budget karting

mickoh

HI GUYS.I AM TRYING TO GET A BUDGET KART RACING SERIES GOING IN IRELAND,INSTEAD OF THE REGULAR KARTING TRACKS IT WOULD BE RUN IN CAR PARKS WITH THE TRACK MARKED OUT WITH PLASTIC BARRIERS,EASY TO VARY THE LAYOUT EVERY TIME,THE KARTS WOULD BE 270cc 4 STROKE KARTS WITH NO MODIFICATIONS INITIALLY,THESE KARTS CAN BE BOUGHT IN ENGLAND,OR AT HOME OR INDEED FURTHER AFIELD IF NECESSARY,IF THERE IS ANYONE OUT THERE INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED CONTACT ME ON THIS FORUM AND LET ANY OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO MAY BE INTERESTED KNOW ABOUT THIS THREAD, I WOULD BE PLANNING TO START A CLUB TO GET THE WHOLE THING GOING.

se conman

Will this be Motorsport Ireland sanctioned ?

SouperComputer

Best of luck with this. Have you got insurance sorted out? What engine do you plan running? To be honest if you want to keep it cheap look into the chinese made SQ chassis and bolt a clone Honda engine on there. Assuming you haven't being looking at this already.

mickoh

Have'nt sorted out insurance yet,just sounding out how much interest there is out there,it would'nt be sanctioned by MI,the karts and engines would probably be as mentioned of chinese origin,have heard some good reviews about them,theres also a company in India called KnK that build karts,they are fairly popular in Australia.

mickoh

Theres a company in China that can supply a kart called the ''road rat'',its a kart that is used widely in the US for budget racing so its a proven package,it costs $780 US for the 270cc honda clone engined model, $700 US for the 200cc honda clone engine model, These can be supplied for even less if multiple orders are received..both are also available with honda powerplants,the clone engines are made under license by Lifan,indeed many parts are interchangable with honda engines, in order to supply affordable motorsport it makes more sense to have a control engine to give a level playing field,although handicapping..via added ballast might make things more interesting,any views on same? BTW theres also a model called the ''voodoo kart'' available for similar cost with similar performance.

Jim05

i'd definately be interested keep me updated with how your getting on

lube5150

What a great idea...i just had a look at the road rat,voodoo kart,they seem ok,,,they might be allright for racing..karting in ireland has suffered from any form of orginisation,,,i used to race 125 gearbox,and would still love too,,so mabey it time to get something together,,,with out all the crap that goes with other karting clubs,,count me in,,,

mickoh

They are raced all over the US,the 6.5 hp engine with a few modifications will do 50mph +,they might be worth looking into.Its my plan to buy one of them and test it out in some of the tracks here,I believe they have a good track in edgeworthstown.

metzengerstein

if someone buys me a kart id be well up for it ,:D:D:D

mickoh

This thread has been up for 3 weeks,there does not seem to be a lot of interest in what I was proposing,no point in making the initial outlay if only a few are interested.

mickoh

I have mentioned the costs of the karts already,its very difficult to quote other costs as they are tied into venue hire and its impossible to negotiate hire price without numbers.As I said I don't think the interest is out there.Too many people don't want to buy their own karts,preferring hire instead.I wasn,t looking for definite commitment,only trying to see if there was much interest out there.

se conman

Not to put a downer on this , but if you look at any carpark or tarmac area big enough to have even a small track on , it will be covered in contours and slopes to allow rain water to flow and drain and it would be very hard to find a decent layout for a track that would allow for high enough speeds to make this more appealing than normal hire karts.I am not knocking your plan because everything is possible , you just have to decide wheather it is worth it or not.

lube5150

Ok...what's happening here is....people want to race karts,but there own karts,i did think it was a good idea,,,but i dont see the point in buying another kart to race in a one make series...you can buy a second hand 125 gearbox for around €700,that would be an old kart,but still great fun,,.mabey you should bite the bullet and join a karting club,,,plus we here in ireland dont have that many tracks to choose from...in the uk they have lots of unused airstrips,,,so im not realy sure what way to go,,,but if we had enough of karters with their own karts,100,rotax max,prokarts,superpro,125gearbox,250,mabey we could form a club,, and organise track days in mondello......or hill climb's,sprints....any more ideas...im all out.......

mickoh

Maybe thats the way to go,track days etc,all just a bit of fun nothing too serious.I was looking for a pro kart a while back but they were going for big money,,,,,2000 or thereabouts.I could still buy the kart i was talking about and use it for that,I would probably modify it anyway to speed things up a bit.

