People Who Are Way Too Into Karting Ruin Karting

EmersonHart13

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Jul 18, 2007
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People Who Are Way Too Into Karting Ruin Karting

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Near as I can tell, most car people go nuts for karting. Especially when you tell them that the karts are gas-powered. Their eyes light up like it’s Christmas. My response is usually a quiet, lonely “Ugh,” so that nobody will hear me.

I should be more specific: I don’t dislike karting itself. I dislike the people I usually end up karting with. I enjoy driving the karts themselves. That’s extraordinarily fun. I like practicing and finding the quickest lines on unknown courses and checking my times to see if I’ve gotten faster or not. I like feeling the wind on my skin.

But when you introduce obstacles and variables like other people, especially people who are really really super into this shit, onto the track. Then it just becomes stressful. And shitty.

My two most recent times out karting were with a few lovely Jalopnik readers and my wonderful co-workers right before Christmas. So, of course, nobody was obnoxiously unruly, except for David Tracy, who picked a fight with some teens in the parking lot. However, it’s rare that a whole group of friends will have a karting track to itself, so most of the time I have to make do with The Drivers That Have Something To Prove. You know who those people are. And they are better at ruining your day than a shit on the subway.

For one, these people are super aggressive. Which means that they’ll shut you out, won’t let you pass, block you or straight up crash into you. I don’t like crashing. I don’t like people crashing into me. Is that so weird?

I understand that if someone is tapping my bumper that means they want to pass and of course I’ll move over. Then I’ll watch them disappear around the next corner and I genuinely hope that from this they’ll have something exciting to tell Mom over dinner that night. (To be very clear, I’m not talking about actual, sanctioned, competitive kart racing that kids and pros alike do, I’m talking about the activity that is supposed to be fun and typically involves pizza.)

I think it has something to do with my aversion to contact sports, which started when I was a kid. I was a very careful child and am not physically aggressive by nature. I do everything I can to avoid getting scraped up. Which was why, during gym class, I always elected to walk the track instead of participating in crap like flag football or soccer.

Gym was supposed to be fun—a chance to stretch your limbs and give you a break from the monotony of academia. A place for some good old sportsmanship. Instead, rules like, “You must pass to a girl at least once during every play” were enforced which really just made everything extra shitty.

So, even though it was marketed as fun, it was never truly fun. Sure, it was fun for a few people (the same people who got, like, sports scholarships to universities), but they weren’t everybody in the class. Fun really depends on who you are and what you like. Nothing can truly be fun for everyone, just like nothing can truly be “fun for the whole family.”

So why don’t we just stop trying? Stop trying to make things fun. Stop trying to project what you think is fun onto other people. It won’t work. It never does. Because you’ll fail.

Don’t be that person at karting. No one cares how good you are. Just have actual fun, not forced fun.
 

Chester Copperpot

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Sounds like a whiny limp wristed fuck. Rubbing is racing. Suck it up butter cup.

I think it has something to do with my aversion to contact sports, which started when I was a kid. I was a very careful child and am not physically aggressive by nature. I do everything I can to avoid getting scraped up. Which was why, during gym class, I always elected to walk the track instead of participating in crap like flag football or soccer.

:rolleyes: thanks for proving my first sentence.
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
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Karting sucks when everyone around you sucks. She must not be aware she ruined it for everyone else

yeah i was wondering if she was more of a lump or something. which is fine but you ain't gonna have a good times with people whipping around 19s trying to break into an 18 when you are pulling a 22 and "just having fun"

btw 1 day in UAE you will see more girls kart than probably all you've seen combined in the US
 

Turbocharged400sbc

3800 & 4T80E > ALL
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We bought half of those carts when they closed it down and race them in the backyard of our house at 671 Lake Cook then the landlord got pissed off about the race car track that threaded between trees and we had to replace the grass by seeding it.
Problem was there was no grass anywhere else so it was just a grass go kart track .
I miss that place we used the tow truck to put an engine in the living room so that we could rebuild it over the winter.
We use the bathtub to rebuild a T5 manual trans
 

boostedguy05

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the 1 time i was at K1 there were a few slower laper kids there that got pissed their karts were tuned down because they were all over the place, so they made it their mission to get in everyones way, then throw a fit when the session ended that they ran so slow. i could tell what laps i was behind them becasue my times were 3-4 seconds slower around the track than normal. really threw off my average, and my groove. just when i would be getting into a good lap, bam right behind one of them.
 

Bob Kazamakis

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Oct 24, 2007
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In the corners no, but in the straights yes. It also depends on the karts too. If you get someone that's lighter and has a faster kart, it's hard to catch them even if you are more skilled.
We tested karts regularly and gridded them as such. Mainly for actual events but arrive and drive got them that way as well.


I'm talking karts that are within hundredths of each other during testing with 100lb difference in people.
 

VenomousDSG

Don't Tread On Me
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Apr 30, 2006
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What the hell is so fun about quietly going around in circles in a kart though? You should be racing and be aggressive, that's 90% of the fun of it.

Shit, if i ran the track, and I'd have strait up mario kart rules... Bitches being spun out everywhere, throwing shit from the kart, throwing banana peals all over the track. Liberals and complainers not welcome.

'Murika
 

Stink Star

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A friend who was on par (maybe a bit more consistent) was only a few tenths off me, he weighed nearly 100lbs more.

We tested karts regularly and gridded them as such. Mainly for actual events but arrive and drive got them that way as well.


I'm talking karts that are within hundredths of each other during testing with 100lb difference in people.

This, the weight really doesn't matter as long as you are driving smoothly. I'm a bigger guy (250 lbs) and was smoking 150lb dudes in my Grand Prix. But the guy who got first out of 2 groups of 10 was even heavier than me.
 
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