Kart Racing

[Fredrik Arbegard]

Reviving this thread a bit.
This coming weekend the Swedish championship will take place at Lidköpings Karting Track!

Track map: http://ekartingnews.com/images/content/16234.jpg
Few laps around the track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rQ4H84BTME
Live Timing: http://amigoo.se/event.aspx?EventId=117

 

[Thomas Dougherty]

not gonna lie, Karting looks hella fun. i've always wanted to do it and i have a race track about a half hour away. once i get enough money i might want to try it but the competitive F1 league around here costs $62/week. its kinda pricey on my 17 year old suburban kid with no job budget.

i know it's mostly for fun and racing experience but can you win anything in the competitive races? if so what/how much?

 

[William Levesque]

Not much, you have a trophy and it's about it

Except of course for big events...

I think that I would go in Karting in maybe a year or two... 5000$ (CAN) for a Kart w/ engine, the suit, helmet and everything...

That would be in the Quebec Honda Senior Championship...

4 stroke GX200 Honda engines

Chassis going from CRG to Tony Kart as usual

 

[Fredrik Arbegard]

With karting it all depends on what you want it to be.
Sure you can choose to have your engine renovated after every race as well as new tires but you can also do it the cheap way and make it an affordable hobby.

 

[Thomas Dougherty]

yeah i just want an affordable way to race something. i have a weird urge to race competitively that i need to get out of my system.
once i get a job i'll try to see if i can buy something used and fairly cheap. hey, maybe i'll find out it's something im really good at

 

[William Levesque]

Don't forget to buy something "legal" though, and ask around at real Karting track which championships at near you, and what are the general costs...

 

[Wayne Morgan]

having fun at rye house black crg kart.29-7-11

 

[Wayne Morgan]

off to lydd tmro

black crg if anyones there

 

[Toby Davis]

It's been over a year since I last posted in this thread. Suffice it to say I'm still racing, and in the future we look to build on the success gained in 2011 (4th place in the championship) with perhaps better results next year.

For 2011 I was supported once again by Puma, Demon Tweeks and Sparco, and I also gained the backing of successful engine tuners Viper Racing UK. We had stronger engines and myself and my brother were able to be closer to the pace than in 2010. A series of bad luck, bad decisions with tyres and mechanical issues hampered me throughout the season, but I was still able to take several podiums and my brother qualified on pole for the opening round at Snetterton.

Here's the Championship results:

http://www.superkart.org.uk/downloads/2011/2011 MSA Champs Points.pdf

And a couple of photos and a video for your perusal.

For the round at Thruxton, my brother took the brave decision of taking his rear wing off - the video photo below shows what he looked like without it, and the video demonstrates how sideways it makes you at high speed! He was so much faster than everyone else in a straight line though, it was ludicrous.

 

[Lars Brugman]

That is a lot faster then my four stroke engine!

 

[Toby Davis]

Indeed, top speed of around 130mph.

 

[Fredrik Arbegard]

Hey Toby.
How much are the approximate running costs for one of these?

 

[Lars Brugman]

Indeed, top speed of around 130mph.

That's quite fast!

 

[Toby Davis]

Hey Toby.
How much are the approximate running costs for one of these?

To race in the UK, they are about £3000 to buy second hand, and cost about £5000 to run for a season (including travel costs, food costs etc etc etc). For that money you get 6 or 7 rounds, with tracks such as Donington, Silverstone, Snetterton, Oulton Park, Cadwell Park (an incredible track in a Superkart), Brands Hatch, Croft, Mallory, Thruxton, Bishopscourt... basically, the calendar is made up of the best tracks in the UK.

You can race in Europe as well, and there's a Dutch/German Superkart Championship as well as a European one, with circuits like Assen, Magny-Cours, Le Mans Bugatti, Zandvoort and so on appearing in recent years.

 

[ufunacaoenn]

To race in the UK, they are about £3000 to buy second hand, and cost about £5000 to run for a season (including travel costs, food costs etc etc etc). For that money you get 6 or 7 rounds, with tracks such as Donington, Silverstone, Snetterton, Oulton Park, Cadwell Park (an incredible track in a Superkart), Brands Hatch, Croft, Mallory, Thruxton, Bishopscourt... basically, the calendar is made up of the best tracks in the UK.

You can race in Europe as well, and there's a Dutch/German Superkart Championship as well as a European one, with circuits like Assen, Magny-Cours, Le Mans Bugatti, Zandvoort and so on appearing in recent years.

OMG, they are more cheaper then running Rotax Max Senior here is Sweden!

 

[Reto Christiani]

only a F1 is faster on any track!!! ; )

 

[Fredrik Arbegard]

How long does a chassi last Toby?
In Rotax and KZ2 you pretty much need to change chassi after half a season to be compedetive,is it the same with superkart?
And how abut engine maintenance?

 

[Sam Moss]

Chassis age does not matter in superkarts I run in British Superkarts with Toby and I ran a 2001 chassis as quick as 2008. Engine maintainence is dependant on how much you want to tune. Run it safe you'll get easily 1 season out of a crank and 2/3 pistons. Pistons + Small Rod Bearing is changed 4/6 hours. We put a new crankshaft in once a year for preventative maintainence.

Costs are generally cheaper than Rotax as there is very little contanct and also we don't need to buy 5 engines to find the best one, we keep tuning instead

 

[Toby Davis]

As Sam says, if you run your engine just slightly less than on full whack, as he does, then you can make it reliable and last for ages before needing a top-end rebuild. That will save you several hundred pounds on pistons and seized barrels that need replating. And Sam came damn close to beating me, and nearly one the Championship overall, if he hadn't had such an unlucky final round at Oulton Park.

Engines by themselves are also cheap to buy - we have only two engines, as it's rare to have something big happen in the bottom end (gearbox, crank, clutch etc) and almost never seen to have two bottom end failures in a weekend.

Did I mention by the way that we tend to be the fastest cars on a circuit? We lap faster than the following:
- V8 Supercars
- BTCC
- Formula Renault (depending on the track the sometimes turn that around if it's a power track like Thruxton, as their top speed is higher)
- Any production touring car
- Formula Fords

At Cadwell Park, a Superkart held the outright lap record for ages, until it was beaten relatively recently. The reason? They weigh 200kg, but they have about 65bhp for a single cylinder (250 National) Superkart, like the ones myself and Sam race, or 95bhp if they are a twin cylinder (Division 1) Superkart. The twins are heavier (by regulation) by 20kg, but with the extra 30bhp they tend to be faster by 3 seconds a lap or so. The engines in the twins, however, cost £8000+ (sometimes upwards of £14k) and a big problem with a twin means a substantial cost to fix it.

With so much power for so little weight, a Superkart will do 0-60 in less than 3 seconds, and because they are so small and low down, they are very good through the air, so the top speed in a single is 130mph, with top speed in a twin around 145-150mph.

 

[Fredrik Arbegard]

Sounds interessting as I recently quitted karting (drove Rotax) after a season filled with bad luck and lack of practise.
But I haven't given up racing just yet, and Superkart seems to be lots of fun and relatively cheap.