How to start

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by karting

There would be no problem at all.

Under the age of 18, you always need to be with somone over the age of 18 to be your 'guardian' for say a accident happens or you are penalised.

You dont need a mechanic if you can do it yourself, but you will need someone to help to lift your kart.

You won't be allowed out to race unless you and your parent guardian are there. Note as has been said already, as of 2012, your parent/guardian will also need an MSA 'PG licence' themselves. If your parent/guardian can't, for whatever reason, help you work on the kart... and you're able to manage all your own maintenance yourself, then that's not a problem. Depending on what track you go to, you should be able to nag somebody standing around to help you lift the kart on/off the kart stand and in/out of your van/trailer. Do bear in mind that it is a lot harder if you're trying to do everything yourself... I speak from experience... often you need to be in two places at once e.g. signing on AND wheeling your kart through scrutineering. It's not easy and if you could get somebody to help you, it would be a lot better.

[karting]

Originally Posted by davyboy

You won't be allowed out to race unless you and your parent guardian are there. Note as has been said already, as of 2012, your parent/guardian will also need an MSA 'PG licence' themselves. If your parent/guardian can't, for whatever reason, help you work on the kart... and you're able to manage all your own maintenance yourself, then that's not a problem. Depending on what track you go to, you should be able to nag somebody standing around to help you lift the kart on/off the kart stand and in/out of your van/trailer. Do bear in mind that it is a lot harder if you're trying to do everything yourself... I speak from experience... often you need to be in two places at once e.g. signing on AND wheeling your kart through scrutineering. It's not easy and if you could get somebody to help you, it would be a lot better.

the 'no problem at all' comment was aimed at his, 'I would have a parent there but not always one who could act as a mechanic, so sometimes it would just be me to do that stuff so would that be a problem I'm, 15.' not about him being able to race on his own

[danemsteve]

what kart are you planning to race in mate? theres a nice track in leicester called Stretton Circuit that runs a sprint series but dont run cadets

[Rushy]

I cannot believe a post i wrote when i was 9 years old is still going! How times have changed...

[FiestaSam]

Hey peeps,

I have recently purchased a Honda twin engined gx160 kart. It also has a load of spares for a rotax including a tkm 100cc engine. Anyway I am looking at getting into karting with Rye house being my local track. What series are out there apart from endurance that a standard kart can race in? Also what about if you need licences etc? I am getting bits and pieces of information from various places but if anyone could help me out I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Sam

[ghinzani]

Hi Sam. Theres a very good endurance series at Rye, other options are Kartmania National series and F6. For F6 you will needs a full MSA licence (ie take your ARKS test) but conversely for Kartmania you only need a Clubman licence which doesnt entail taking an ARKS test. Both are £34 but for an ARKS you then have to pay for a start pack and a test, but then you can race any class afterwards, whereas a Clubman licence limits you to Tyro meetings, ie Prokart races only.

[OscarM2603]

Hi, I'm 14 going on 15 4 months and I'm interested in joining some sort of motorsport to fix my craving! My best-friend is 15 and racing in the F1000 Rally Championship but that seems pretty expensive. I'm edging towards karting for a reason that it seems to teach a lot about proper techniques and learning from it. There are a few classes for me to join but I have no idea on budget, karts (second hand) etc. I can join KF3 or Mini Max but would have to move out of it in early 2015 due to age limit. There is also Rotax Max or Rotax National which seem good and I've seen karts go for €1900. I don't plan on racing on a serious level, just race every few weeks and get experience. I've heard that Karting is more expensive than amateur Rallycross and that you'll need 2 engines, lots of tyres and spare chassis. Any answers to these questions and tips would be great

Thanks

[S.Moss]

Hi,

There is the UK Karting Website (http://www.karting.co.uk/) which has some very helpful and friendly people that can help you out and answer any of yours questions related to starting karting but I'll answer a few to get you started.

Being 15 soon posses the decision of buying a Junior Kart, and then 1 year when you are 16 later upgrading the engine to a Senior class. The chassis are the same from junior to senior classes, only the engine changes slightly to have a higher power output.

The class you choose ultimately depends on your location and closest kart club(s). The main classes in karting are TKM and Rotax. Rotax is an option many new people take due to the fact that they have electric start.

As we are coming up towards the end of the year you'll start to see adverts on UK Karting Market Place such as Retirement Sale + Plenty of Spares etc.

If you do purchase a kart these are the adverts you want to be looking into. People that have lowered their prices so they can sell their kart easier because they have decided to retire. Don't worry too much about age of the kart, 4/5 years old is completely fine. What you want to look for is cleanliness, any damage such as sidepods, bumpers to if its had a rough life.

Lastly to squash a few rumours. Karting is far cheaper than any car racing / rallying. You don't need 2 engines, a spare chassis, 6 sets of tyres. Pick up a retirement sale and chances are it will come with a sets of slicks and a set of wets. Tyres will last 3 / 4 days easy. Its as cheap and as expensive as you want to make it.

