A local myth has been created!

About an hour ago I went out to race around a bit with my brother in our local indoor kart track. We're more or less regulars there, but it was a while since we last went there. Anyway, we were fortunate to be the only ones on track in our heat, and I got in the kart after my brother, as he is a bit faster than me. (let's not give him too much credit though, he's my brother after all)

Off we went, my brother sped off quite fast, I couldn't really keep up and my kart had a weird vibration going; this didn't seem like an issue though, I've been there many, many times and all the karts feel slightly different.

After roughly 10 laps I was fairly close to the potential of the kart (imo, ofc ;p) and it was slooooooow. I was about 2 seconds off pace of the track record (first time on the new track, but whatever) and normally it's more like 1 second. Anyway, after those ten laps the engine started making a nasty noise when I touched the accelerator, so I pulled over and waved for a track official to come over and appoint a different kart/move the broken one.

He then appointed me to kart 41. I mention the number because I don't think I'll forget it for a while
I hopped in and came out of the pits before my brother; this time he had trouble keeping up, so I was happy with my new kart... until my second lap.

My brother was right up my ass, and suddenly after a chicane I heard an odd noise, and something heavy flew onto my arm. I initially thought my brother hit me very badly and his front wheel slided onto my front, but then I pushed the object to my side with my right elbow, and as my eyes followed it I noticed that it was the goddamn engine, or at least some part of it. I noticed the fuel line had snapped, and fuel (LPG, I think?) sprayed over the kart, and presumably myself. I was still rolling up a bridge when this happened, but obviously I unbuckled my seatbelt and tried to get out asap.

As I got up, it happened; I obviously didn't see it directly, but I could feel the heat behind me, and everything behind me appeared to lit up. I jumped out and started checking if I was on fire; fortunately not, but when I looked behind me, the entire kart was in flames. My brother came running towards me, asking me if I was OK, and then a track official with a fire extinguisher ran past me and started extinguishing the flames. (in the end it took two extinguishers to completely douse the flames) It was only at this point that I realised what had just happened. People were lining up at the 'sky box' and the next wave of drivers came down the stairs and started asking what the hell just happened etc...

Pretty scary, pretty damn exciting! This doesn't exactly happen every day, and I think nothing like this has happened on that particular track. It's a mainstream track with relatively simple karts, so nothing out of the ordinary usually happens. In my time I've had a lot of stuff happen on me; steering columns breaking, wheels breaking off, near-flips and sliding into walls at full speed, but this is a whole different ball game

In the end, the cause for the incident seemed to be that the belts which keep the fuel tank in place snapped on one side, or got burned through by the exhaust. According to my brother, the entire tank (mounted directly behind the driver) flew off to the right, and then the fuel lines just snapped under the force.

Anyway, I don't know where I'm going with this story, but I just needed to share this with some people. I guess I'm just happy that it was me in the kart, and not some inexperienced driver, or an older/less able person whom might not have been able to get out as fast as me with a full dose of adrenaline pumping through me.

Enough excitement for a day!

when i was karting(bout 5 years ago) i allways oversteered in the corners, but once i was beeing chased on a kart on the track, a guy cutted my corner, and i flew up the wall, was a hell lot of fun luckely i could just drive on... my kart did had the problem of giving gas when i didnt press the pedal, but that wasnt bad, since i was a lazy guy, just 1 more thing i didnt had to do

hehe quite dangerous them Dutch kart's are a bit dodgy from experiences I have had before
also WTF do karts have safety belts for
more of an hazrd than anything

Quote from 11SuLLy11 :

hehe quite dangerous them Dutch kart's are a bit dodgy from experiences I have had before
also WTF do karts have safety belts for
more of an hazrd than anything

Well, in an indoor kart-track with walls everywhere it's very possible to get seriously hurt if you hit a wall, so I guess it's still a good thing those safety belts are in

Quote from 11SuLLy11 :

also WTF do karts have safety belts for
more of an hazrd than anything

what a dumb statement. When you are travelling at 70 mph and get flipped into the air after you rub tires with someone else, you will probably reconsider putting a safety belt in your kart.

Best kart track I've been to (as in most exciting) was the place in Delft in the netherlands. 3 floor track - excellent elevation change.

Yes, but the pain doesn't come from being thrust into a windscreen from being in a car, and i'd like to get out of the kart quickly.

If this were LFS I'd say save a replay and let us see what happened...but I guess I play too much LFS. lol..

In any case im glad your alright. I've had my fair share of karting accidents. Heck one of em actually had the little course shut down for an hour. Apparently 2 popped tires take a LONG time to clean up..but thats what I get for racing at a dinky old kart course thats very small.

Quote from ans7812 :

what a dumb statement. When you are travelling at 70 mph and get flipped into the air after you rub tires with someone else, you will probably reconsider putting a safety belt in your kart.

very stupid I race karts and If you flip the last thing you want is to be stuck in a kart on the middle off a track when 10 -20 or even more karts are doing 70 mph are coming your way .

Plus, when you flip a kart, the first and often only thing that touches the ground is your head... Think of it as a headstand with your bodyweight added again... Do you really want to try if your neck can stand the additional weight?

Quote from bbman :

Plus, when you flip a kart, the first and often only thing that touches the ground is your head... Think of it as a headstand with your bodyweight added again... Do you really want to try if your neck can stand the additional weight?

Yes exaclty last thing you want is to be stuck into the kart,but in indoor karting I can understand the safety belts as If you do come out of the kart due to heavy impact with the wall,also almost impossible to flip a rental kart with there big V8 looking engine block weighing it down and there 110mm tubing and re-inforced side pods

Does anyone know these sort-of karts (sometimes two-seater) you find in themeparks?
These thinks are slow as hell, but a father managed it to flip this thing with his 4-year old when bursting into a corner at full speed, both suffering some head injuries.

