From indoor to outdoor Karting

[Reggie Lau]

Hello guys, I’m new here and pretty much to outdoor karting. I’ve been to K1 numerous times and the previous weekend tried outdoor karting at my local track Adams Motorsport Park and man was I hooked! My brothers and I thought about it and we thought it would be cheaper to just buy our own kart instead of pouring money into K1. So obviously we decided to get a used kart since we’re on a tight budget even though 3 of us are paying for one kart. Now here are the questions I have:

• What is the difference between a vintage and modern frame besides obviously old and new?
• What engine is long lasting, doesn’t have to get rebuilt a lot, easy to maintain and work with? I’ve heard about HPV engines and they seem to be the best bang for your buck?
• What is the difference between the chassis? Like the name brands CRG, Tony kart, Top kart, etc..

These are the only questions for now, I don’t mind if you guys give me some more tips and lightning up my education to karts for a bit.

I’ve also been recently looking on craigslist for some karts and I found this really old vintage crg but not sure if it’ll last and be good? I’m not sure which chassis it is but I think it’s a Kali, it is blue.
 

[Oliver Kell]

Hey Reggie,
You’ve asked a couple loaded questions!

Let’s start with vintage vs. Modern. First of all, this depends on what your definition of vintage is. I’ve been in and out of the sport for about 15 years now and on the chassis itself therw hasn’t necessarily been much change. I currently have a CRG Road Rebel. The fram is VERY similar today as what it was fifteen years ago.

The biggest difference is the accessories, for lack of a better term. Fifteen years ago almost everyone was running the same type of brake system, bodywork and 40mm axels.

2001ish started the movement to 50mm axels. New regulations out of Europe meant new crash tested body work and most of the manufacturers went their own way with braking systems.

next thing was going from 17mm to 25mm spindles and wider front ends. In the last five years or so there has been a movement to softer chassis, and a lot more 30mm frame rails… as opposed to 32mm.

In all honesty those are the major changes in karts in the last little while. I’d recommend getting something relatively modern. As for chassis, It honestly doesn’t really matter, it is more about support. If you’re just going to be driving and practicing as opposed to racing I’d buy something that is supported by a kart shop that is convenient to you and seems to have reasonable prices. If you’re going to race, look at who is out on race weekends. Remember that you will spend A LOT more racing than just practicing.

TonyKart has tended to produce a chassis that goes soft in recent years, but if you’re not racing that last .15 doesn’t really matter. All the karts are designed to work properly when being driven to the limit, so don’t assume that one is necessarily will be better for a noob, or easier to drive.

I can’t really comment on engines, because I don’t know if you’re looking for track time or to go racing. If its seat time you want, anything can be run rich and relatively cheaply. I’ve run an ica for the last while, which is probably the most expensive thing to race ever, but I run it rich and only rev it to 17k instead of over 20.
if youre racing look at what people have, and what classes are popular.
Talk to local racers!

I hope this helps you in the right direction and will suggest you check out the general discussion forms for similar topics, and it tends to br visited more.
The other thing I will add is that personally I’ll only ever have a kart with self adjusting brakes. Shimming brakes is the biggest pia job imho

[David Cole]

Welcome Reggie,

Your best bet is to go out to the track when the SoCal Sprinters are there to understand what you need to get started. They have a race there tomorrow, Saturday, July 12. Clubs are the entry level to the sport. There should be at least one or two kart shops there, and racers are always willing to provide their advice to getting started. The Los Angeles Karting Championship races at the CalSpeed Karting Center. That is more of a regional event, bringing in some more teams and more talented drivers. CalSpeed also has a race series in karts very similar to what you find at the indoor track. Their Super Series races tomorrow, Saturday July 12. Check that out. It’s a lot of guys you just love racing and don’t want to bother owning their own stuff.

David Cole - EKN Managing Editor

[Stu Hayner]

Reggie,

Welcome to outdoor karting. Yes, it is exhilarating!

