Hi,
New to karting here. Been doing kart rental with my older children and finally decided to invest in my own equipment. Found a solid deal on a 125cc TAG (leopard) for myself and cadet (Comer K-80) for my son. Not sure how much time there is on the big kart, but PO says less than 2 hours of non-race use teaching his kids on the cadet. Though 15 years old, it looks brand new. Both karts are winterized and so have not been run yet.
Initially I’ll just be teaching the kids to drive the thing, then a little later we’ll be working on lines, braking etc, plus basic car control. My question is does it make sense for me to use the karts as they are for this initial learning period, while we decide who might be interested in racing, or would it make more sense to put a 4 stroke engine in the kart. After skimming the Comer manual, I realized that the mx/rebuild times are fairly short. The parts are not cheap. (cylinder on the k-80 is $500 plus piston, rings…) I imagine in non-race use they will last longer, but does it make more sense to pull off these low time engines and save them for a possible race future? Is this possible/wise to do to a kart that is already set up for 2 stroke racing?
If so, what makes sense. Briggs 206? Predator? I imagine we’ll put in a couple weekdays a month at the local track, then re-evaluate the plan for next year.
I appreciate the input.