Getting Started in Karting - Part 1: Arrive and Drive

Although the Sport of Karting has been around over 50 years and is one of only 4 sanctioned by the FIA, the public remains largely unaware of the sport and or continue to have major misconceptions of karts and kart racing as a discipline.

Wikipedia has a number of articles on Karting including a good overview of Kart Racing :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kart_racing

There is also a neat Intro to Karting article on Autoblog.com.

To see some Live Semi-Pro karting racing action: see

• Supernationa XIII 2009
• Daytona Road Race (Warning large file!)
• Michael Schumacher Karting Test
• Fernando Alonso at Renault Roadshow

or search for Kart Race on Youtube

Traditional Entry to Karting

The traditional approach to getting into karting has generally been to buy a kart (engine and chassis) and joing a race league. But the steep learning curves, high up front costs etc can be a real obstacle for the uninitiated. Buying a used kart may reduce some of the up front expense but there is still the question of tools, transportation and expertise to campaign a racing vehicle with little prior knowledge.

Arrive and Drive

However, today their is a growing sub-category or karting generally called 'arrive and drive' karting where the race kart, tires, fuel and all even some gear such as helmets are provided. The would be racer simply has to join the race league, show up and drive.

With the lower power and speeds of these karts, and no need to store, haul, prepare and maintain the equipment this represents the best entry point into the sport available today.

Ontario

In Ontario, (Canada) there are several tracks that offer this type of racing and the list seems to be growing.

Among them: are:

• Cameron Motorsports, Hamilton
• Goodwood Kartways: Stouffville
• Mosports International: Mosport
• Innisfil Indy, Inisfil
• Erbsville Kartways, Waterloo

The leagues typically require you to sign up for membership (typically $99/yr or less after mid season) and then simpy pay a pit pass of $50 per event for racing.

Arrive and Drive Classes

Racing is divided into classes based on age and weight but is usually broken into:

• Cadet (or Youth) (8-12)
• Junior (or Teen) (13-17)
• Adult (18+)
• Adult leagues are usually divided further into Light, Medium and Heavy classes

Organization

Members have to go through an orientation process covering flags, safetly, rules and basic racing technique as well as read and get familiar with the sporting regulations . Some 'demonstration' or 'practice' racing is usually held early in the year prior to the start of the points season. Practice days are also available and encouraged for new members.

Events are usually held 3- 5 days a week on evenings and weekends. Club members have to join one of several 'Schedules' which repeat every two weeks. Members usually race a certain minimum number of events (~14-20) for the championships. Missed days can be made up on another schedule.

As the arrive and drive scene has grown there are increasing number of tracks offering entry level arrive and drive programs which are a step up from the Indoor Karting leagues and a step below the Club Level of Owner driver racing.

For more information, the internet or forums like canadiankartingnews.com or ekartingnews.com are useful resources. But the best source of information is often the local kart racing track.

For a list of Karting Clubs/Tracks in Ontario see the Club links here: http://www.nckc.net/links/index.asp

/FFJ

SwissAuto 250 4 Stroke - The 'Rotax Max' of 4 Stroke Karting?

The SwissAuto SA250 is a 34HP 250cc DOHC 4 stroke TAG motor recently introduced to the Karting market.The Swiss produced motor is now available through a number of International dealers such as Saxon Motorsports in the UK.

With the promise of high horsepower, low maintenance and simpler operation the new 250 four strokes have been a very promising development in the TAG world, except for one thing - their high price. Most TAG 4 stroke motors retail for about USD 4500.00 or about the price of an ICC.

The SwissAuto now promises to change that. Saxon Motorsports lists the SA250 for £ 1,795 or USD $2661 which is less than a Rotax Max at £ 1,872.00.

So with a cleaner, greener, more powerful, lower maintenance package available for the same or less than a 2-stroke TAG, this may well be the time for 4 stroke racers (Honda, F200, Briggs etc) looking to step up in power to think about a 4 stroke TAG alternative. So too may those that just want to focus on racing and less on servicing and maintaining their ride.

