This is where I struggle as a dad with a kid racing. If I ever want to stop financing we for to get in the national scene. But I’m curious if the race craft created by dedicating day 6-10 national weekends vs higher frequency regional/club. My kid is only 7. But our schedule is around 26 race days. Probably 3x that in practice days.
I don’t have a good budget as we only transitioned to cadet this year. Being a transition year has been incredibly expensive. Adding all the various motors, chassis, spares etc. this is hands down the most money I have spent in karting.
Just looked at my 2022 karting expenses spreadsheet $20,999.70. Don’t tell my wife.
That was for:
1x - FWT
3x - USPKS
1x - Gearup F-Series
That does not include chassis purchase, engine purchase or refresh, but just about everything else. No tuner, just me and @Muskabeatz helping out a bunch.
When I did my two USPKS races recently I had a lot of “deals” and “comps” because I have made connections and friendships over the past 20 years, and I also paid around 2-3k per weekend total expenses. That’s me getting free tent space, bringing all my own stuff, turning my own wrenches etc as well.
New Factory Karts X1 with a MRC-built SSE 175 $12,395. That’s what the Factory team is on for the WinterNationals. If you catch IAME at the right time for a sale on SSE 175 engines and go with a stock one it might squeak under $10,000, around a grand more than a TaG kart costs. If you want a rules-limit built KZ and aren’t bringing your own MyChron you can get to $14,400. The chassis list price is the same as OTK and Birel this year.
Don’t think of it as “almost double the cost of a TaG kart”, think of it as “90% discount against the next least expensive racing machine that’s not a wide-u-line momentum car”
I don’t know about comparing the cost of a turnkey kart to a full-sized car. Yes, it’s the closest thing you can get to a pro open-wheel race car by average means, and sure, it’s several scales less $$$ than car of some performance, but it’s supposed to be, it’s still only a kart.
It’s almost as if it’s an excuse, to try and justify their inflated costs of modern, faster-class kart package.
I wouldn’t have any idea how much a built ICC motor cost in 2002-2003, seeing how it was (and still is) dependent on what builder you go to, the relationship with the builder, and how intensive the build was. Or in one example, how many crowns were stamped in the engine’s crankcase.
I’m a little uncertain with the exact price back then, and I’ll have to dig though my old issues of Shifter Kart Illustrated to confirm it, but back in around 2002, when the USD/Euro exchange was still very favorable to the dollar, I think the typical CIK-spec shifter kart chassis roller, with front brakes, was in the low $3,000s. A brand new ICC engine, bone stock, was in the same price range.
some really interesting data points here. amazing how much more expensive having a blast racing local club stuff is vs the higher rungs of karting. feels like perhaps the biggest reason serious kart racing is more expensive in US vs UK is that UK reduces the amount of event practice which reduces the amount of tires and gear wear you have.
one of the things i love about karting is i get like 10x more seat time on the track than anything else but that of course can be a double edged sword if competing against someone with infinite budget
Brand new shifter karts have never been cheap really. Superkarts are a whole other level of expense of cost.
“Never confuse cost with value”.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again because I feel like it’s core to how we look at growing the sport.
The take is usually that it should be affordable, with no definition of what affordable means. Karting is not cheap, but it does offer incredible VALUE for people who are looking to take part in wheel-to-wheel competition.
A (racing) kart is a purpose built racing machine, from that context what does “it’s still only a kart” even mean? I have trouble getting my head around the perceived hierarchy based on the size of a vehicle.
It isn’t about physical size of the respective vehicles. Think about all of the components an automobile has that a kart doesn’t, the most obvious being the suspension. And on that suspension system, some dampers, or shock absorbers, can be pretty sophisticated. Then there’s the driveline, the halfshafts, driveshafts, differential, while the kart is still a chain connected to a solid axle. The steering system, rack-and-pinion, power steering, power braking, multi-cylinder engines and their valvetrains. Much more electronics, and a lot more metal, plastic and other materials going into it.
A race kart has a the obvious cost advantage by having none of that. Yes, you can sell karting that way by comparing it to the cost of a car. But it should be obvious that there should be no comparison, since a kart is so inherently different from a regular automobile, of course it will cost a far less. And yet, I would swear the industry (a least most of it) is making a deliberate effort to try to make racing a kart as expensive as a high-performance sports car.
Which brings up the other point you make: “VALUE”. I could argue that karting is doing an even worse job (save a few examples) on value than they are on general costs of things.
I looked way back in my email, and had a quote from SSC East on July 11, 2007 for a new CRG Road Rebel with a Rotax FR125 Senior Max engine, total $7950 plus tax. Front brakes would’ve been another grand, and a TM K9B package instead of a Rotax was another $1500, so it was already over $10,500 for an ICC then.
I see this list as a problem vs a benefit honestly. There’s little value added as a racing machine is concerned for many of these.
For each of them, there’s supposedly economies of scale but that really depends on the vehicle.
I do understand the appeal of having different things to experiment and tune though don’t get me wrong.
On cost/value I’ve found that most comparisons that show cars in a positive light are really not true comparisons. Usually in areas of performance, competition level, field size, available tracks, number of driving opportunities and track time.
Example being a comparison of running your own program in a local car series vs pro tour under a tent. No kidding running the car will be cheaper
I challenge anyone to find a new vehicle for $16k that offers the same performance and opportunities to race as a shifter kart.
(Some of this is very dependent on location of course.)
A used formula car will get you close on performance, but finding others to race against in a similar car is probably going to be hard, assuming you find somewhere to even run it.
That said, performance/speed isn’t everything either. So let’s take a $4000 206, yep you can spend more if you want, you can also spend less. There’s over 100 places you can run that in the US in a decent sized field.
You’ll probably spend more on snacks than you will on fuel over the course of the weekend. Entry fee anywhere from $40-$100. Lots of opportunities to run during the week too if that tickles your fancy. For someone that wants wheel to wheel competition I think that’s pretty hard to beat.
Cars do have their own advantages of course, relatability, familiarity, status, safety (perceived perhaps) and (arguably) sponsorship opportunities. Not to mention the challenge of taking something that’s not really designed to race and making it a racing machine.
Karting is excellent value in almost any circumstance other than absolute outliers though, in which case the outliers should be what’s compared between karts and cars. An under-the-tent program in a national karting series should be compared with same in cars.
All that said, like a lot of things karting/racing related, it ultimately comes down to a given individual’s circumstances: Location, goals, budget, and perhaps how much of one’s ego is tied up in their perceived status.
So in summary I would say for anyone reading this and is trying to decide on cars or karts, or to pick a kart class: Decide what your budget is (both initial investment and ongoing/monthly fund), work backwards from that using the criteria above and you’ll have your answer on what’s the best fit for you.
I’d wager that karting is probably going to come out on top 80% of the time for folks that are looking for wheel to wheel competition.
With my tongue planted in my cheek I say
“Cars are for getting from A to B.
Karts are for racing.”
So we’re trending north somewhat, that could be put down to exchange rates maybe. Or increased manufacturing or R&D costs (The recent fancy bodywork war of arms being a good example maybe.)
