Tarto in Japan

Last saturday, I had a go-cart session near Nagoya. I've had quite a few in France and even one, memorable, in Cambodia, but this was my first time in Japan.

I was initially invited by a colleague. He and his friends love cars and speed, so much indeed that they seem to be bragging about their top speed records on highway. They don't even care about automatic radars as they're properly equipped:

This small box is a radar detector, and it is completely legal in Japan.

We were a group of 20 but thankfully, not only crazy drivers and there were even a couple girls who were trying for the first time. Besides, the track was reserved for us for a whole hour. We raced by teams of two, first in a 20-minute time-trial session, then in a 30-minute grand prix...that was intense! As for me, I did pretty well but I didn't even came close to the best. What can you expect against people who train twice or three times a week? But anyway, the whole thing was a blast!

The track itself was in excellent condition, with all types of curves. On the minus side, only one thing: for security reasons, some parts beyond the track had been renovated and reinforced with concrete, making it possible to drive on them and therefore using much larger curves than initially designed.

Now here are some pictures. "Our" karts:

The guy in white is by far the most "hardcore" of the group, and on this picture he is negociating about which karts to use:

The track:

The grand prix at night: