Catching up

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A rather poor effort on my part has meant a lack of blog articles of late. I blame the Karting Dad Facebook page for the most part – it’s very easy to type in one liners and move on (although I do recommend it for the little things that don’t get written up here!).

So what has been going on in my world? I’ve really just been trying to get everything sorted for the new season. I’ve mentioned before my deliberations over what to do with our chassis, in the end I decided not to get it blasted and powder coated – it just didn’t seem worthwhile. I also came to learn that it (what I thought was a 2010 EVR) was really a 2009 EVR! If you’ve been here a long time, you’ll remember that my original 2009 EVR was suspected to be a 2008 EVXX! There is a lesson to be learned here – remember, you can always ask Strawberry when they imported a chassis. So with two 2009 EVR chassis (I was given one in 2013 that was bent and that I had straightened but never used), I have decided that I’d quite like to test them against one another. We won’t be replacing either anytime soon so I might as well see if Junior finds any difference between them. I sanded, primed and sprayed both (after breaking the nozzle on my first can of OTK paint and covering the lawn) – and they look pretty good unless you get up close so good enough for me at least.

No - this is not the Strawberry Racing paint shop...

No – this is not the Strawberry Racing paint shop…

The ‘spare’ has also gone to the welders to get the front torsion bar welded in. In the meantime, I’ve built up the chassis that we used at the back end of last season and it’s pretty much ready to go. I was hoping to get to the track at the weekend but Llandow’s owner/driver availability can be patchy, especially at weekends and they were mostly full with arrive/drive bookings.

No bodywork - the extremists would approve ;)

No bodywork – the extremists would approve 😉

We’re also sweating on our MSA licenses after my tardiness in getting them sent off – the MSA quote a 15-day turnaround and we needed them 14 days from the day of postage! Fingers crossed…

Costs since last post: £28 – 2x OTK spray paint plus something else that escapes me! £20 – wedge for OTK steering boss; £15 – Strawberry Mychron/Alfano support for OTK wheel.

Total spent this year: £235

Five more minutes of fame!?!

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After the visitor surge courtesy of The Kart Bandit, I was contacted by Karting Magazine who were interested in me writing something for the magazine. This was both exciting and fear-inducing in equal measures; it isn’t every day that you get an offer to write for national magazine but would I be able to write stuff that people who are paying for a magazine actually want to read??? It’s one thing to write a bunch of ramblings in a blog but this felt like there was much more at stake. We agreed that I would write for a three month trial period to see if it worked for both parties. I wrote a piece on the costs of karting, sent it off and heard no more until BOOM – it’s been published! 😮

So what is it like? Well, the magazine increased their font size after I submitted the article and had to cut out around 150 words, the result being that it doesn’t really flow like I intended (it took me a long time to get it down to 650 words and still keep some semblance of the story!). Does it still work? I’ll let you be the ultimate judge.

Now I have to start planning next month’s article…

 

An early start to 2015

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Although our kart was stripped in preparation for having the chassis powder coated, I took up the offer of a rolling chassis loan and we headed to Llandow for our first practice of the year. We had a few things on the agenda: make sure the Alfano ADM data logger (an eBay Christmas purchase) worked, test the case of carbs (another eBay purchase) that I had bought and sent straight off for cleaning and rebuilding and also to try out my own Christmas presents: a Sony AS30 Actioncam and a digital tyre pressure gauge.

We got a bit of a surprise when we turned up and the circuit was locked but we were still on track for the day’s first session a little after 10:30. It was a beautifully sunny winter’s day but there was a bitter wind and I opted to don the waterproofs to keep warm. We had a few early hiccups: Junior complained the seat was too small and that he was unable to turn the wheel! This was the seat that was two sizes bigger than his seat and that I had used for the IKR Parent’s Race but, once we had moved the steering column forward, he was happy. Thankfully the Alfano system worked perfectly so we could actually see what we were doing on track! We were with another JTKM and, despite the presence of a couple of Honda cadets, it was nice that the circuit maintained an open pit lane as it meant that we could pretty much come and go as we pleased, only having to make way for a handful of arrive/drive sessions. The cadets weren’t a problem either and Junior gave them plenty of space when he caught them.

