I finished building the kart this weekend and took it out tonight for a little test & tune/ break-in. The kart is a 2005 Arrow Ax8 chassis w/ honda cr125 motor.

We set up a 6 cone slalom and crappy skid pad and went to work.

The slalom was evenly spaced 30 paces. after tuning the toe on the kart a bit and softening the chassis I went through it flat out in 5th gear which is roughly 70 mph. I'm sure it can be done faster but its was the first day out and I was scared. The kart is really scary I turned the wheel to full lock at about 60 and 3.5 rotations before coming to a stop.

On our crudely measured skid pad which was a 100' circle I was easly hitting the top of 5 but started to get scared.

Then our clutch cable came loose so we decided to pack up and go home.

After only one practice I'm having my doubts as to whether or not I will ever enjoy auto-xing a car ever again. Unless I get to drive a AM car

I'm decided to skip Nashville and just spend the weekend getting the kart perfect, and learning how to shift and generally drive it properly.

Anyway the kart is so choice, if you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.

 

i would love to start kart racing. do you know any goods sites i can check out to learn more about karting/karts/etc? i was hoping to find a forum like this, but for karts, but i wasn't able to.

 

Saw a kart up close at an AutoX event this past weekend. Truly insane!!!! That thing hauls @ss. It wasn't the fastest thing out there but it came pretty close.

 

I don't sorry I'm kind of just winging it. I know a couple very good f125 drivers so I'm just do as they do till I can beat them, then I'll start experimenting.

 

Check w/ your local region. Some regions don't run F125 due to ins reg. For some stupid reason Kart are suppose to have more runoff room than cars in relation to course design. I know in KY Karts we not allowed to run events @ the UPS parking lot due to "...not enough runoff per ins regualtion and the rulebook."

Didn't make any sense to me then and still doesn't now. BTW I've got a 2001 Birel w/ a TM125. Goofy fast. @ a Cinci region event in 2002 I was just geting into 6th @ the end of ~50yrd straight. Top of 6th was ~120mph, I tested it the next weekend @ the dragstrip.

 

Basically I think karting is a good way to get into something fast for comparitivley little money and it is much easier to work on compared to a car.
And your not going to get hassled by insurance or warranty nonsense.

So far the money breakdown looks something like this.

Chassis: expect to spend 3-4k for a really good new chassis. I bought mine new but second hand off a guy locally for $1250 which was awesome. That is the only reason I really around to building it so quickly. There are about a billion way to tune a chassis right now I'm just copying someone elses setup.

Motor: Honda CR125 is a good motor. They are the easiest to get parts for. I bought one completely stock for 2k. Then all the other motor junk carb, muffler, mount, radiator, etc.. is about 1k. Airbox if you have sound rules where you run.

There is some legal mods you can do in f125 that will raise the price but I'm holding off until I get fast.

Tires: I bought 2 set to start; rains and medium soft race tires about $150 for a set of 4. I've started bidding on used tires on ebay. It is easy to pick up sets for 40-50 and save the new tires for big events.
Tires are a PITA to mount it took me a couple hours to figure out the easy way to do it.

Tools and stand: I had most of this stuff but I'd say about $400 or less.

It was super easy to build I did it with no instructions in 2 nights. (I used to fix lawn mowers as a part time job.)

Basically the motor will last a season before you need to rebuild it. Costs about $150 for the parts to do a top end rebuild. Or maybe 300 to have it rebuilt.

So basically for 5 or 6k you can have a **** fast kart. Then you just buy tires now and then. Should cost under 1k per season unless you break something expensive.

The reason I switched was because the past 3 years I've bought a new car every winter prepped it for auto-x and raced it for a season then sold it. Add to that 4 sets of kumhos a year. Probably around 5k minimum a year to auto-x a car was getting to be a burden. Hopefully the kart will help to curb my spending a bit.

 

and how do you get the kart to/from the track? that would be my biggest problem since my Z is my only car.

 

currently we just put it into the back of a pickup truck. IT doesn't really fit but we are going to fab. a stnd so it will sit above the wheel wells. I'm sure you could trailer it and tow it with a Z it only wieghs 200lbs.

 

Nice dude, post some pics!

 

dude... read your own post! 120mph at an autocross? And you're asking why you need more run-off room??!!

 

i think it is time for me to make a custom roof-rack for my g35 sedan, and i'll put the kart on top of it. hey, it is making up for the weight i stripped off =)

 

Really more like ~100mph. Still even @ that speed you are only talking ~500lbs max. A spin or off course and the kart can slow down very very quickly. Physics are actually working in your favor in this instance.

 

I've been so tempted for so long to get a kart...you're killing me del105. When I lived back in NJ, I went out to visit the local track...looked amazingly fun. Recently I got a 1/2 hour session at willow springs' Kart track in a shifter. Dear lord, what a good time! There's no way a street car can do what those things do. I've been talking about doing the Jim Hall school forever...you're very close to pushing me over the edge.
http://www.jhrkartracing.com/

 

I've finally got it borken in and driving right I had some mechanical problems but it seems to be working well not. First auto-x is on sunday. I've been practicing alot in an empty parking lot and I also have a mychron computer for the kart now. Today I went through a 5 cone 30 pace slalom about 50 times. Top speed through the slalom was 87 mph. That is FLYING. It feels so crazy.