Scottish Elises

My mate and his brother are looking to buy a couple of karts and they are looking for some advice on what to buy. He is thinking of joining Boyndie karting club in Banff and having a bit of fun and then see what happens afterwards. He has heard that you get a key for the gate and can go on track if there are no events on. He is pretty fast on the kart being only ten stone so he would not be looking at a beginner model.

Do you get a trailer that will take two karts stored one on top of the other?

What kind of kart, second hand prices?

Websites to look at?

Helpful advice etc.


Thanks,

Steve.

Hi Steve, I would think that rotax max karts would be what he was looking for, 125cc, single gear, electric start and pretty user friendly, prices vary, they are very competitive when current season racing but prices tend to drop quickly after they are more than a couple of years old. you can join Grampian kart club and get a key for the gate to go practising, they also run a non MSA race series which is good racing especially for beginners and people who don't have the latest machines.
Check scottishkarting.co.uk for karts and info. Boyndie is running a fun day on 10th nov which may be worth a visit too.
At some point you must try a gearbox kart, 125cc, 50hp and 6 gears, they are unbelievable.
Cheers
Stevie

Check what you can race at your local track before buying anything! I had a ProKart I used to use at Raceland in East Lothian, I thought about changing to Rotax but was told they couldn't race Rotax there as their track wasn't wide enough, I think it needs to be 8M wide for Rotax to race on it, this was some years ago so may well be a load of tosh in this day and age but worth checking. I paid £1000 for my ProKart (was a BIZ Kart) and spares package,(2 Spare engines, 3 sets of wheels, 1 set on wets, Spare bodywork, track rods, different sized sprockets for different tracks, bearings, spacers to pop front track out wider in the wet, air filters, spare steeringwheel, 2 clutches, various nuts and bolts etc.... Pretty comprehensive package really, all that was missing was a Kart stand and trailer) in the late 90s, geez I'm old, don't feel it but looking back I must be lol..

Steve,

Contact Dave Logan.
He races Karts.

Gareth wrote:Steve,

Contact Dave Logan.
He races Karts.

Or Stu160, his kids race/raced them too

Hi Steve, i raced karts for ten years and what i would say is is start slow and build up. Rotax is a good class but its fast and has very grippy tyres which can make you think you are a expert .......................Your Not. If its something you see yourself doing for a while start with a low powered kart with dunlop sl1 or sl3 tyres drive them till there blue , drive in the rain , snow ,ice this will give you a real understanding of how grip is had and the proper way of using it before moving up. Pro karts are great cheap way into the sport before moving up the ranks. Theres a lot of rivalry between classes as the faster classes thinking there better drivers because there karts faster this is not true most of the best drivers i saw in my time came from TKM class[not me] which has a mid power and grip level as karts go. £1500 should get you a starter kart but it can get expensive once you get the bug.Have fun its great. Ian

Hi Steve

Totally agree with Ian on this, you cant learn to drive with power. If you they are just after something for fun, then rotax at boyndie would be there best bet, but i think they used to also do prokart there as well. Good cheep ,reliable fun, and great for learning how to drive. They also have a big prokart following at Crail, race every month.

I can see you on Sunday about it .

Stu

Agree with Ian and Stu aswell.

I coach alot at karting and see countless kids/adults jumping straight into powerful karts, struggle even with grippy tyres, finally make a respectable pace by summer then cant do anything once it rains as they still dont know how to control the kart properly.

Prokarts and the prokart enduro racing would be a great first year or more and its relatively inexpensive. Tyres in prokarts arent very grippy so teaches your control and as the karts arent as powerful you learn a great deal in being smooth and keeping momentum. As Stu mentioned they run enduro races every month at Crail which does not require a MSA kart licence.

If hes just planning on heading round a track im sure since TKM has almost died off you can pick up a tkm engine for under 100 quid which you could even rebuild yourself. I know they still sell new sets of the tkm tyre at £30 a set which would last 10 days of racing if you so wished it. TKM was known as a proper drivers class as you had more power than grip and in my opinion ( possibly a bit biased here) was by far the best karting class.

www.karting.co.uk if a great source of news/classifieds/forums