Breaking and cornering..

J par

Member
I was wanting to get some takes on breaking and cornering. Right now I'm under the understanding that I should be having all my breaking done before cornering... Also no breaking and throttle at the same time which seems to go against some car learning... I understand that breaking while on the throttle is bad for the clutch? LOL I've felt the side effects of breaking too hard going into a corner and spinning out... And I've also felt the effects of holding it wide open around the corner and then ending up with a lot of homeless gophers.... Still trying to get the dirt cleaned off of my kart..
Thank you for everybody's experience..
 
Your tires only have so much traction. You can use that to brake and corner but if there's too much of both you'll spin out. The trick is to brake before the turn then as you turn and the tires take up the side load, taper off the brakes so you'll have full traction for cornering. Some call this trail braking.

As for power braking, sometimes you get a corner that's just a little too tight to take full throttle but if you lift you'll lose too much power. So, you keep the hammer down and stab the brakes for a split second. Anything more than that and it's just as fast to blip the throttle and easier on the drive train.

Sundog
 
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Your tires only have so much traction. You can use that to brake and corner but if there's too much of both you'll spin out. The trick is to brake before the turn then as you turn and the tires take up the side load, taper off the brakes so you'll have full traction for cornering. Some call this trail braking.
I noticed on some of the larger sweeping corners I'll just slow the cart down a little bit and coast it for a little bit just barely holding on the grip not wanting to give it any more break because it's holding but yet not wanting to give it any more gas and break it loose...
 
When you turn the wheel, caster and ackerman give you allot of toe out which is like putting on the brakes. You need this to start the turn but the goal is to use braking and throttle so the rear wheels hang to the outside and steer you around and off the turn just enough so you can keep the front wheels straight ahead. The more you can keep the steering wheel straight ahead the faster you'll go around the track.
 
When you turn the wheel, caster and ackerman give you allot of toe out which is like putting on the brakes. You need this to start the turn but the goal is to use braking and throttle so the rear wheels hang to the outside and steer you around and off the turn just enough so you can keep the front wheels straight ahead. The more you can keep the steering wheel straight ahead the faster you'll go around the track.
Now there's some ask and you shall receive good information...
 
This is how I did it.

Go in as deep as you can, break, slow as needed, start your turn, get back on the gas as soon as possible. If you have time to breathe the engine , flap the throttle, you didn't go deep enough. If you get this feeling "if I go any deeper I'll spin"you may have gone deep enough. Test to that feeling, find out where your limits are. Seems every corner has its limits, today, with your set up, test them all. These are not skills you are born with, only hard work and a lot of testing, will give them to you. The more you practice, the more you'll improve. "Driving is tough"! If you find it easy, you're not trying hard enough! For every new driver, it's a skill set that you have to develop.

Coming out of the turns, never let off the throttle. As you're coming out of the turn your engine is building heat inside the cylinder. If you have to let off to keep from dropping a wheel, you have to start the process all over again. Don't let off, touch the brakes slightly, if needed, to keep from dropping that wheel. Keep the outside wheels on the track as much as possible. Outside wheels, in the dirt, have less traction. Harder to turn, harder to get traction on the right rear.

In close passing situation, do whatever you have to do in the turn. If you get under the other guy, you have the turn as long as you're ahead and he's on the outside. Make the turn as best you can, just keep him slightly behind and on the outside.

As you can see, 2 entirely different ways of making a turn, depending on the situation.
 
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