One Thing

If you have an OTK chassis, you'll know that there are a million and one things you can tweak and change to alter the way the kart performs. Sprockets, axles, stiffness, rims, caster, camber, tyre pressures, height, etc. The list is seemingly endless, and no-one wants to give their secrets away. Wander round the paddock and you'll see socks (special branded 'official' sneaky beaky socks) covering the caster and camber adjusters so no-one can see the settings being used.

All these tweaks can affect performance in good ways and bad ways, and it's difficult to know what to do and when to do it. And when someone finds a tweak that gives them an edge, they certainly don't want to give it away.

So today, Kate's been testing at Bayford Meadows. At the beginning of this season, we found a kart setup that worked, and Kate's been racing with that setup and getting faster and faster. And today was the time to try some tweaks, and find an edge.

If you're a pop fan, you'll probably know One Direction's song 'One Thing', where the lyrics go "I don't, don't know what it is, but I need that one thing". Well we didn't know what that one thing was either, but we thought we'd start simple and experiment with front chassis ride height.

On the OTK chassis, there are three settings for front ride height (which is set by moving washers). Kate's been riding with the front set high (which gives grip going into the corners), and she tested today with the front set lower (which gives grip coming out of the corners). And she felt the difference, and loved it. After an hour of driving, when Kate is usually tired and generally slower, she pulled in a PB of 47s, which is 0.7s off the 2023 lap record. Not bad for a novice in her first year.of karting. And Kate will definitely be driving in the future with this ride height setting.

She had an amazing day at Bayford, pulling in fast lap times with the ride height set high, and pulling in even faster lap times with the ride height set low.

Kate was looking for that one thing, one thing, and now she knows what it is, what it is, dah doo dah doo...