Karts: where to start?

I had dabbled with cars for years, never really having the money to get serious. Two years ago I bought a used TaG kart and have never looked back.

Yes - trying to find information online is incredibly frustrating. I have practically begged the owner of my local track to update the website, put out better, more timely information, and do a bit of advertising. He's starting to come around, but it has taken a lot of convincing.

This seven part series from Autoblog was very helpful to me when I was trying to learn about the sport: Autoblog Introduction to Karting Series A lot of people called me crazy for starting in TaG. I didn't find TaG to be all that intimidating or frustrating. TaG is one of the stronger classes at my track, and I liked the competition. If KT-100 had been as popular as TaG, maybe I'd have looked at that instead. A weekend with a competitive TaG kart in NO WAY can be compared to even the best indoor karting. It is serious racing and it beats the heck out of you. I think it's one of the great overlooked opportunities within motorsports.

I'm a recent kart convert after selling my autox car. In the past 8 months I have built 2 karts and found a trailer to haul them for less then $1500. We are using 4 stroke Honda clone engines on sprint frames for autox. I like the fact they don't take up driveway space, maintenance is checking bolts and changing the oil, and parts are inexpensive. We regularly see these karts in the top 10 raw times, if not FTD. With a few exceptions, the builds are generally in the $500-$600 range. You can spend a ton of money to run up front or spend a sane amount and still have fun at 45mph with your but 1.5" above the pavement. Bob's 4 cycle forum is probably the best for 4 stroke karts and ekarting news for 2 stroke.

My son and I run dirt oval Karts.....www.i-20speedway.com , you can view our rulebook and read tech articles you may find helpful

Well, I made it out to the "Mac Track" in McMinville and got to talk to a couple of folks and watch some qualifying. It was a small turnout, as the first event of the winter series. I think their main event was going to be an Australian Pursuit, where they start everyone off, slowest first, spaced according to qualifying times, calculated so that everyone should arrive at the finish at the same time at the end of fifteen minutes

Anyhow, locally it appears that the most popular/competitive class is World Formula, which is powered by 15-or-so horsepower Briggs and Stratton engines. They also get good turnout in the Rotax classes and the stock moto shifters which zipty said he runs, but it sounds like fewer Rotax than World Formula, and fewer shifters than Rotax.

I also got an answer to the confusion I'd had between Rotax and TaG; apparently TaG is run with the same Rotax engines, but also allows a few other brands of semi-equivalent engines which they try to level with different total weights, but according to the fellow I talked to, because of how differently they make power, one track will heavily favor the Rotax where another will favor the Leopard or something else.

I was happy to hear that the cheapest class is also the most populous/competitive (and it sure sounds like this is something that varies by region). OTOH, the 30hp two-stroke just seems so much racier. That said, a flock of B&S karts on the back straight sounded better than I would have thought

Possibly most compelling (and mostly likely to be fictitious) was the assertion that due to its location with regard to local geographic features, the weather is nice there beyond the sodden expectations of the larger area...

I'm intrigued. Now I need to figure out whether I really want to pursue this...

If you are interested in the WF, there is a lot of info on this site http://fastermotors.net/ . I would love to run a stock WF, its fast for a 4 cycle, push button start, & reliable. Unfortunately just hasn't taken off in my area.

Rotax Sr. is a nice engine, if you want to spend the bucks but make sure you get the newest generation that is sealed. At my local track the Tag's are significantly faster then the Rotax, so I haven't see much of them around.

I have owned both engines, and think they are great engines as long as there are people to race.