will adversely affect the performance of your kart and would otherwise go unnoticed. The perfect example – a cracked or broken seat strut or seat tab. I can’t tell you how many times I have chased an unexplainable oversteer condition only to find that I had broken one of my seat tabs when I was cleaning the kart. The same could be said for the seat posts, especially the one on the engine side. If this post is covered in a thick coat of baked-on chain lube and dirt, you are never going to be able to tell if it is cracked or broken until it gets very severe!
Here’s the other more theoretical side of my clean kart is a fast kart philosophy…
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The Best Karting Video Ever
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Click on the picture to see the video!!
I was going to do another post-SuperNats article but after seeing this video, there was no point. Nothing I could write would be remotely this cool. Just so I am clear, this is not an in-kart or someone dragging around a camera with useless commentary. This is professional grade and captures not only the magnitude of the event itself, but what it means and feels like to be at the SuperNats. More importantly, it captures the essence of why we kart, the SuperNats is just the medium used to take us there. I don’t know who Jon Shofner is but he is a genius at capturing the nuances of our sport with phenomenal cinematography, editing, and an amazing soundtrack. Nice work and thanks, get chills everytime I watch it!!
Here’s the link or click on the picture to be taken to the video: 32652899?autoplay=1 SuperNats
If I had to summarize my SuperNats experience with one picture, this would be it. How did I get here? Read on.
I spend hours writing these articles, you spend a great deal of time reading them. But each article is an isolated subject and you may be asking yourself how do you apply all this knowledge in the real world, race-weekend conditions. Well, the best example that I can possibly give you is the SuperNats. The SuperNats is 5 days of intense karting where the stakes couldn’t be higher – 8 practice sessions, 3 warm-up sessions, a qualifying session unparalleled in importance, 3 long heats, the biggest Main of the year, and all on constantly changing track conditions. I may be writing the Newsletter, but when I get to any track, I am standing exactly in any one of your shoes. So why don’t we take a look at the evolution of a set-up as a race weekend unfolds. You will see how my tuner and I approached each session and be able to compare it to how you would have approached the same issues. In fact, as a useful exercise, after reading the session debrief and before you read what changes we made, stop and think what you would do. My main goal with this article is to help you translate what you read from month to month to the field of battle…
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I spend hours writing these articles, you spend a great deal of time reading them. Each article is an individual, isolated subject and you may be asking yourself how do you apply all this in the real world, race-weekend conditions. Well, the best example that I can possibly give you is the SuperNats. The SuperNats is 5 days of intense karting where the stakes couldn’t be higher – eight practice sessions, three “Warm-up” sessions, a qualifying session unparalleled in its importance, three long heats, the biggest main of the year, and all on constantly changing track conditions. I may be writing the Newsletter, but when I get to any track, I am standing exactly in any one of your shoes. So why don’t we take a look at the evolution of a set-up as a race weekend unfolds. You will see how my tuner and I approached each session but maybe you have a different thought and theory. In fact, as a useful exercise, after reading the session debrief and before you read what changes we made, stop and think what you would do. As my main goal with this article is to help you translate what you read from month to month to the field of battle…
Track widths – the distance between your kart’s tires from side to side. Probably the quickest and easiest change you can make to your kart and one of the quickest to read on the track. For this reason it also may be the change you have the most experience with, I know it is for me. Don’t let the ease of the change fool you however, a simple track width change can yield 1 to 2 tenths or more and may be the difference between a kart you can really attack with or one that feels good but is under its potential. So how do you know if you have the optimum track widths (front and rear), let’s find out…
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