Racing Biography. Favorite Links. Race Reports. About enVista. Some drivers often neglect shifter karting as they see it as an impure form of karting. However, in terms of preparing for a career as a race car driver, this is as close as you can get to a fully-fledged race car. Shifter karts use shifter engines as opposed to direct drive. This means that the engine has 6 gears rather than just the one that standard karts have. Many karting enthusiasts do not like this concept as they believe that the only pure form of karting is direct drive.
These karts are a bit more of a challenge to drive , as it takes some time to get used to changing gears and pushing the kart in order to start it. It also requires the driver to adjust their driving style a bit more to accommodate the differences in the two types of karts. There are a lot of shifter kart championships available around the world. The shifter competitions are also divided into KZ1 and KZ2 , which is for more junior and amateur drivers. Karting drivers who are aiming for a career in motorsport often try to avoid the KZ category and aim for cars instead.
The KZ categories are in fact a great learning experience for drivers before they head into cars, and so a driver should consider spending at least one season in KZ. Shifter karts are great because they are still cheaper and less complicated than cars. If you are a young, aspiring racing driver, it is recommended to progress through the junior and senior classes before trying KZ.
The speeds are significantly faster in KZ, and it is best to gradually increase the speed of your kart rather than jumping straight in at the deep end. Either way, getting into shifter karts is a great idea. They are incredibly fast and a lot of fun to drive. It is highly recommended to only start the KZ category when you have the budget required for it though.
The finances required for shifter karts are a bit of a step up compared to direct drive karts. Getting into competitive KZ competitions is a whole different story. This category is where the best drivers normally end up. If you want to start racing in KZ competitions as opposed to driving around a circuit for fun , you are going to really need to focus on being at your best. This means that you need to be extremely comfortable in a shifter kart and you need to have some setups ready as well.
If you want to be competitive, make sure that you have at least one or two seasons of direct drive karting under your belt.
Of course, this is not essential, but it will mean that you are prepared for what karting races are like, and you will know what to expect. Before your first season in KZ starts, get in as many testing miles as you can. The last thing you want is to be uncomfortable in the kart when the first race comes around. The best first step you can take when starting out in any form of motorsport is having a chat with other drivers. Your best bet is to go for a testing day. Most drivers are busy on a race day and prefer to stay focused on the job at hand.
Pick out one or two drivers and head down to the pit lane to have a chat with them. This is the best first step to take as you will be able to ask any questions you may have about karting in your local area. You might even find a driver who is looking to sell their kart, which means you might be able to get the kart itself, and perhaps some extra tools for a much more affordable price than buying everything brand new.
Shifter karts are fast. As such, it means that you may need to adjust your driving style slightly if you have been driving standard karts in the past. You may find in the KZ category that you can power slide the kart which does not tend to happen with direct drive. If you are a little bit impatient or have a twitchy right foot the tail will kick out and you will need to correct it.
This jump in speed can take some getting used to, especially if you have not driven any karts before. It's the reverse on the upshift side. Put pressure on the lever. Lift to reduce the pressure on the gears. Once you lift the gear lever will be allowed to move and you shift the gear. The throttle lift and reapplication should again be as quick as possible. It's a small but completely usable window.
The gear selector forks and dog rings travel through these windows between every shift. If a box gets stuck between gears for any reason, it's refered to as 'being in a false neutral'. The only 'real' neutral in a sequential box is either between 1st and second or between first and reverse. This has to do with how the barrel 'star' detents machined and the designers choice.
Posted 24 October - But are you saying this because all the peculiarities of the Cup cars? Because look the example of this BTCC video, the driver is downshifting without the clutch and without blipping as I have to do in my shifter kart? So why in a Cup car you will lock the rear if downshift whitout blipping or heel toe and in this BTCC car not?
So the answer to my question is that you can find a "neutral" between gears in a sequential gearbox. Cup cars are extremely sensitive to downshifts. For one thing the gearboxes that they use are not the cleanest shifting things. They've gotten much, much better over the years, but you aren't going to mistake it for an Xtrac. Second, the rear suspension of a Cup car is very prone to wheelhop while braking. Once you get the thing hopping around you basically can't turn the steering wheel because the rear end has very little grip.
Making very smooth often clutched downshifts helps this. I've known guys that if they had a big brake zone that goes from 6th gear to first on a bumpy street course will clutch on the downshifts to avoid wheelhop. That was in a formula car with a sequential box. A lot of BTCC cars are front wheel drive too.
And the car in that video is a sequential shifter. Posted 25 October - Posted 26 October - Shifter karts are probably much more sensitive to locking the rear tires during a downshift than a Cup Car is. Shifter karts have no suspension to speak of, so they tend to lose grip and slide very easily with abrupt changes in torque applied to the rear tires. Yeah but a kart that isn't locking the rear under braking isn't being driven hard enough.
Posted 28 October - It's not even close, a kart is not hard to deal with at all. A Cup car is probably the most difficult car to drive well on the planet. Something like an F1 car actually does what you want it to do. A Cup car is a case-study in frustration. Once you lock the rear tires on a stock car, that big rear axle starts jumping all around and then you are in real trouble. Posted 30 October - I do not remember ever hearing about that from rookies in F1 cars. And even then it will probably get ugly.
Posted 31 October - Yes you're right. Upshifts, if done with a bit of finess one fingered , would probably lose you no time at all compared with 'crashing' the gearchange.
For downshifts, I used quite high amounts of 'blips', especially braking from high speed into slow corners. The engine revs were nearer where you wanted them to be also. I'm not sure what you're saying, but here's the deal.
On the power side of the corner, wheelspin is less of an issue than locking the rears under braking. To answer your queries, shifter karts are six-speed manual transmission go-karts that come with six different gears they can shift to so that the go-kart racers can get the most out of their engines.
With these manual transmission shifter karts, you need to learn to know when you should change gears because the go-kart will no longer do this for you.
The transmission in these shifter karts is important in making sure that the engine gets the most RPM without overheating the engine. As such, getting used to changing gears should be a challenge for those who have been used to driving automatic go-karts and automatic cars.
Yes, go-karts do have a clutch , but only the more modern ones do. The earlier go-karts were direct drive. However, most of the newer ones today have a clutch because some karts are now using a cc engine with a centrifugal clutch. This has made the clutch mandatory in most go-karts nowadays. Professional go-karts are actually becoming quite popular because go-karting has become very popular among different speed enthusiasts.
In that regard, you might be wondering whether or not go-karts used at the professional level have gears that will allow them to shift from one gear to another. Well, of course, professional go-karts have gears.
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