"For those who like racing, I advise the karting, and to do it with love and dedication"

nderwater wrote: What are you guys using for rib protection?

Seat fit is critical - you need to be a light press fit with your whole body in contact with it, especially your hips. The rib vest is there to adjust press fit and spread the seat strut loads over all of your ribs. If you're loose in the seat, it'll have to serve as impact padding whenever you change direction.

I've had three over the years, a Sparco carbon/fiberglass one that helped a lot with a loose/flat bottom Arrow Kartech seat, a $21 ZRacing foam-and-fabric one that wasn't bad with a carpeted Tillett seat, and my current Armadillo wood(z)-and-fabric one that worked very well when I was running the WingKart that generated very high lateral loads. It doesn't work with my super-big Birel seat.

(z) I don't actually know what's in the Armadillo, but based on its thickness and the way it bends I'm guessing they sewed nylon around some 3/16" plywood underlayment.

nderwater wrote: What are you guys using for rib protection?

I use a Ribtect 3. It was the best money I ever spent in karting. It's night and day how much harder you can drive the kart and use your body weight effectively.

As said above, seat fitment is critical. However in a rental kart, you're stuck with what you get. A rib vest is very beneficial even for those.

I have full MX body armor something like this http://www.motosport.com/product?psreferrer=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252F&pssource=true&segment=badger&key=Fly-2016-Barricade-Body-Armor-Long-Sleeve-Suit&cc=us&adpos=1o4&creative=93609120145&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&product_id=FLY3-BL-XLBLACK&gclid=CK6Z9KSx7M8CFQWLaQodFoMD5A

would I still need a rib vest?

Jaynen,

Yes, I would still recommend a rib vest instead of that. The main load case is shock loading from the side into your ribs as you go around a bumpy corner, while that MX armor protects your back and chest.

Gotcha looking at them I can see the difference despite the body armor having a backprotector/kidney belt

Sometime this week I'll write a post on fuel systems. Three things I learned this weekend:

1) The TM K9B is the "Porterville" of engines. It'll run JUST FINE when a head bolt strips out, flies out of the cylinder, and allows water to start spraying out the top. I only noticed because I looked over.

2) A 200# man, a short section of railroad tie, and four bathroom scales are all that's needed to straighten a kart frame. On fresh takeoffs it's gone from "worst-handling kart I've ever driven" to "Needs tuning but clearly OK"

3) If the fuel system setup is wrong, you'll get gasoline out of either the tank breather or the carb breather, it'll bog like an old GM car with a Quadrajet, and you'll get 8 M.P.G. If it's right, you'll stay dry, it'll run like crazy, and you'll get almost 30 M.P.G.

Any driving tips for indoor karting? Should one trail brake in tight corners? Any braking while cornering seems to unsettle the kart.

c0rbin9 wrote: Any driving tips for indoor karting? Should one trail brake in tight corners? Any braking while cornering seems to unsettle the kart.

Most indoor places only have one or two sections fast enough to use the brakes at all. Remember - a kart has a solid axle so any time you turn the wheel you are slowing it down by binding the chassis. I try to never use brakes at all, and never lift fully off the throttle unless I'm pitching it to lift the inside wheel to rotate it. I'm not always successful - but anytime I use them in a corner I'm slower than if I didn't. I'm also shifting my body weight around to assist with grip where it's needed. The whole game is to fool the kart into thinking it's going straight ahead.

c0rbin9 wrote: Any driving tips for indoor karting? Should one trail brake in tight corners? Any braking while cornering seems to unsettle the kart.

Try a variety of different lines, and drive the kart to put it EXACTLY on the line you want that lap without deviation or excess correction. Some really unpleasant tire and chassis behavior might be part of what's needed. A good goal is to start with a corner that needs some tire scrub or upsetting the chassis to make it through "flat" and move it to one that can be driven in a more normal manner.

Your front wheels are your front brakes.

So I started looking at Charlotte Craigslist because I figured with a big track there lots more racing karts would be for sale. The problem is when I see a racing kart on craiglist I really have no idea what I am looking for/at

If I get one I will probably do the LO206 anyway so the ones coming with shifter motors etc are less useful to me. Any tips?

For example craigslist guy responded that he has a 2015 Tony Kart Twister for 1500 bucks chassis only

1) Buy a full-size chassis (1040 mm wheelbase) - required for an adult driver

2) Check the underside of the tubes carefully - paint scrapes are OK, flattened tubes aren't

3) Buy four scales and a level, and make sure the chassis is straight. LF + RR should equal RF + LR

4) Make sure the brakes work. Roll it down a hill if there's no engine.

5) If you're installing a LO206 you need a 4-cycle or shifter chassis. Otherwise you'll need to seriously hack up your frame and ruin it to get a LO206 on it.