The day went reasonably well; although I’m not sure that Junior is really consistent enough to get reliable data on the carbs (having said that, he did manage to post consecutive identical laps and follow them up with another 3/100ths slower!), he found one that he thinks that he had a preference for – it was the first time we’ve used an 820 although I wasn’t telling him the series as we tested them (I’ve not yet had a chance to look at the data from a carb perspective). He was getting much needed track experience and was trying some different lines in various parts of the track. On the downside, I didn’t really give the digital tyre gauge a proper test (I need to read the manual again! :S) and the Sony camera didn’t really do itself justice owing to a lack of mounting options – the flat mount that we had to use was too flat for the FP7 nassau and I think just moved to one side (the curved mount curved the wrong way to be of any use), it really needed screwing to the nassau. The footage was underwhelming too but this might be down to my laptop’s ability to playback 1080p @60fps. The Alfano data was, once I managed to install the software on Windows 8 and to get it talking to my laptop bluetooth, really impressive – after getting home, I was entertaining myself watching Junior’s laps racing themselves into the early hours.

Alfano's VisualData analysis software

Alfano’s VisualData analysis software

You can click the above pic to open a larger version. Clockwise from top-left is the RPM range histogram; lap deltas (entering the final hairpin both yellow and blue laps are ahead of his red lap, which was our fastest on the day – Junior’s blue lap loses 3.35m here!); the RPM (top) and speed (bottom) line graph; sectors table; track map showing acceleration/decceleration. As you can see, there is a gold mine of data in there! 😀

On the flip side, check out the Llandow track map according the Sony camera GPS:

This isn't actually the shape of the Llandow track :S

This isn’t actually the shape of the Llandow track :S

Cost of day: £35 practice fee, £6 bridge toll, £16 petrol, £6 fuel, £9 chain lube

Costs since last post: £70 carb cleaning and rebuilds, £30 cost of new OTK steering wheel after selling the F1 wheel

Total spent this year: £172

Christmas Karting 2014

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After the success of last year’s Christmas Karting, we had planned to make the parents versus juniors contest an annual thing. Teamsport Bristol hadn’t really done their bit by not running a family and friends event for members this year but they offered us something much more tempting: Our own race event! Things snowballed from there really: Ten drivers in 2013 became thirty seven in 2014!!! We had drivers from TKM and Rotax, Clay and Llandow, even a Super One driver 🙂 Ok, having to collect all of the deposits and balances was a royal pain in the arse but it was building up to be something special.

So eleven juniors, five seniors, fourteen parents, four siblings and three mates descended onto Teamsport for a night which promised much. We had drawn three groups and each would have 10 mins practice, 2×10 minute heats and a 15 minute semi-final before the groups came together for 15 minute A, B and C Finals. Not bad for £35, huh? 🙂

The track was a lot quicker than it was when Junior and I were regulars, so much so that I bettered my PB in the practice (without getting too big headed I wasn’t a slouch before!). I was quietly confident that the track record (set only the night before by one of the staff) was in danger 😀

The races themselves were pretty rough, three abreast coming down the ramp never ends nicely! The two heats were run youngest > oldest and then oldest > youngest. Heat 1 for me wasn’t good; spun on the first lap and again a few laps later, I struck it lucky when half the field piled up underneath the bridge leaving a little under a kart’s width that pushed my way through, at walking pace under the yellow flags of course 😉 and came away with a decent 4th place. Heat 2 definitely wasn’t one for the purist, I got to the front and defended for ten laps with a queue of juniors behind me. It was enough to put me alongside Junior on the front row for our semi-final 😀 I had a decent kart in the semi and Junior was definitely struggling with this – I tailed him around as we pulled clear although I turned down the couple of half chances that came my way as I knew that Junior would just as soon bin us both than see me past him and my eyes were set on the A Final! After Junior almost got taken out lapping a back marker who definitely wasn’t going to get out of the way, I bided my time and brought it home in second.