/FFJ

A New Breed of Superkart - T.A.G. 450cc 4Stroke V-twin

An innovative and enterprising company, NLR system s, is developing a new superkart package which poromises to revolutionize the sport.

The Superkart which features an Anderson Chassis, uses an Aprilia V-twin 450 four stroke motor with on-board electric start and - get this - will feature an intercooled turbo charger.

The stock Aprilia 450F makes only 50HP hence the need for a turbo to bring power inline with the 250cc 2stroke F/E Twins which typically make around 90BHP.

The on-board start is meant to eliminate the need to push start these $30k just to get started.

For details of the project see:
http://www.nlrsystems.com/superKarts.htm
http://www.ekartingnews.com/viewtopic.php?t=70812

If this succeeds I might consider getting into Superkarting myself...

/FFJ

Yamaha's WR250FK 4 Stroke Shifter Kart

For the longest while I have been increasingly convince that Karting is sorely lackking the backing of a major auto manufacturer. For many years the only major manufacturer to have a purpose built engine has been Yamaha with the KT100 series 100cc 2 strokes.

Now it turns out that in addition to that venerable machine Yamaha has added not only a pair of 2 stroke shifters:

i) A 12cc 2stroke - the YZ125K

ii) A 85cc 2stroke - the YZ85K

But also a 250 4stroke shifter - WR250FK

This Kart is being promoted in Mexico as part of its 250F Superkart Series

But for some strange reason the engine is not listed on any English speaking Yamaha Web site or apparently being made available in Canada or the US. I only hope more people will find this package about this and this situation will soon change. For this could be the first step in moving (shifter) karting into the modern 4 stroke era.

Incidentally Memo Gidley Recently won in the Mexican 250F Superkart Series

/FFj

Another 4 Stroker Hits Canada: TKM K4S

Raced heavily in the UK the English Built TKM4s is a 200cc purpose built, water cooled 4 stroke race kart engine that makes 19HP in senior trim and 17hp in junior.

This motor provides similar performance to a highly tuned Yamaha KT100 but in a low maintenance, long life package.

Now available in (Western) Canada through Top Gear Race Management ( http://topgearracemanagement.com/tkm4s.html) , they are the official race kart of the Allen Berg Racing School Karting division (http://www.allenbergracingschools.com/karting-racing-schools.asp)

In the US, the Engine package is also available from Engines4racing.com
At a price of just under $3000.00 USD, they are worth considering as a lower maintenance, eco-friendly alternative to the TAG 2 strokers and a more powerful alternative to the built Honda utility motors common in Canada or the built Briggs utility motors common in the US.
For more on the TKM K4S, see http://www.tal-ko.com/FormulaTKM4.html

/FFJ

Fuel Injection Arrives!

Suter Racing Debuts the Vampire R-Injection, the first fuel-injected 4-stroke 250cc kart racing engine. With more power (a whopping 40HP and 30Nm of torque at 7000 revs), greater fuel efficiency, lower emissions, simpler setup (no need for carb tuning), plus the ability to run greener fuels like e85 ethanol, this beautiful engine heralds the future of karting technology. It is now up to the regulators to steer karting into the future of greener, modern racing ...

http://www.vampire-engine.com/vampire_r_inj.html

/FFJ

Swiss Auto Releases New 250 4 Stroke

Swiss Auto, makers of the original 240 4 stroke, the Biland SA250 have come out with a new purpose built 4-stroke single cylinder Kart engine. Taking inspiration - and aim - at the most famous 2 stoke in the market, the Rotax Max, the new SA 250 is meant to be a simpler, less expensive long life TAG 4 stroke package with performace above the level of the TAG 2 strokers like Rotax but with lower maintenance cost. Taking some cues such as a directly mounted radiator from the Rotax, the SA 250 is meant to be simpler to install, require less work to maintain as well as produce power across a wide power bad with a massive 35HP at 10,000 RPM (using the 30mm Carb) and a staggering 39HP using the 35mm carb.

