MSI Karting Championship

RallyMan555

Hi everyone, a few questions hope someone can answer for me.

I was thinking of starting out in Karting just of fun and something to do now I am 30yrs of age is that too old?

What kind of budget would you need?
Had a look at karting Ireland website in the starting out section looks like the Super 4 would be the best for me any ideas on that?

Do I need a crew, van, big range of tools etc?

And much are you looking at to get set up and best place to buy stuff?

Hope someone can answer these for me.

Thanks.

guyfo

Dont bother with msi. The championships are far too expensive and the entrys are way down. The ONLY reason i would go down the msi route is if i was very young had bags of money and wanted to get into professional single seater racing. I would advise you buy a rotax and do the tullyallen karting club championship. They have a summer and winter series and the race on the same tracks as msi do. The entrys are much cheaper but they still have full insurance + ambulance at events on standby. Very friendly atmosphere around the club too. They had 30 rotax karts entered last weekend. At the first round of the msi champ this year they had 14.

RallyMan555

Well Im not too bother about msi to be honest I just want a bit of fun, what kinda kart and how much would it cost rough estimate really.

Thanks for the reply.

SouperComputer

30 is fine. Usually over half of karters are adults and quite a few are WAYYYY beyond their 30's. Some guys are giving the you'uns a good run for their money in their 50's.

As far as MSI goes, you'll have to come to your own conclusion on that one. Here's my 2 cents and ill preface this by saying that ive had limited direct involvement with the karting scene in ireland for a while.....
I've been around karting for about 18 years now (in some ways still a newbie) Theres a lot a ***t talked about how much its costs to run at the front and I suspect its the same old: sour grapes and people making excuses for their own lack of performance. Sure money helps but you can race smartly and competitively on a budget. The single seater argument is a weak one IMO, knock a corner off a single seater, even a vee and it gets expensive, fast plus you cant really stick a vee in the back of your car and go to the track. There are more tracks available to run a kart on and you can test almost anytime you like for a nominal fee.

Now having said all that, Tullyallen have a great thing going, it would be a good place to start off and ask around about budgets and seeing what class you might like to run. One thing I will say, from what I've heard the driving standards are not quite up with MSI. By that I mean race tactics and general respect for each other, not outright pace. That could be fixed up pretty easy though and I wouldnt be too off put by it.

Karting is a great form of motorsport, there's a reason why many top drivers pro and non pro return to it and in some cases race it for the rest of their lives. Its good value and a lot of fun, if you want it to be. To start off you can get a used max probably for under $2K, keep used tyres (you'll probably find some sets in bins LOL) on it until you get experience. The bilands cost a bit more to buy but debatably cost less to run. Both are good choices. KZ (thats what I race) can be economical if you are mechanically handy, but its not a class that I would reccomend to someone without previous Motorsport experience.

Your biggest expenses may well be travel and accommodation. Pooling resources with other people and working together can make these expenses very reasonable.

Anyway, stop by Tullyallen (Whiteriver Park) and see what you think.

SouperComputer

To answer some of your other questions...

You dont "need" a van, but its nice to have. I've had my karts on the roof of a ford fiesta and or a trailer. You can fit a kart into a lot of cars including a Mondeo. Some dissaembly required.

Tools wise: good set of metric sockets, spanners (nearly said wrenches LOL) and allen keys will get you started. Spanners 6 or 7 up to 19, a 21mm sparkplug spanner and probably a 24mm for your front wheel nuts. Allens from 3 up to 10. You will need a quality tyre pressure gauge too. Something that measures up to say 30PSI is ideal. Rubber mallet for adjusting your hubs without mangling them. A laptiming computer is nice to have Mychron is popular a 3 as opposed to a 4 will do just fine.
A 219 chain breaker is handy to have, but starting off you can probably bum one off someone.

Dont "need" a crew but help, especially if you arent mechanically minded is always a good idea!

the culture of deference

Sorry to hijack. I have a 12 year old boy and 10 year old girl who love karting. They find normal fun karting slow and want to race faster karts and buggies. The 10 year old has super fast reflex's and a natural balance.

Where could we go once a month? Budget is not a lot.

ScumLord

the culture of deference wrote: »

Where could we go once a month? Budget is not a lot.

Depends where your based, I think there's two big outdoor tracks in the east and at least one big outdoor track in the west. That's all I know of, there may be more. Price seem to be around €30-€40 for half an hour.

There's also a go kart sim they could be playing in the meantime. It's only something like €25 to get into the beta program. http://www.kartracing-pro.com/ it's a proper hard core sim and it has many tracks from around the world with people building more for it all the time. no sign of Irish tracks yet though.

Bobby04

the culture of deference wrote: »

Sorry to hijack. I have a 12 year old boy and 10 year old girl who love karting. They find normal fun karting slow and want to race faster karts and buggies. The 10 year old has super fast reflex's and a natural balance.

Where could we go once a month? Budget is not a lot.

Sounds like they are ready to graduate to race karts rather than the usual hire karts. Go along to a race meeting like Tullyallen's next round in Athboy on 12-Aug and chat to some of the competitors for more info.

stedabee

Hi rallymam, I just posted this the other day and got some great feedback, I'm 25 and looking to start up so any info I get I'll share with you, looks like I'll be going to kilkennys track this Sunday so I can tell u how I get on!

Here's my tread,

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056708778

RallyMan555

stedabee wrote: »

Hi rallymam, I just posted this the other day and got some great feedback, I'm 25 and looking to start up so any info I get I'll share with you, looks like I'll be going to kilkennys track this Sunday so I can tell u how I get on!

Here's my tread,

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056708778

Thanks for all the info lads, hoping to get up and running mid next year I'll go see a few msi events first just wondering is there anyone out there that does a arrive & drive package?

kartincolin

Hello people

I have just bought a Rotax Max Tonykart and am looking to do the MSI championship next year. I was wondering whether anybody would be able to help me with gear ratios for the tracks?

If anybody would be able to give me any information on the gear ratios for Tynagh, Kiltorcan or Watergrasshill, I would massively appreciate it. Thanks in advance!