go cart in Richmond?

[Mike 91 318ic]

Anyone go to the TBC indoor go cart in Richmond? any comments? my office is having a function there today and a little inside info would be great to help me beat these guys

[go4carter]

Lightest guy generally wins... carry speed through corners, drifting is actually faster than braking as accelleration is poor. I'm not sure if I ever actually let off WOT... rarely anyway.

I remember it being pretty fast... really fun... but I weigh 165 lbs. If you were 200 lbs it would be frustrating... very little you could do to be fast.

[Al Canuck]

Carter's right. I'm a big dude(270ish), and go karts are seldom any fun for me. People always bug me "Hey, lets go carting", and when I say no, they question my sanity. When you're genetically predisposed to losing a go cart race, it kinda sucks. I'd rather flog a real car, I'm good at it.

Al

[Mike 91 318ic]

yeah I know weight has a huge factor in it, I'm 180lb but most here are 200+ . I figure if the girls can drive they'll win

[crunk3]

Damn i went there last night but they were all booked up :( second time thats happened to me

[Black_E30]

At the end of the evening you can get a printout of your group's performance to compare times, which is always good for a laugh (unless you are a big dude...). This track is also much better than the local competitors because its indoor concrete floor race track is slippery, which allows for drift.

[Nick]

From my experience, the 'optimum' weight at TBC is around 140-150lbs. That gives you enough load on the tires to be able to corner quickly, without slowing you down too much on the straights. Some of the karts have sloppy throttle cables, so I find you can get a little more rpm by twisting your foot and pinching the cable to open the butterfly a bit more, when the pedal is already fully depressed. Also, if you do the 'hop' down the straights, you can get a bit more speed....it looks totally retarded, but the idea is by hopping out of the seat, you take the load off the tires, the engine revs a bit higher, and by doing this all the way down the straight you maybe pick up 0.0001 km/h. Another 'tactic' is for tight hairpins to keep a steady load on the throttle while braking, so the motor doesn't bog down when you get back on the gas. Not the greatest thing for the karts, but they are rentals so they should be used to the abuse.

[arthurmchan]

Ah... it sounds like you haven't been to TBC since they got their new cars. The new ones are heavier, you sit offset to the left, you can't do the cable trick, and if you overlap the brake and gas the engine cuts out. However, they do have adjustable seat and pedal positions!

VCMC had a racing series over the Winter and I took a bunch of notes, which you can see here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg6nb4tn_2s8qn83

[go4carter]

Mike... what happened? Was it any fun?

[Mr. Red]

damn i was just there on friday night..It took me 2 hours to get there because i was following my *smart* friend who said he knew the way out there. anyways, it was pretty fun, theres only 2 places at most where you need to actually brake.

[Mike 91 318ic]

yeah it was ok, we had a group of 16 and raced 8 at a time. Me and another guy got a penalty and pulled out of the race for a bit becuse we were racing side by side which is a joke, they allow you to slam into someone to pass but you can't pass on a straight??? any ways it's fun cheap entertainment but the carts are really slow to get going.

M

Mike... what happened? Was it any fun?

[edwinelisia]

6 min for 10 bucks = not cheap imo.
get the enduro its cheaper