lube5150

if anyones is interested....mondello has about 9 prokarts for sale...they havent been used for a while...and most of them have had new engines,brakes,tyres ect ect...fitted in the last few years...i have looked at them and the seem in good order...they would be ideal for someone who just want a bit of fun in athboy....they asked me €300 each...but im sure you could buy them cheaper....might be worth a go...
PS....i dont work for mondello......

ucdmike

lube5150 wrote: »

if anyones is interested....mondello has about 9 prokarts for sale...they havent been used for a while...and most of them have had new engines,brakes,tyres ect ect...fitted in the last few years...i have looked at them and the seem in good order...they would be ideal for someone who just want a bit of fun in athboy....they asked me €300 each...but im sure you could buy them cheaper....might be worth a go...
PS....i dont work for mondello......

Would they be suitable for racing at any level in karting?

lube5150

ucdmike wrote: »

Would they be suitable for racing at any level in karting?

NO i dont think so,,there just corperate karts,,,way too heavy for racing,,there are loads of karts for sale on buy and sell,done deal,and the irish karting web site,,,some are very cheap,,,karters are few and far between and it very hard to reach them,and informing them as to whats going on out there...i know of at least 6 karters that would love to race(in any form),,,inc me...karting is one of the cheapest forms of motorsport out there....you blow an engine in one race...and have it rebuilt for the next....try that with single seater....im off to rattle the brain....

lube5150

mickoh wrote: »

Maybe thats the way to go,track days etc,all just a bit of fun nothing too serious.I was looking for a pro kart a while back but they were going for big money,,,,,2000 or thereabouts.I could still buy the kart i was talking about and use it for that,I would probably modify it anyway to speed things up a bit.

Mickoh...man you would be mad to pay anything near €2000 for a pro kart,€500-€700 max,and im not being smart about that,there just not worth it,,buyers market,,,,
plenty of karts sitting in garages being boared,,,,im looking at the monent for something decent,125,250,i miss the buzz........

lube5150

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Plenty of people blow engines in single seaters and have them rebuilt for the next weekend. Karting can be cheap if you had a decent set of rules, but if not it gets out of hand then costs spiral out of control. People spending big money on tyres and rebuilds.

Motorsport and rules....the karting ferternity have sorta got their act together,they now have tyre and fuel control(about time,,too much high octane fuel hanging around the pits)and hopefully get that stupid helmet rule in order,,in karting you can only use two types of helmet,and the cheapest is €540,,,whareas in single seaters you can use a helmet that costs just €245,,,i done see the logic,,,but getting back to karting,,i talked to some friends of mine last nite,and the would be interested in karting,,just on another level,,,we discused time trial's,sprinting,hill climbing,time attacks,,circut racing,,mabey a round in mondello with the likes of saloon or formuly V's,so theres quite a few options....we just need more interest......

mickoh

lube5150 wrote: »

if anyones is interested....mondello has about 9 prokarts for sale...they havent been used for a while...and most of them have had new engines,brakes,tyres ect ect...fitted in the last few years...i have looked at them and the seem in good order...they would be ideal for someone who just want a bit of fun in athboy....they asked me €300 each...but im sure you could buy them cheaper....might be worth a go...
PS....i dont work for mondello......

Was up there looking at them the other day,the best of them are gone already,I think I got the last decent one,will do a full stripdown on it and rebuild it,should be a bit of fun.whats left up there is fairly tatty,would need an awful lot of work to be worth it.

paddy132132

i would be well up for this and a buddy of mine let me know am on the look out for a kart at the mo so if anyone knows of one about 300/600 euros
is there any left in mondello could fix one up in a weekend am a mechanic son and have own garage ...

SouperComputer

Prokart (Twin Gx160) class has been gone for a long time now. Shame as it was pretty cost effective in terms of engine and tyres. For 300e though, if they are runnning well they would be great for a spin around athboy or whatnot. Until you are ready for an actual race kart. What chassis are they?

Lube5150 where's the reg for helmets in karting? First Ive heard of it, but then again I'm a distance away now!

TBH karting is fecked in the arse everywhere except Austrialia. IMO it's stemmed from the CIK down with this KF malarky combined with peoples general lack of dough. Its a mess in the US with a stupid amount of orgs, tripping over each other with conflicting date and conflicting regs. I miss the days of 40-odd kart 100 National grids at Mondello, those were the days. Cloud of blue smoke the size of a small village, take that greenies haha.