I qualified in fifth for the A Final, courtesy of being slower in the semi than the other two semi final runner ups but was the lead adult and right in the junior mix. I got a decent start but juniors these days don’t really have much respect!!! I was being nudged all over the place so reverted to defensive mode to at least let Junior clear off to fight for the win. Once one barged me out of the way, a few more followed suit and I was in seventh before getting spun around. Things got worse as I then made a move on someone who just seemed to understeer into the tyres and took me with him. Still, I think I put up a reasonable fight even if I finished a lap down. Junior finished runner-up to the lightest of the drivers who won all his races on the night. Collectively we destroyed the fastest lap leaderboard too, with seven drivers bettering the former record. It was a lot of fun and only another eleven months until our next visit 😉

Another karting Christmas

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Junior had only a few wants this Christmas: a new racesuit with matching gloves and boots. His old Sparco suit is now a couple of years old (buying a suit a couple of sizes too big proved to be a good idea), has a broken zip and the main red colour has run into the white stripes making them closer to pink than white! There weren’t any suits out there he liked so I designed one that combined a couple of classic racing liveries: the Lotus colours (that he already has on his kart) and the old Gulf white with red/blue stripe design. It took a little bit of time to (and a trip to Grand Prix Racewear) to get it right but I am really pleased with the outcome (perhaps more importantly, he is too!). The are a few little niggles: The stripe down the sleeve was supposed to be thinner than the main stripe and the elasticated cuffs and legs feel like they might go before Junior grows but my biggest fear, the size of the thing, was unfounded – I would definitely recommend getting measured up by the professionals though. The whole ensemble makes it first appearance at Christmas Karting on Monday night when Junior will definitely be looking like the kid wearing his Christmas presents!

As the suit was more money than we’ve ever spent on any single Christmas present other than the kart itself, it was always going to be a struggle to give that appearance of a sack full of presents on Christmas morning. I’ve no idea where we got them but the Christmas sacks we’ve always used for the kids are easily a metre tall – they have done very well out of us over the years! Pretty much everything that I had bought for the kart in the past eight weeks was wrapped up and used as stocking fillers: a couple of axles (one a new forum purchase, the other a used once [genuinely!!!] eBay purchase), a new looking airbox and a newly kitted 820 carb – both from UK Karting. In addition, I used a little sleight of hand; selling Junior’s Mychron and USB data key to fund an Alfano ADM purchase from eBay. It’s the GPS version which Junior had seen previously and really liked the look of and, provided it works properly when we take it to the track and I get to grips with the poorly translated instructions and what many reckon to be sub-optimal software, should prove to be a good deal. It was a nice surprise for Junior too. Of course, this also meant that it was time to say goodbye to the C-K-R F1 Mycrhon 4 steering wheel which Junior was very fond of but needs must and I sold it on the sly! The Mychron/data key and wheel went for £280 and the Alfano with a new 2014 OTK steering from eBay was £305 with Junior using his Christmas money to make up the balance 😉

As for me, I treated myself to some new toys: a digital tyre pressure gauge and a Sony action camera. I hope to combine it with the Alfano to produce some nice dashboard videos but only time will tell whether that proves to be as easy as it sounds!

Here’s hoping that Santa was good to you also 😀

Costs since last post (I don’t publish the Christmas costs, that just doesn’t seem right!): £20 front torsion bar welded in.

Total spent this year: £4,395

End of year 2 accounts

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I remember when I posted my first year accounts, a friend told me I’d spend £4,000 in year two. I didn’t believe him: this year would just be racing costs since we already had everything else that we would need so this year *had* to be cheaper, right?

Year two’s magic number is £4,683 😮 On the back of a year one spend £4,594, that day one prediction of £4,600 per year is looking scarily good! Before you ask me for the lottery numbers this week, I’ll admit that that figure included the cost of buying the kart so I am definitely overspending, especially when you consider that £1,131 went on non-essential items. This is the full breakdown:

Running costs – £2,853:

  • Licenses/memberships – £94
  • Practice fees (12 sessions) – £470
  • Race fees (13 race days) – £664
  • Wet tyres (one unused, three used – all from forums) – £165
  • Slicks(two sets) – £300
  • Engine/carb rebuilds – £608
  • Petrol (for the car) – £353
  • Fuel (for the kart) – £141
  • Bridge tolls – £38