Some costs;

• MSA License - £40

• Kart Club membership at any given track is typically around £30/40 for the year, this gives you say £10 discounted entry to the monthly race meetings and practice days.

• Practice Day - £30, Race Day - £35-£45 depending on the club.
• Fuel - Local petrol station price + £15/20 for bottle of oil.

[OscarM2603]

Thank you S.Moss! This advice is very helpful. So far I've seen a Rotax Max go for €1,900 with 5 sets of tyres and lots of spares. I'm not getting the Kart right as of now but these tips are very helpful. I live about 15 minutes from a local karting track which is on the M.S.I calender and the rest are only 1-2 hours away. The Junior Rallycross seems cheap too but I'm sure tyres and other stuff would be more expensive than Kart essentials. As for Kart class, the Rotax Max seem good and fairly easy to maintain. I know another guy who did Karting from 10 years old and spent near €80,000 in 5 years from Karting although he probably did it at an extremely competitive level. I'll take this on board and start looking for karts at a good budget.

[OscarM2603]

Thanks S.Moss! Thats a relief to hear that its not as expensive as people think. In Ireland Rotax Max starts at 16+ so I want be able to race for another year or 2 but I've found KF3 and Junior Max. I'd be racing every 3-4 weeks so tyres wouldn't be every meeting. I've already seen a kart up for sale at 1900EUR with 5 sets of slicks and 2 wets along with axles, jerry cans etc. so I might look into that more. I have a smaller budget than most people so €8000 a year as I heard would be out of the question but hopefully I can get started soon. I've got a question though. I really want to do karting since I'm addicted to motorsport and have fun but I also don't want to be last of all people. KF3 seems I'll be too old 2015 March and Rotax seems to be quite experienced racers. In my situation what would be better to go with? I also don't know much of a difference between Max or Junior/KF3.

[ascarracinguk]

Originally Posted by OscarM2603

Thanks S.Moss! Thats a relief to hear that its not as expensive as people think. In Ireland Rotax Max starts at 16+ so I want be able to race for another year or 2 but I've found KF3 and Junior Max. I'd be racing every 3-4 weeks so tyres wouldn't be every meeting. I've already seen a kart up for sale at 1900EUR with 5 sets of slicks and 2 wets along with axles, jerry cans etc. so I might look into that more. I have a smaller budget than most people so €8000 a year as I heard would be out of the question but hopefully I can get started soon. I've got a question though. I really want to do karting since I'm addicted to motorsport and have fun but I also don't want to be last of all people. KF3 seems I'll be too old 2015 March and Rotax seems to be quite experienced racers. In my situation what would be better to go with? I also don't know much of a difference between Max or Junior/KF3.

Hey Oscar,

Great to hear someone so enthusiastic

Yeh karting is a good way into the sport. Basically you can spend as much as you can afford! I can only tell you from my own perspective from racing in TKM a couple of years back. It cost around £3000 for the year, that included 10 race meetings, entry fees, test days on the Saturday, tyres, spare parts, engine rebuilds etc etc...basically everything. A good second hand Tkm kart was £1000-£2000 including an engine and a spare engine. The engines usually cost £350 each. Rotax is a little more expensive but it has pros and cons...tyre life is less but engine life between rebuilds is more. Parts are usually more expensive on rotax but it really depends on what brand of kart you buy.

Ultimately though it comes down to what class actually races at your local track. Find your local track and work out what's in your age range...at your age it would be jnr rotax, Tkm, blue, kf.....although kf karts aren't as widely used.

Also if you aren't fussed about racing at msa meetings, try non msa racing, which cold include 4 stroke pro karts, formula 6 etc. and if your not fussed about racing but just want a track day toy then buy anything cheep to have some fun on and then when you have learnt a bit and have a bit more money you can build up.

At the end of the day it's as expensive as you want to make it!!!

As said above the karting.co.uk website is very good and has a classifieds section on too

Adam

[OscarM2603]

Thanks ascaracing,

I've looked into the Motorsport Ireland Regs and I have to be 16 to do Rotax Max which is a bummer since I have to wait about 1.5 years. I haven't told my Step-dad about the idea yet. My idea was to either:

Buy a Max and practice and learn it until I'm 16 or

Buy a Junior Max / KF3 and race next year.

From the way you said it was £3500 for all that it seems pretty good for me too. Thanks for all the tips on where to get classifieds as I could bairly find any!

[OscarM2603]

Thanks Adam!

I have looked into the M.S.I regs for Karting and I need to be 16 for Rotax Max. There is KF3 or Junior Max for my age-group but I'm not sure between these options;

Buy a Rotax Max and practice and get used to it for 1.5 years or

Buy a KF3/Junior Max and race them until I'm about 16 turning 17.

