I'm going to be switching from a road race car this year to a kart for next year, mainly because of costs.

Anyone on here drive karts? I'll be at lowes next wednesday for the WKA test day

 

I kept going back and forth all season trying to decide what I want to do, for wheel to wheel, you can't beat karts, lower cost, and depending what class, sometimes faster lol.

I'd like to go out for one of the test days at Lowes.

 

come out next wednesday aug 5 its from 4-8pm

 

The cost thing isn't necessarily less, as karts tend to wear stuff out faster. If you want to race competitively in a shifter kart for a year, it'll wind up being the same amount of money as to race competitively in ITA for a year, as one example. If you just want to dick around, whatever, go crazy

 

agreed!!

I think AJ Neally has posted about the costs on here, and them being about equal to what it cost him to run his ITA CRX si.

If you are running the rotax, KT100, or something like that it might be a little less, but still will be very expensive.

Also when something goes wrong it hurts really bad in a kart, and much less in a car.


sporkcrx and a few others race/drive them and there have been some threads on here about it.

 

User Mario_D races an 80cc shifter kart, and will be happy to share any information.

 

It can get pretty pricey.
Tires certainly go out alot faster than with a car.
Gears, chains.. geez just everything i would consider a consumable item.
In my experience the faster the kart the more money i spent.
Once i got to 125 shifters the cost went up.
Price and frequency of the engine refresh goes up with a 125CC.
Would I trade the experience in running a 125? No way.
Nothing compares to the responsiveness and, braking of a kart of that caliber.
If your starting off id not choose a 125 though.
TAG (touch and go) or the 80 shifter is the best learning platform.
More forgiving and the learning curve isnt as steep.
When your have enough seat time in the 80 it will be easy to move up to the 125.
I have known seasoned racers buy a 125 only to have it scare the hell out of them.
Fun??? you have noooooooo clue. if my garage and budget were big enough id run both.

 

i agree i used to run easykary 125 and it is more costly then runing cars

 

also could run rental karts at sanctioned tracks or facilities that have them. also a track around us has a spec class which is their rental karts. 65 dollars to race...someone elses karts. 1 qual session 2 heats and 1 main. cant beat it.

 

So wait you guys are saying that the most expensive Karts are as much to run as the cheapest cars? Maybe compare karting to say GT1 or something, or CSP, or FA. I'm sure you'll find entry level karts are cheaper than entry level cars.

 

ITA is not the cheapest by any means, especially to be at the top end. Entry level karts should be about on par with entry level cars (ITC?). You'll go through parts, motors, and tires way more than you would (should) in a car. This is assuming you're trying to win, rather than just be out there playing.

 

as far as the cost comparisons go. lets try this. how much would it cost to run a car with a similar power to weight ratio?

 

~400lbs with driver / ~30hp = 13.3lbs/hp
That's close to H2 or maybe ITS. The pointy end of ITS might be a bit more expensive, but not hugely so.

If you were to compare laptimes though, that'd be anouther story, but there's a lot more involved than power:weight.

 

The point is if your moving away from SM, to a 125 shifter your costs aren't going to be much lower.

If your going from SM to 125 shifter because you want to drive something faster (more acceleration, lat Gs ect) because the cost is similar yet you get those other things then that makes much more sense.
As to the GT1 and FA costing more along the lines of a kart... That is laughable....

The SCCA GT1 cars are 6 figure cars, with ~$5000 dollars a weekend to run them.

 

U got it. The miata is just too slow

 

Then boost it? Miatas are pretty beastly boosted.
But you can run into many issues if you take one that far...
braking
cooling.
durability
length between engine refresh.
Heck its starting to sound like a kart.

 

No kart.

 

you can rent

 

Road racing in my opinion is better. Less injuries too. Cost may not be what you think with Karting. Still expensive in most cases.

 

Yes, that was exactly my point. Compare lowest cost cars (IT) to highest cost Karts and you come out about the same. Then say a blanket statement like "road racing costs the same as karting". Sure, just like buying a house costs the same as buying a car. Karting at the top level is FAR less expensive than racing a car at a top club level.

 

Yeah.. definitely not as expensive to run as a GT1 car. IT cars are definitely in the realm of Karts although some IT cars can be costly as well.. depending on how competitive you want to be.
I have a stock car and I spend about as much on one weekend as I do all year on a kart. In some areas of the country karts can be a better option too. Weather, track distances .. etc. More convenient too.

 

Expensive.. it can be.
Injuries.. never had an accident in all my years of karting. Spinouts yes offroad excursions sure but no flipping no karts running me over. Knock on wood!
Motorsports is inherently dangerous. There is always a risk of injury.

 

A guy who comes out to help with the autocrosses here WAS a Karter. I guess he was pretty well known, but I forgot his name. Anyway he hit another kart and went flying in his kart and broke his neck. Now he doesn't race anything just moves real slow. Sort of made cars look better to me. You can get injured doing anything but karting seems to be on par with motorcycle racing injury wise.
http://www.sokarters.org/
Karters run the same course as autox but just on different days.

 

Drewbie, CMP is building a kart track now, by the skid pad, not sure how much progress has been made, will know this weekend. I do know they have rental karts and will be doing races with the rentals, not sure how much, but waiting to find out. Will be going to race them some soon!!

 

To really say "karting is more dangerous than driving cars on track" I think you need to look at the numbers. You say you know a guy who broke his neck when he left a kart. I can tell you about a few people who died driving cars. That doesn't mean much without the right statistics to properly compare them. What it comes down to is that you can be hurt doing either, and have to accept that possibility.