Mario Kart Hot Laps

The boys setup a K'NEX Mario Kart track the while I was at work earlier this week. So naturally I did what any cool father would do. "Boys which Kart can finish the track the quickest? We should run some hot laps and time each Kart, keep track of it and then I'll blog abotut it". And here we are.

The Course

The course is a modified oval. Long straight stretch to help build up speed. Turn 1 and 2 are standard turns. The back straight away has a ramp and an S-turn as you move into Turn 3. Another quick S-Turn as you enter Turn 4 and then you hit the finish.

The Karts

We have 3 working Karts, one busted Mario Kart. All Karts have fresh batteries. Using the standard eye test, the Donkey Kong Kart appeared to be the fastest Kart. Mario seemed to be the slowest and Bowser was somewhere in the middle.

Hot Lap Heats

1 - Lap

We started trying to time one lap. All Karts finish a lap pretty quick. So we quickly changed to a 5-Lap run.

5 - Lap

Each Kart finished 3 5-Lap runs.

5-Laps	Heat 1	Heat 2	Heat 3
DK	20.85	16.88	17.30
Mario	19.36	14.66	14.43
Bowser	13.00	12.97	16.57

• Again DK seemed to be the fastest. However the Kart would build up so much speed on the first straight away that it would wreck out in Turn 1. If it made it past Turn 1 it would get too much air on the ramp out of Turn 2 and would crash out by the tree. 
• The Mario Kart was slow so it had a clean run around most of the track. However it would not get much air on the ramp so it kept crashing into the wall where it would have to re-accelerate costing time.
• The Bowser Kart set the fastest lap in Heat 2. It had a clean run and was faster than the Mario Kart.

10 - Lap

Each Kart completed 3 10-Lap Runs:

10-Laps	Heat 1	Heat 2	Heat 3
DK	31.90	26.25	26.68
Mario	28.29	28.34	28.15
Bowser	27.97	32.17	30.90

• We made a slight adjustment to the track by lining up the ramp a little better to smooth out the landing. DK set the course record in Heat 2 by pulling off a clean run.
• Mario was the most consistent across all three heats.
• Bowser crashed out in one heat, and then had wheel trouble in the other two heats. If not for the wheel trouble Bowser would have probably set the course record in Heat 1.

Videos

Donkey Kong

Mario

Bowser

Wrap Up

So there you have it. Bowser set the 5-lap record. DK Sets the 10-lap record. I challenge the boys to come up with some new configs so we'll see what they come up with. I'd like to calculate the scale speed but we already tore the first track down. I will try to remember to measure the next track.