Perishables – £246

  • Bolts – £31
  • Brake fluid/seals – £25
  • Sprocket carrier/protector (eBay) – £33
  • Chains (2) – £34
  • Exhaust flex/wrap – £47
  • Fuel hose – £7
  • Seat – £40
  • Carb gaskets – £25

Repairs – £453:

  • Axles (2) – £144
  • Weld – £10
  • Exhaust bracket – £20
  • Exhaust cradle – £12
  • Steering column – £42
  • Bumper bolts – £21
  • Engine (crank alignment) – £170
  • Jig check – £34

Non-essentials – £1,131

  • Engine mount – £30
  • Additional wet rims – £50
  • Mag rims – £100
  • Decals – £120
  • Bodywork – £119
  • Hotel – £130
  • Engine upgrade – £425
  • 2010 chassis – £25
  • Bearing hangers – £30
  • Additional carbs – £70
  • Carb tester – £32

The running costs for next year will be interesting since we will be buying more new tyres although that may be offset by less track time as Junior enters the run-up to his exams. As for the non-essentials, some of the luxuries were birthday presents etc and the engine upgrade was effectively trading in our old cast barrelled engine nearing rebuild time for a CNC barrelled engine with 90 minutes on but that is still a fair amount of money that could possibly have either been saved or invested in track time. Talking of which, how much time did we get? Unfortunately I seem to have lost the data from June and July but, minus one practice day and three race days, the count was 1,048 laps around Clay and 590 laps around Llandow.

See you in year three? 😀

My Dad went to Kart Mania and all he bought was a fuel can and a roll of duct tape!

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It wasn’t quite like that but I liked the headline at least 😉 Kart Mania on Saturday was an interesting experience, something I wasn’t really planning on attending but I had  wanted to get Junior properly measured up for his new suit and Grand Prix Racewear being on site gave me the reason I needed. Even though the suit was already paid for, I still managed to spend £140 before we even got to the show as we bought Junior some boots and gloves. I say ‘spend’  but the boots and gloves will be passed on to the grandparents so not hitting the KartingDad books for FY14.

Driving through Silverstone, past the various famous corners, Junior and I were getting excited like a couple of kids; “Dad, can we come next year?”. He was obviously referring to the Grand Prix and not Kart Mania; “Not unless you give up karting” I replied. In fact, I had looked at the ticket prices earlier in the week but there wasn’t any realistic chance of us attending. Unless of course he really does decide to pack it in!

Kart Mania consisted of two exhibition areas and two ‘Kart Boot’ areas.We checked out the kart boot area first; it was much smaller than I had expected – there were some tempting OTK axles (didn’t really need them), some FP7 bumpers (at new prices) and an interesting Junior Ginetta display (£28,000 per year for your, Sir… at which point I told Junior to get out of the car 😉 ).

Onto the exhibition halls: First things first, we went to the Llandow Kart Club stand to reserve Junior’s number for next year. For some reason I was surprised to see clubs represented at the show, in particularly Llandow, as I’d have thought that most attendees were from the central/southern part of the country, but the stand was really impressive and here’s hoping a good few more followed our example in signing up. I was little taken aback that I had to pay membership as a parent!!! You all know my stance on the PG license and charging the parent for club membership was a novel one – it’s not something that Clay Pigeon Kart Club do. Then again, a friend has told me numerous times that Clay is one of the cheapest places in the country to kart. On this occasion, I wasn’t going to make any waves – the club needs to survive given the grid sizes this season and I was [relatively 😉 ] happy to help fund that. The first hall contained mostly kart clubs along with some of the governing bodies and Karting Magazine. I took the opportunity to tell the MSA my thoughts on their efforts to reduce the costs of karting, much to Junior’s amusement. I did my unimpressed face as the freeze on prices for 2015 was explained to me before I launched into my biggest gripe (no – you’ll never convince me that there is a need for a PG license, tough – if some knuckle dragger can’t control their temper their kid should be punished and, if you really had to have it, why isn’t it included in the cost of the driver license?). I progressed onto the adult medical requirement before my adversary saw his chance “Well, thanks for giving us your feedback”. Fair play to the lad if it was said with sincerity. I’m not certain it was though!

