Sheesh, are they really that expensive? I was looking at getting one a few months ago and getting into karting, but not if they cost that much to maintain.

 

I couldn't tell you for sure. That's what someone once said, but he might have been sarcastic.

 

I doubt a go-kart (rotax, etc) is that much to maintain. A shifter kart is practically a formula car, so I could see them being really expensive to maintain... at the same time, if you wanted to, you could make a base lancer almost as expensive to maintain as a formula car: engine tear down every weekend (fluid and gasket replace), new tires, replace clutch and fluid and check the gears, replace brake pads, rotors and fluid... not to mention the "initial costs" of upgrading all the parts. I guess it's all how insane you want to be about it

 

True, thats a good way of looking at it.

 

My neighbor used to race a 250cc super kart. He was getting out of it and offered to sell it to me for a steal. Then I spoke with his wife about the time commitment. She said (and he later confirmed) that he spent 20 hrs in the garage for every hour he raced. Of course super karts are the extreme of karting. Acouple of months ago I attended a super kart race at a local road race circuit. The top 250's had full carbon body/aero packages and were putting out 100hp. These things were incredibly fast, but don't hit a wall in one.

 

Comparing costs to run each series can be tricky, but I can't ever see a Kart being as much as a Formula Atlantic.. (unless you are really twisting things) Formula Atlantic at a minimum (you turning your wrenches) will run about $2500 on a good weekend. my F2000 car on a good weekend will cost about $1250 to run..

A couple of years ago I did a break down for autocrossing my G-Stock CRX.. and came out to this
Tires, $640/set 24 runs per set
Autocross weekend costs (entry/travel/hotel/) Average: $250.. nationals was in this budget, as was the divisional series, local autocrosses would be much less)

Then I added up all of my competition runs, and came up with $0.75 per competition second. So thats roughly $45.oo per run.. and $2,700 per HOUR.. for a $5,500 CRX

Thats how you twist logic. (BTW $2,700/hour is about the cost of a GT3-R Porsche at the 24 Hours of Daytona)

Jon K

 

Wow....this seems like a fricken expensive sport.

 

In my experience the "long weekender" like above is the exception rather than the rule... but you know you go where you have to to race. I'll pay $25 per event, use about 1/2 tank of gas getting to the event and racing then fill up on the way home. My club only has 8 events per year so I'm still on the tires I bought in 04...actually since the first and last event are ALWAYS in the rain (and it'll be sunny and nice the day before ) the tires missed two events because I switched back to street tires. That was a $900 investment (tires and rims) about 18 months ago. Then I fluid change more often than the average bear, but that's negligible.

Don't sweat it. The key is to go out and have fun. Take care of the car like you normally would, budget for a set of tires every 20-30 runs or whatever and entrance fees. Keep it simple. If you want to go insane and take on the regionals and nationals then you can keep that in mind as you move through jobs. Find a rich friend A buddy in college raced for free with another friend. The second guy's dad wrote it off as a business expense because his company logo was all over the cars and equipment- he called it advertising They bought two shifter karts, trailer, RAM pickup and had a per race budget for travel and lodging. Man.... I gotta get off the internet and get some friends

 

Thats aweseome! Im gonna go find some rich friends now.