In reply to Jaynen:

Update on the Gopro Pricing: For the Month of November, For every 5 canned food items you bring at the track, the 10 minute session is only $15. You can prepaid races as well. To bring your kart for testing on Sundays that are open dates, It's $45.

In reply to Jaynen:

TopKarts are made by Comer-Topkart, a big conglomerate that makes all sorts of power equipment. They're good equipment. Just check that it's straight. It looks like there's a chance the seat strut will clear a LO-206 - call Briggs.

Correctly running ICC

This is what it SHOULD look like, complete with some very fast laps at the end. I've got to write up descriptions of the toolbox, frame straightening, fuel system rebuilding, and alignment.

One reason to try a shifter on a tight track is that it is easily the cheapest way to experience a "point and shoot" machine rather than a "momentum" car.

wearymicrobe wrote: I wish they did more Kart racing closer to me. I would drop the car in a heartbeat. I could build, race, and be competitive in new cart every year for what my tires and track insurance is costing me right now.

WearyMicrobe, if you've got money but not time, catch a cheap flight to (for example) Dallas for a fly-in arrive-and-drive at Dallas Karting Complex. It'll STILL work out cheaper than a trackday.

Headed to Go Pro Motorplex in like 2 weeks just before the charger/panthers game

Sweet! Enjoy it.

The December Road & Track has two articles on karting - but they get both the costs and the mysticism wrong, and didn't publish a performance test like they should've. The 250cc 4t engine they're mooning over would destroy karting just as surely as it did motocross a decade ago. Perfect timing too, just as the CIK (Karting FIA) gets engines right again with the OKs.

There's only one outdoor kart track near me, at Atlanta Motorsports Park. It's about an hour away, so I've put off going until now. My first impression is that the track is crazy -- blind corners and constant elevation change. Some of the hills are so steep that if you lose momentum at the bottom you may need a push up.

AMP runs four classes of karts: rental karts, LO206, TaG, and Shifter. After watching videos of the shifter karts at this track, it's obvious that they're way beyond my current skill level. I plan to run the rental karts a few more times before biting the bullet and buying my own kart.

I like the idea behind the LO206 class, but I'm not really fond of the character of the 4-stroke motors and they're not very fast on this track. TaG karts are 10-seconds per lap faster here and seem like a ball to drive, but the buy-in and maintenance expenses are noticeably higher. Fortunately I have some time to think before I decide which option to choose.

A Briggs LO206 will be much faster than the rentals, simply because it's pushing half the weight.

Briggs and shifters have chains on the left side of the engine, so if you get a shifter chassis and put a Briggs on it to learn how to drive and maintain racing karts, you can install the mega-motor later. The difference between left-side-drive chassis and right-side-drive chassis is that there's often a structural member in the way of a left-side chain or sprocket.

If you were to run a TaG at AMP, you should really go for a Rotax. The track configuration in that video is so fast that a Rotax will never fall off the bottom of the powerband below 6kRPM, and it makes more power than even an X30 between there and 12,000.

The Rotax Max is the $400 engine, because everything that fails costs $400. The clutch, the coil, the starter and harness, the exhaust...

chaparral wrote: The December Road & Track has two articles on karting - The 250cc 4t engine they're mooning over would destroy karting just as surely as it did motocross a decade ago.

I just read these articles but they provide no details about the engine. You've got me curious -- who makes it, how much does it cost, and are any sanctioning bodies considering it?

PS - I'm still trying to get my head around the pricing for these kart engines. A Harbor Freight 212cc clone motor is $120, a Briggs & Stratton LO206 is $900. I understand that the tolerances in the B&S are much tighter, the engines builds are more consistent, the QC is much higher--thus a higher price tag. But 2-stroke prices... a stock Honda CR150 is $3,000 and a Rotax 125 Max Evo is $3,700! I could buy a SBC crate motor for that.

The R&T article is describing a 250 cc Honda motocross engine. Rebuilds are $3000+ after a blowup and the noise carries for miles. They're a great way to close a track.

With the Briggs, you're paying to not get what the Clone gives you - a flywheel coming through your right arm, lubrication and durability issues, inconsistency between engines.

Brand new kart engines are usually worse value than secondhand engines. TaGs are expensive because they're complete, complicated packages. I can get new IAME or TecniEngines OK engines for $2500, and those are faster than either a TaG or Stock Honda - but you'll have to find someone to race against.

Check the ekartingnews.com classifieds for an engine. You should be able to get a good Rotax for $1200.

If anyone in Michigan wants to drive the kart, I need someone to go with me to East Lansing for the last practice day tomorrow. The practice/pit pass fee is $50.

In reply to nderwater:

Even with the cost of a SBC crate engine, Karting is still a better deal due to the cost of running and maintaining a kart vs. a car.

As for the 212cc Predator, The Oval Series we run has a predator class, but its a rough class to run. Seems to be better to spend a little more to run a more powerful class.