Hi, I am new here and am looking into a kart for my 8 year old son and possibly for myself as well. He has driven a Drago kart and was happy with it and now we are at the stage of looking into buying something for him and myself. He drove a Tony before and it was not set up well for him so he didn’t have the best experience and likes the Drago…
The track where we are sells Drago and Birel and probably other things as well, but these are the two options we are looking into.
The guy running the kart shop is a nice honest guy and really doesn’t seem to be pushing in one direction or the other. He says he sells Drago but Birel is certainly the more established name.
I have not been able to find much information about Drago Corse except that they seem to be affiliated with a guy called Filini who is I guess a “guru” in the development of Kart design?? Anyways I don’t know - That’s why I landed here…
My son really loves the design of the Drago and given that he has had positive experiences driving it I am more inclined to go in that direction versus Birel.
However I wanted to hear the expert opinions here before I pull the trigger on anything.
If we’re talking about the Drago Corse cadet/mini kart then that is the eks minikart which is the same as the croc promotion minikart and we don’t have any problems with those here in the Pacific North West.
I haven’t seen many birel mini karts running at the front here.
Drago is Armando Fillini’s latest kart brand. Prior to these he had started Croc Promotion, ArtGP (now part of Birel), Maranello and BRM before that. Guru is probably a good description for him.
Personally I’d go with the Birel. There always seem to be kart brands that come and go, and there’s no reason the Birel can’t be at the front of the grid either. From the sounds of your message you and your son are new or relatively new to karting, and it’s good to go with an established brand that you’ll be able to readily get parts for even if the track decides to move on to different chassis other than Birel and Drago. There will be a lot more publically available information for the Birel.
Chassis brand won’t really matter too much early on. The main thing is to have a kart that’s setup pretty “standard” and just drive a ton of laps. The “standard” setup will be readily available for the Birel.
Birel is more proven over the years across a number of categories, but you want what the dealer can offer best support / advice to.
I drove an Australian made kart for 30 years as the support was always second to none. And think about spares when you’re travelling to other events, as one brand may be supported better than the other to get you out of the shit.
I appreciate all of the insightful responses! Very good forum that you have here.
Like I said my son had a bad first experience with an older Tony Kart (although it was probably just not ideally setup) and then really liked the Drago afterwards.
Hence I am more inclined to go with Drago based on his experience and he also likes the design. The dealer at the track sells both and also will do all the service. Also good to hear that Drago (although not as well known as Birel) is certainly developed by someone who really knows what he is doing…
Will keep you posted about the decision and will be back with any further questions.
As another father getting his son going in karting, I think the most important thing is going to be your son’s comfort. If he has it in his head that he prefers the Drago, I think that is worth a whole heck of a lot. If he’s anything like my son, he’s going to be a bit intimidated at times and will be prone to point to any issue as a reason he “doesn’t want to” or “can’t”.
From my recent hunting I would agree though that the Birel karts have a lot more support and parts out there. Though for a kids kart/cadet kart that he will outgrow after a season or two, I feel like that is a bit less of an issue personally.
With the European tires/wheels (145 mm rears, 110 fronts) for cadets, the EKS is probably preferred to the Birel.
In North America, with the 130mm tires/wheels all around on the cadets, I don’t think there’s much between chassis brands in terms of ability to win. Alexis Baillargeon showed at last year’s Rok Vegas that the Birel cadet can win in the hands of a good driver. That said, I bet that he would have also won if he’d been on an EKS.
Birel has a huge North American presence - both from being one of the biggest manufacturers for a long time, but mainly because of PSL’s business model, which has been very successful in establishing dealers for the chassis all across North America (CRG was everywhere in North America when they were tied in with PSL, and almost vanished when they dumped PSL - a bad decision by CRG turned into a huge win for Birel).
Because of that, most tracks that you go to will have Birel dealer support - although I can tell you that “dealer support” can vary significantly in terms of expertise and parts availability - I’ve seen (Birel and other) dealers who’ve had no idea how to set a kart up.
I’ve owned one EKS-built 4-stroke chassis and I really liked it. Just because it’s a “smaller” manufacturer doesn’t mean the quality isn’t there. They just don’t market as well as the others.
If you plan on doing most of your racing locally, and your kid likes the Drago, where the “dealer support” will be the same whether you go Birel or Drago, I wouldn’t hesitate to go with the Drago.
They are actually quite big and exporting in all the continents as EKS or manufacturing for private label.
Again, Drago is a super product but in mini I would consider something else