cp

Myself and a couple of friends are thinking about buying a 125cc shifter kart. Seems like the cheapest way to get the racing bug out of our systems. We would like to run in the Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma area.

Shifter cart on a road course seems like the (extremely) poor man's next best thing to an F1 car (although to match the power to weight ratio of the F1 car, the kart would have to have 200 horsepower instead of the 40 or so that a 125 will produce).

Anybody doing this?

y-knot

If you are already broke.......just read about racing and shifter carts, they will do nothing to help your position. If you don't have at least 6-7 thousand to invest in a cart, 3-5 thousand for a trailer, 2,000 more for tools, 2500 more for gear, and at least 2-5,000 for spare parts which should include at least two engines, then stay home. It is like anything else,....very expensive. It might be a poor mans alternative to road racing, but without these funds as a minimum, you will be a also ran. Don't forget that once the cart,tires,engines,trailer,ect are purchased, the expenses do not stop. They never stop, depending on how serious you take it, you can expect to spend 200-700 dollars each time you go racing. This is not a joke, and truthfully if you are not going to try to win...then why go. Save your money for other things. But if you are serious, this is a fairly decent budget for a up-start Rockie. There are no short cuts in racing, I have raced dragsters, carts,pulling trucks, and each are different but the basics are the same. How dedicated are you? You might be forced to give up something you enjoy doing now? My last project was a turbo charged/nitrous injected dragster, I planed and built everything on the car with the exception of the trany. It was my fifth car and I had a very realistic and detailed plan, still the car went over budget. The final few pieces wee the whole intake system,turbocharger and exhaust. We needed a little over 12,000 to finish, so the only way to save the money was for myself and family to eat nothing but corn flakes for 9 months, could you do it? You will only have access to so much for funds, no-one will talk sponsorship till they can see what you will have to offer, you can not show them anything till you get it done, so it is on you. Seriously, if you don't think you can do it, then just don't start.

blackjack

I will second Y-Knot's advice as sound. I have built some go-fast 1/4 mile cars and Harleys throughout the years and what started out as a low budget operation turned out to be a money pit. It seemed fairly inexpensive to get into the 11-12 sec range but let me tell you that each 1/4 second beyond that comes with a huge price tag not to mention the emotional strain of having your butt handed to you. There is no glory in being second in this winner take all sport. As they say If you can't run with the big dog's stay on the porch. (no offenece intended it just takes alot of money to be a big dog in the racing buss.)

cp

It's only "cheap" when compared to an F1 team's $80 to 100 million dollar annual budget.

But I wasn't really asking about the monetary aspect of it. All of us know it will be expensive. Not bragging, but at the figures you quote, the money will not be a problem if we decide to do it--one of the three (not me, one of the other two) could field ten karts and never miss the money. I, on the other hand, even though we wouldn't have to eat corn flakes, might think twice about it if for no other reason than winning some ten-cent, plated-plastic trophy isn't all that important to me and I think my interest could fade rather quickly. I would probably buy a used one, as finishing way back in a meaningless, recreational endeavor isn't that big of a deal to me.

What I was really interested in finding out are things such as if rookies can even participate in shifter classes? There may be some work-up schedule to go through before you can even race, and for me, the ovals and single speeds just wouldn't be interesting enough to do it. It would also be nice to hear some brands mentioned. I have only found a couple of brands (Birel and Jolly) who make the chassis and would like to hear of more as well as opinions.

The shifter karts intrique me because, way back in the dawn of time, I had a kart with a Mac 100 engine. I also had a Triumph 650 motorcycle and I kept thinking, "What if they got together?" but never introduced one to the other.