This puts it on par with the powerful new 4 strokers like the mighty Suter Vampire and the awesome Italian TECH F1. Not to forget the French ORAL 4TK.
With an Msrp of ~2350.00 British pounds for the complete package, it is competitively priced against the other 4 strokers and could be a major new player in the emerging TAG four stroke category. Now that the Biland seems destined to become part of the Asian Mini-car market, this machine should be an erstwhile successor.

Swiss Auto 250 Details
http://www.swissauto.com/uploadfiles/EN_20006X.pdf

Suter Vampire
http://www.vampire-engine.com/downloads/Vampire_Article_Sept07.pdf

TECH F1 250
http://www.technique-engineering.it/racing_division_en/tech-f1_engine.htm

ORAL Racing
http://www.oralracing.com/or/home?lang=ENG

North American Importer : Engines4Racing.com http://www.engines4Racing.com/

Karting1 did an article on a number of these karts: http://www.karting1.co.uk/offenbach-2008.htm

Hopefully the newest kid on the 4 stroke block will show its pace in this years Monaco KART Cup on the streets of the famed municipality.

Cheers

/FFJ

F1 Style Paddle Shifter for the Rotax DD2

Not everyone is enamoured of the push paddles on the Rotax DD2 2-speed shifter kart.

This is an alternative: an aftermarket F1 style lift -shift paddle shifter package.

http://www.champ-kart.de/English/Produkte/detail.php?AID=11&kat=2

Cheers

/FJ

Some information on the Saetta 250cc Rotary

Recently there has been much buzz about the 48 HP Aixro Xr50 rotary. Here is its sister the Italsistem Saetta a 250cc version of the engine with almost identical performance and not to mention appearance.

From Italsistem

http://www.italsistem.com/saetta-eng.htm

From MaviKarting, a Belgian Kartting company

http://www.mavikarting.net/en/catalogue.php?targetId=2

Compare to these pics of the Aixro at Karting1.co.uk:
http://www.karting1.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=788

Cheers,
/FJ

Shifter Kart "Tarmac Rally"

Definitely not for the faint of heart, this is a video of Karters on an unusual track:
A downhill, mountainside "tarmac rally" stage.

Check it Out!
(You may wish to skip past the Rotax Karts to the Six Speed Shifters for the hard hitting stuff!)



pegomas karting
Uploaded by spyc-racing

/FFJ

On board a 250 Superkart - Streets of Isle of Man

How is this for an adrenaline rush!

Racing through the streets of Peel, ISLE of Man - in the wet - on a 250 Supekart.

Click here to view

For full video Click here

First Test of a Six Speed Shifter Kart (Updated Mar 02, '07)


On Sunday, Aug 20th at Mosport Karting academy Track, I had the opportunity to do a test on a Swedetech Honda CR125 6-speed shifter kart. The event was the Salmon Shifters Shifter Kart Experience(see www.Salmon Shifters.com ) organized by a team of guys affiliated with 'Formula Kartways' in Brampton.

All equipment was provided as part of the cover charge: including helmet, balaclava, gloves and racing jacket.

After a basic introduction on using the clutch and gear changing, we took off behind our instructor to do a few laps on a highly shortened version of the track.

It took a few laps to get a hang of the 'lift and shift' gear changes on these sequential shifters but once I was able to cycle through a few gears the enormous power of the Swedetech Engine package became all too apparent!

Here is video I shot on my cell phone of the short track runs (Added Mar, 2007)

Turn up the volume.




In 2nd gear at low to moderate revs, the engine exhibited a low throaty growl which gradually increased with revs until somewhere around 9-10,000 rpm. At which point the engine seemed to explode into a high pitched scream as it shoved you back into the seat and exploded down the track. Feverishly cycling though gears, you hang on as the beast rockets up to as much as 70mph on the relatively short straight-away before you had to dive on the brakes and reign it in. Amazingly, even in 5th gear (which was as far as I was able to get before running out of road), it felt like the machine was just getting ready to accelerate.

The only way to describe the effect of the 45HP was like having twin turbo-chargers under the hood. If these 125cc engines gives this kind of kick, I can't but wonder what a ride on A formula 250 twin-cylinder would feel like?..