Hi Teams and Drivers,

Philip was kind enough to draft this mail with tips, and hints to get your F400 kart to a good finishing position. Before I forget, there are 7 Green air filters available, of which 2 have been reserved, so if your team needs one, you can get hold of Philip on 0824569773, these will be sold on a a first come first serve basis. More will be available later, when the new shipment arrives. The F400 Karting series is growing from race to race; and we currently have 34 teams with karts with more being sold and prepared. The F400 Club  strives to keep the racing equal and competitive for all teams by preparing the engines to equal specification and by only utilising one engine builder.  Although we continually strive to ensure that all engines are equal in performance, it is not always possible to get them 100% equal, and we have learnt that the Honda engine takes quite a while to properly run in, and achieve its peak performance. In a recent Dyno session where two of the motors which reportedly are the strongest were compared to a brand new motor, we found that the old motors which had not been opened or touched in any way during the last year of racing were marginally up on both HP and Torque over the new motor. We then proceeded to strip the best motor and tested each of the following components taken off the best motor on the new motor and found: Carburettor - no change in performance

Engine Timing key - no change in performance

Head - no change in performance This proved the equality of the engine components, and our theory. We will be defining a standard dyno procedure, and making this facility available to teams to evaluate their engine performance in the near future. It looks like these engines achieve their best performance after around 40 hours of running. So for all teams who need an excuse to go and practice, not only will your engines performance improve, so will your driving performance. The main aim of this email is to try and give tips on how to improve your racing performance and also just as importantly how to prepare a F400 race kart to get you to the end of the race. These tips have worked for us so it's our teams opinion on what improves our karts. It's good for a team to keep a log of what their current kart setup is and then make ONE change at a given time (Anyone making several changes won't quite know what cured the problem be it a under-steering kart (Front end is washing out) or a over-steering kart (Rear End is very loose) Also understanding that some karts based on their current setup might have to go the opposite way depending how wide their front or rear wheels are. Let's start with the front and we are running our tire pressure at 1.3 bar all round, it's generally a good starting point. Check that your axle is equal length on either side (If not adjust accordingly) A base point for the rear end is a total width from outside of your rims of around 137cm, move each hub 1cm out and check if your rear is any better or change and go 1cm in on either side. Also you can increase your tire pressures, loosen your rear bumper bar (If your kart has one or slightly loosen your bumper) If it's already loose tighten it up and see how the kart reacts. Longer rear hubs could also improve your rear or check what type of axle you running as you might need to run a softer axle. For more flex on the outside of your axle you can turn your bearings that the grub-screws face the inside rather than the outside. Some karts allow you to setup your rear axle for long wheelbase but rather use the closer setting (Short wheelbase settings) Ride height can also be raised to improve rear exit corner grip Seat stay from top of seat to left bearing carrier and one from engine to top of seat thus helping push the kart down on either side with the added benefit of additional bracing on your seat putting less strain on just one point.  NOTE Seat adjustment is crucial to your karts setup as this affects the weight distribution thus affecting front and rear grip the most. If you want approximate seat adjustment measure from the top centre position of the seat to the front left stub axle bolt and distance should be between 103cm and 105cm. (Seat height can also be raised as will help with pushing the kart into the corners)  Tire pressure should be used first to see if it improves grip, depending how bad your kart is handling