SoCal sprinters is the club I started with many years ago – and it’s a great club. They race exclusively at Adams (fun track)

Also, TriC Karters races at Fontana – well run club – very nice people.

You may also want to look into F100karters. They are a great place to start in karting with a huge novice class (nearly 20 drivers at each event). When you have more experience, you can move in to the intermediate class (also a huge class) and finally in to the advanced class when you can’t be beaten in the intermediate class. They race at most of the local tracks – Adams / Apex / CalSpeed / Willow Springs / Grange.

F100 races 100cc engines which like you heard, are relatively inexpensive and low maintenance compared to many other engine options.

Look them up – F100karters.com. The next F100 race is at Adams July 26.

You should expect over 80 F100 racers at the July race.

If you need more info, please feel free to drop me a text. 714 305-6123.

Stu

[Rod Hawkins]

Duplicate post

[Rod Hawkins]

Reggie,

Come to the next F100 race, walk the pits, introduce yourself, etc. if you get to the pits, just ask for a guy named “Stu”, everyone will know who he is. He is a good resource and will get you familiar. He does race as well, so he might be busy tuning and fixing or racing, but if you get there early enough he can introduce you to several of the racers and we can all answer your questions. It’s a great atmosphere and tons of fun.

The biggest problem you might have is bring competitive with 3 brothers sitting on each other’s laps while trying to race. Iirc, Stu might have some rental karts available too.

[Reggie Lau]

Thanks guys for all the replies! I actually first wanted to mess around with an used kart for fun but now my brothers and I might actually compete too! I see that most clubs have a class for HPV engines. Now, where can I find the rules for what chassis I could/can’t run and all the good stuff to make sure I am eligible to compete? I’m specifically looking at Socal Sprinters and F100.

*Also to add on*

Is it possible to fit modern body work onto a vintage chassis? Like adding new nerf bars?

[Walt Gifford]

Vintage chassis is a very early kart from the 60’s – 70’s and some 80’s era they are not what you want to go racing with in todays modern era. A kart from the 90’s era can still be run in the very low powered classes such as stock clone. For HPV/KPV you want something from the last decade.

Gif

FAA certified jet engine and aircraft technician,
Nicholson Speedway class champion 2001,
Yamaha KT100 Service Center,
41 years karting experience

[Rod Hawkins]

Reggie,

You want to scour the classifieds section. Here is an example of something that you might look for. This is at the low end of the price scale and used for a KPV with a chassis and full set up on the higher end will be $3-4,000. Without knowing the condition of this chassis, it is a pretty good deal. I bought the exact chassis model a year ago with a leopard motor for $2400 (I got ripped off, but didn’t know better). Got interested in F100 and sold the leopard for the same price I got the KPV (used) for.

Socal 2005 Margay Brava 1.4 HPV 100cc

If you are looking to spend $2500-4000 range, contact stu, he gets karts and basically strips them, paints them and gets all parts in great working order and sells them for about 1/2 price of new (but your kart will look new). He will also take you out and teach you how to drive, and tune it to your liking. Think of if kind of like a certified preowned car, since he will back lot of the parts for a little while (opposed to buying a used one and it braking on the first race and you are left fixing it on your own).

Actually I think my brother has a spare roller (everything but motor) he might be looking to sell, send me a PM if you might be interested in that too. I think with a motor you could do it slightly less than that ad I posted.

[Reggie Lau]

Our limit is to actually not spend over $2000 since this is just our hobby or speed fix for the weekends, we just want a kart that we could mess around with and still have fun and the speed. Anyways, I PM’d you Rod!

[SAM DEO]

hi welcome to thisd forum site here you can find lots of other things, sirry friend i dont have any knowledge about KARTING k1 can u please  share  some more information…thanks

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[Riccardo Rigato]

Hi everybody! I agree with you, it is better to buy a new go kart instead of ranting one, if you are to use it very often! The choice might be very difficult – I do not know very well the market of used karts, but if I were to suggest a model I would suggest something like this. Hope this is useful to you!

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