To be honest I'm not sure which class would be better for experience and compete with my own age group or not.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by OscarM2603

Thanks S.Moss! Thats a relief to hear that its not as expensive as people think. In Ireland Rotax Max starts at 16+ so I want be able to race for another year or 2 but I've found KF3 and Junior Max. I'd be racing every 3-4 weeks so tyres wouldn't be every meeting. I've already seen a kart up for sale at 1900EUR with 5 sets of slicks and 2 wets along with axles, jerry cans etc. so I might look into that more. I have a smaller budget than most people so €8000 a year as I heard would be out of the question but hopefully I can get started soon. I've got a question though. I really want to do karting since I'm addicted to motorsport and have fun but I also don't want to be last of all people. KF3 seems I'll be too old 2015 March and Rotax seems to be quite experienced racers. In my situation what would be better to go with? I also don't know much of a difference between Max or Junior/KF3.

A few points Oscar.

o S.Moss has given some good advice here... but a lot of it won't be applicable to you as karting in Ireland operates slightly different to the UK e.g. there are no TKM classes, you can only do Motorsport Ireland [Ireland's equivalent of the MSA] governed races and most of the classifieds on karting.co.uk will be in mainland UK.

o You're best off going the Rotax route - Junior Max, rather than KF3. It's cheaper and more pervasive. The KF class system was a failure and died at club level in most countries - it's struggled on a little longer in Ireland... but I wouldn't go near it.

o You should be able to pick up a complete rig for between EUR1,200 - EUR2,000. It's best to get a retirement sale if you can... that way you'll get lots of spares, tools etc...

o Make sure you buy a brand new helmet though... and a good one that meets the Motorsport Ireland karting standards.

o Do not worry about being competitive from day 1. Your first objective should be to learn how to drive the thing and finish races. Seat time is all important. Speed will come in time and then you can look at getting better equipment etc...

o As a beginner racing once a month, you will not be spending anywhere near EUR8,000 in your first year.

I'm from Ireland, though living in the UK, and have been racing karts for over 30 years. I've lots of connections/contacts etc... if you want to PM me and I can hopefully help you out some more.

[ribbo]

Originally Posted by FiestaSam

Hey peeps,

I have recently purchased a Honda twin engined gx160 kart. It also has a load of spares for a rotax including a tkm 100cc engine. Anyway I am looking at getting into karting with Rye house being my local track. What series are out there apart from endurance that a standard kart can race in? Also what about if you need licences etc? I am getting bits and pieces of information from various places but if anyone could help me out I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Sam

Hello Sam, we did our first Prokart race at Rye last month and would happily go back time permitting, it's worth popping along this Saturday for the next round to get that paddock feel.

PFI (http://www.pfiprokart.com/Pages/contactus.aspx) have sprint racing as do http://www.mkclub.co.uk/ but they're quite far from Rye!

[OscarM2603]

Thanks for the heads up Davyboy. I've consulted my step-dad who has done a fair bit of motorsport and he's said that both Senior or Junior would be good. I can find a lot of Senior Max's but no Junior Max's. Would you happen to know any sites for kart buy & sell stuff? I've tryed a few but none have Junior Max's.

[davyboy]

How old are you Oscar ? You can start racing in Senior Max in Ireland aged 15. Have you had a look at the site below ?

http://www.irishkarting.com/starting_out.php

There's also a buy/sell section on the site.

http://www.irishkarting.com/buyandsell.php

Another option is to give Noel Brennan a call for a full run down of how it all works in Ireland. I used to race against Noel back in the day... he run's his late father's [John Brennan] kart business these days/

http://www.irishkarting.com/brennan.php

[OscarM2603]

I'm 14 and will be 15 in March which is when I'll probably be getting the kart. I thought the same that you can race Seniors at 15 but I checked on Motorsport Ireland's site and it said 16+. I've checked out IrishKarting.com too. Great site. I've found 2-3 Seniors in my budget but I'm not sure what the ages are with 2 sites saying different

[PascaLM]

After several stints of fun on a small kart and before buying a kart and spending your money, the best way to start is to take several courses with an instructor of your federation to learn :
- trajectories ;
- braking ;
- vision and anticipation ;
- how to overtake.
Applying this on a 8 or 10 hp 4 stroke kart is far enough to get the main basis.

[knighty]

If you have a GX160 or GX200 for a cadet of prokart, give me a shout, I have upgraded 40 engines this year to the latest V12 MSA regs, and V13a for next year, I have an advanced 50hp dyno in my man-cave, can measure power, torque, mean/average-power and acceleration duration via lap-top control.

Can skim blocks & heads, hone blocks, new coils, 3-angle valve seat cutting, my son has won 15 trophies in the past year at Buckmore and Bayford. Other customer wins at Fulbeck, Wildtarcks and Stretton. I help out a lot of cadet and Prokart-teams, with either MSA engines or highly tuned open style motors.

www.KnighTorque.co.uk

Am based in Billericay, Essex if that helps.

Can also give a lot iof help with chassis set-up, clutch and gear ratio choice, as have been racing cadets with my son for 6 years.