The equipment of the pilots of karting :
The helmet: it will have to be integral with visor. It will have also to be approved TRUSTED( FIA) for the competition. In leisure, the helmets of motor bikes of an integral type with visor are accepted. . The helmet Will cost you of minimum 200€ for a good motor bike helmet with minimum 400€ for an approved helmet FIA.The suit: useless to throw yourself on a auto-fireproofed suit which will cost you 500€. There are excellent special karting suits starting from 150€. The most current marks are Sparco, MIR, Onyx, Stand 21, Momo or Diadora. Gloves: invest in gloves of karting which will cost you from 20 to 50€. Ankle boots: same remarks as for the suits and the gloves. Count between 50 and 100€.The collar(minerve) (obligatory only in France): It will enable you to decrease the risks of "whiplash injury" in the event of shock. It will also avoid you too great tiredness of the neck on the sinuous circuits with strong side loads. +/- 35€. Other useful elements: suits and rain ankle boots, hood, a protecting waistcoat, kneepads.

The mental :
It is on this point that the best pilots will make the difference. One cannot really explain what can be a good mental of pilot, nor how to prepare psychologically in some lines... Some pass years there. In Formula 1, the pilots know the points explained previously and can apply them perfectly. The few things which make the difference can be made on the capacities to regulate their vehicle, but especially on their mental qualities. If Olivier Panis could return to race three months after the accident of Canada which broke his two legs in June 1997, it is also thanks to exceptional mental.
. In race, on a kart, for an amateur, the mental can be improved on several points. To be irritated in particular causes the same results as with tennis or the golf: success is missed! The trajectories become random, the too frequent abrupt blows of wheel make waste time and increase the risks of exit. Whatever the circumstances (one is followed, one follows somebody...) it is necessary to know how to remain concentrated, always to follow the good trajectory, to think about the stopwatch rather than the adversaries. If one does not manage to preserve his position, one should not be thrown in the wheels of that who exceeds you (error often made by the beginners) but to try to remain the fastest as much as you can. It is perhaps mechanics, and not your piloting which is in question! This thought is enough to keep the moral: -)

Conclusion :
Generally,
· avoid the skids: they harm the tires and always do not make save time · avoid slowing down too late (under the rain, it is radically fatal...)
· learn how to feel the movements of the kart (under-turn, on-turn...) · modify the adjustments of the kart to adapt them to your style