This is my final draft of what I believe a full season would cost me to race a ka100, provided I am track ready and have all equipment necessary to run already. Any thoughts or things I need to add or change?
I’m not sure how much fuel the KA consumes, but say it’s somewhere in the range of half of a shifter then you’ll maybe need another (half) can of MS98. Also it looks like you’re planning for two jugs of MS98, but three bottles of Elf. It seems like most orgs in the US run 1L of oil per 5 gal of fuel, so you’ll want to double check your rules and the. Budget for oil accordingly. Elf ain’t cheap, but it’s great stuff.
Assuming you’re running MG Reds, they’re closer to $220 a set these days.
evinco blues is what we run. i imagine they’re all going to about $220 per set now though. and i was calculating for 16:1 gas:oil mix, which is what i have been running
And for fuel consumption i’ve average 1 gal fuel per 40-60 minutes of driving. which is about what we run in a full race or practice day
They aren’t very thirsty based on my limited experience with them.
Where are you racing that membership is $1,500??? Everything else looks about right but I couldn’t imagine that much for a membership fee at a typical club
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it’s an estimate but DKC’s club fee is $1500 and DKC is what my home track is based on. The owner of DKC is helping the owner of my new home track with the entire thing. So pricing will probably nearly identical
What does the club fee come with? I would assume you’re not just paying $1,500 to be eligible for points in a club championship and a few dollars off the entry fee
comes with use of the track lmao. You even still have to pay a $50 race fee for every club race. It is a little ridiculous in my opinion.
Use of the track meaning practice days? If that’s the case, I’d go way more than 12 times this season. My local track was $15/practice day and we went out more than that. If it was a flat rate I’d have gone out every other day when I was still driving.
Isn’t DKC kind of a special case in that it’s a club with zero commercial operations but owns its own track? Thus the 1500? They aren’t running concession karts etc. I’d imagine entry fee of 50 used to pay the various folks that need to be hired Race day? How much does it cost to have the ambulance idle?
Edit: wait I’m thinking of the banked one… NTK. DKC is Mikes joint and they run rentals etc.
i may but every practice day comes out to about $150, so I am not sure how worth it it is.
NTK’s club fee is $395 and includes practice days.
Depending on how many runs you do at practice and race days, I think you would have more hours on the motor. I typically estimate an hour of engine time per race day, and 2 hours (minimum) for practice days.
Also, I know you’re just looking for seat time and practice on practice days, and I know you plan on running different fuel to save money, but I would run the same gas in practice that I would be using to race with. Tuning could be different between the 2 fuels, plus it’s just more consistent using the same fuel.
Also, if you got membership at NTK, they have a place where people throw their old tires that if you’re adventurous enough, you can get several sets of used tires for free.
definitely going to be trying to get used tires from people, not worried about setting track records in practice. The only track near me is Central Arkansas Karting Club, new club inspired by DKC so I will have to see what the official membership pricing is. And I will see the difference between the 2 fuels, if I can find a good carb setting using the race fuel couldn’t I just mark the carb with an awl and set it there every time I race with that fuel so it will be tuned?
That’s definitely a good strategy, most people (including myself) just get rid of tires, many times ones that still have 30 + percent of life left. No harm in asking around whenever you see someone taking some off, I would rather give used ones away for free to people who need/want them, than have them go to a waste facility.
I’d have no issues in passing off my used tires, but I typically use them up. I usually put on a new set for qualifying of our regional races, then run those through club and practice races until the next regional race. There are occasions when I need to buy new tires for a club race just because our lap times fall off far enough.
What I have come to find out is that member owned tracks (NTK, HCKC, GCKI) have much cheaper membership fees because they lean on the members to help volunteer time for basic track needs, which reduce the cost. Tracks that are built as a for profit business (DKC, Speedsportz) tend to have a much higher membership cost because they have overhead to pay for and utilize contractors/employees to do the same things the other tracks use membership volunteers for.
You can, but that would be a baseline and may not be the same setting the next time you run. Weather and air conditions can cause the changes. Also, if you’re mixing fuels, you’re going to want to change the carb diaphragms between running each fuel, and if your club gets picky on fuel, you would want to rinse out the gas tank thoroughly before putting the race gas in. Of course, you could always have a 2nd gas tank (one for each fuel) and even 2 carbs for the same reason. However, each of those may exceed the cost savings from running the cheaper fuel in practice.
I know MS98/C12 is currently around $110 for a 5 gallon pail.
Just for educational reasons, why would I need to change diaphragms in the carb if I go from 100LL to ms98L?
I personally would only because the different fuel could potentially cause the diaphragms to wear/age quicker. However, i typically change mine before every major race. There are others that change them every time they run. So, you’d be fine to run in practice what you just finished racing with, but would probably want to change them for a race day, even if using the same fuel.
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i’ll definitely keep a couple on hand. does the track normally sell stuff like that. i don’t mind the $14 price for the gasket but every site i use is $10 shipping on everything, so that adds up
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That’s why you buy a year’s worth!
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i probably need to just bite the bullet and order every consumable i’ll use in a year. i just don’t know how much yet because i have never owned my own kart. just arrive and drive. after i know how much of everything i use in a weekend, i’ll order in bulk.