The retro karts in the adjacent hall were fascinating. The Superkarts were as impressive as they were plain scarey. I don’t think you’d find anyone with the kahunas to drive one in our family! That was really it for us; we had some lunch and did another lap of the show. It was then that we realised that we’d missed one of the kart boot areas earlier! This time, I dusted off the wallet – a new 5l fuel can for £1 and a roll of pro duct tape for £2 was too tempting an offer to pass over 😀 The rest of the kit being sold was pretty pricey, easily above eBay prices. I guess you needn’t be in any rush to sell half way through the first day so can afford to mark your prices up. There was still time to chat with some of the clubs where Junior would like to race – Kimbolton (would love to race the Festival) and PFI (such an impressive track but £60 membership required for a single visit – talk about a barrier to entry!).

We’d done the rounds and were ready to leave by 1.45pm. I was glad to have gone but there was much more that I’d like to have seen: Tal-Ko (I know they sent out an email about how they’d sooner reach out to their customers directly but I do wonder if I’ll be seeing them at a track near me any time soon), Strawberry Racing (I’ve a million questions about Tony Kart setup!), twice the number of sellers in the kart boot area (I had imagined this really would be a giant car boot sale for kart bits) and a track where you could see the retro racers/ superkarts running and test the latest chassis or engines (this would have been a great chance for Iame to show drivers what they are missing if X30 is as good as people say it is). I think that, had I had £1500 in my back pocket for a nice rolling chassis, I could easily have spent it. It is what it is though – I was happy to have attended but I’m not sure I’d go again.

Off to Kartmania

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I wasn’t initially planning on going (I don’t have any money to buy anything!) but, having lovingly created a custom suit design, the risk of my measurements being wrong and wasting a lot of money on a Christmas present (Mum’s the word 😉 ) that Junior cannot get into is too great – I have to go to Silverstone to see the MH Racewear people. The order is already sat in a queue at a factory somewhere in Pakistan (where it will still be next week) so this is just a precautionary confirmation measure-up in case we need to change any of the measurements. I was reluctant to drive all that way for such a short appointment but Kartmania gives us more reason to go, even if we shan’t be coming home with a van-load of new toys.

I’ll be the ginger bloke there – feel free to say hello if you see me 😉

MSA Bambino… when there isn’t enough daylight hours to finish the proper stuff!

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When I watch the cadets racing, I really wish that we had discovered the sport sooner. We stumbled into karting purely by chance: having always looked for something different for Junior to do each birthday, karting was a natural progression from the quad biking party that Junior had when he was ten. He really enjoyed it and we soon started attending the half-term events at TeamSport. As soon as Junior was big enough for an adult kart (his friends had already moved up and he’d been trying to prove to the staff that he really was big enough for some time) we realised that he could drive with adults (i.e. me) and we began a monthly visit to Avonmouth for Sunday evening ‘Unlimited Karting’ (it used to be much more ‘unlimited’ than it is now!). One year on, Junior was up there among the faster drivers and I started looking for something that bit quicker and found that Clay Pigeon Kart Club hosted ‘open days’ where you could get some taster sessions in the club Tal-Ko kart. I had absolutely no intention of purchasing a kart – this was just about getting him a free go in a fast kart. Three months later I was clearing space in my garage…

Getting back to topic, cadet racing is fantastic to watch. Ok, they are prone to the odd red flag (particularly at Clay) but, by and large, it’s good, close racing. I wish we had known about it – it’s the perfect introduction to junior karting. Which brings us to Bambino karting, something I had only ever seen at indoor karting venues (when I thought it was cute) until Llandow started hosting a class a couple of months back (when the bonus races stopped!). Obviously it is all about revenue – for the club (where it is much needed), the MSA (PG licenses – need I say more?) and the manufacturers but, for me, it just doesn’t belong on the MSA scene. A couple of infant school aged children driving around in their own time is just a waste of valuable track time, especially in the winter months. It’s a great introduction to cadets I am sure but the younger kids karting should remain within the confines of the arrive and drive tracks and their Sunday morning kart clubs. MSA karting should begin at eight years old.