Quote from 11SuLLy11 :

Yes exaclty last thing you want is to be stuck into the kart,but in indoor karting I can understand the safety belts as If you do come out of the kart due to heavy impact with the wall,also almost impossible to flip a rental kart

Not necessarilly, my local kart track has had its rental karts upside down, quite how I do not know.

Quote from Jertje :

Well, in an indoor kart-track with walls everywhere it's very possible to get seriously hurt if you hit a wall, so I guess it's still a good thing those safety belts are in

But you should naturally stay in the kart in the event of a crash TBH I've only ever seen karts with 3 point harness, which don't really solve the issue of securing the body well and they're not even fitted to the proper rental karts.

dont see the point in strapping you into a kart, surely if it tips over or something like this happens you want to be as far away from it as possible? Certainly, i managed to tip one over, very glad i got launched out instead of getting my beck broken.

most indoor karts barely touch 30mph, so crashing at 70mph isnt an issue though.

haha seatbelts on a kart is good LMAO :P :P ...

weird...

think flipping a kart would be bad, imagian a convertable and stapped into it cause its the law to wear a seatbelt... yukky lol

I can't belive you people think that having a seat belt in a 70mph anything is a bad idea!

Just as food for thought, here's an old clip of a 60mph head-on crash with two cars that I wouldn't exactly call unsafe: http://videos.streetfire.net/v ... d2e-9403-988a01072bf5.htm

Edit:

Actually, thinking about it in a different way I agree with not wanting one in a rollover incident. As an inpact with a wall or whatnot I'd be wanting it, but if it's going in the air then yeah I'll pass. That said, I'd think a 70mph cart would have a rollbar?

Quote from thestig99 :

I can't belive you people think that having a seat belt in a 70mph anything is a bad idea!

Just as food for thought, here's an old clip of a 60mph head-on crash with two cars that I wouldn't exactly call unsafe: http://videos.streetfire.net/v ... d2e-9403-988a01072bf5.htm

Since when would there be a maniac going backwards at a kart race both doing 60 mph tbh thats very stupid now

Quote from 11SuLLy11 :

Since when would there be a maniac going backwards at a kart race both doing 60 mph tbh thats very stupid now

Didn't say there would be, but if I was about to cream a wall at 70mph I'd sure as hell want something to keep my face from hitting the wall at 70.

..and you apparently missed my edit so I won't rant too much here

Quote from thestig99 :

Didn't say there would be, but if I was about to cream a wall at 70mph I'd sure as hell want something to keep my face from hitting the wall at 70.

..and you apparently missed my edit so I won't rant too much here

ok for one hire karts do 30 mph max maybe 35 outdoor tracks with long run off space and there would be no wall as such at an competition track but I can see your point as you would be thrown radically forward,but I'd rather be out of the kart than in the kart during a midflip

Wow.

Quote from 11SuLLy11 :

ok for one hire karts do 30 mph max maybe 35 outdoor tracks with long run off space and there would be no wall as such at an competition track but I can see your point as you would be thrown radically forward,but I'd rather be out of the kart than in the kart during a midflip

I more skimmed the page than read it and was seeing a lot of 70mph, so that's what I went with.

Again, see my edit about the midflip scenario. My experiences with snowmobiles and ATV's came to mind when writing that.

No competition kart should have a rollbar. The drivers have very little protection on their body and you wouldn't really appreciate a big metal thing coming down in your lap would you?

@Sully - there are walls very close to the track at many places. Wombwell is one of the most obvious ones. There's a concrete wall running alongside the two straights. There's a metal fence thing very close to the track at the last turn, a wall on the outside of the hairpin. So, yeah, some tracks have very little run-off area.

Wow that was interesting, And I'm glad to hear you are okay!

Have fun being the center of attention?

Quote from Leifde :

@Sully - there are walls very close to the track at many places. Wombwell is one of the most obvious ones. There's a concrete wall running alongside the two straights. There's a metal fence thing very close to the track at the last turn, a wall on the outside of the hairpin. So, yeah, some tracks have very little run-off area.

Yep true there are tracks with little run off space another track in the UK that is fairly tight for room Clay pidgeon first cornor is leathal have a pic to show

Quote from ans7812 :

what a dumb statement. When you are travelling at 70 mph and get flipped into the air after you rub tires with someone else, you will probably reconsider putting a safety belt in your kart.

For starters, the karts on indoor tracks will usually only hit 40mph. Second of all you don't want to be in a kart when it goes over, believe me I've seen people come out with neck injuries from getting trapped in their kart upside down. That's in a kart that weight a hell of a lot less than a hire kart. Yet to see someone get hurt when thrown clear of the kart. You want to be out of that thing ASAP if it's going to go over, why do you think superkarts hitting 150mph have no `safety` belts?

At the place I work we have `sodi` karts and even lifting the front end of one of them is heavy, yet alone the rear where all the weight is.


Only time I've seen some flames from a kart was a hire kart. It was a 4 stroke Honda with the fuel tank mounted on the engine, who ever fuelled it didn't put the lid back on properly. So of course not long in some fuel splashed on the exhaust and there was soon a bit of fire , spotted early enough though to get it out ASAP before it did any damage.

Quote from 11SuLLy11 :

also almost impossible to flip a rental kart with there big V8 looking engine block weighing it down and there 110mm tubing and re-inforced side pods

I've yet to see a kart go over in the place I work but I've heard many stories of it happening from others who work their.

The public hire karts have exposed front wheels (all be it still fairly well hidden with plastic) but if you get an idiot who rams someone the plastic flexes just enough to allow contact and then with the aid of the track markers can put it upside down. Very rare though, as you usually can get the dangerous ones off the circuit before they cause any serious accident .