I recently completed my first summer racing, and it did not go as well as I hoped. I bought a used Tony Kart with a rok GP engine, and for $5500 I felt i might have gotten a good deal. Turned out to be something of a rip-off, lots of issues with all sorts of parts of the kart, and overall spent more on maintenance than I would have spent on a new kart. I am now trying to sell my kart (I’ll feel lucky if i get $3500 for it) and buying a new kart. Does anyone have recommendations for what to look for in a properly good used kart? Or do i need to swallow the costs and buy a new chassis and engine? Probably looking for another Rok GP.
Beyond that, what sort of price would i be looking at for a brand new tag?
There’s no difinitive right or wrong here. While it is massively unfortunate your kart turned out to be a lemon if someone else’s making, it seems it was an educational experience.
What your next steps might be likely depends on your goals now that you have a season of racing under your belt, and what you wish to attain moving forward.
Depending on your region or location, it might be prudent to ask a few of your friends or trusted mentors as kart racers to look over the chassis with you, to see if your next acquisition looks as solid as the one you previously obtained.
Unfortunately, I just moved across the country for college, and the only trusted karting mentors i had were the ones who sold me the lemon. There is a pretty well-reviewed karting shop nearby, should I maybe start there?
Im sorry to hear that purchasing the used tony didn’t work out. You should definitely look at some used options from well known chassis, and verify how beaten up they are. Karts tend to loose their performance over time, so it is important to know the status of the chassis and engine. If you are more serious, the way to go would be to buy a new kart.
Man that bites. Sorry you had to deal with that.
Not to make you re-open a wound… But would you mind talking a bit more about your experience with your original kart? In terms of what you ended up repairing, what you feel was misrepresented etc?
What sort of issues did you have? Karts are pretty wierd, reliability wise. Nothing like a car which pretty much runs perfectly always.
Max,
First Off - Kudos to you for moving on and not mentioning the guys name.*
If you give your now location someone might be able to advise.
One of our used karts had it’s issues. I have to accept that I didn’t spot them before buying. TBH the owner wasn’t mechanically inclined, Basically a lot of ‘water damage’ in bearings, brakes. Spindles were not the correct ones.
Best of look to you.
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- I have had my share of people in karting that were not conducive to dealing with. Nobody cares for the most part. You will be the bad guy for saying it and so on. Some of that is due to the people are considered “somebody” in karting. It has me soured on buying anything used. I would also say that as a newb you could be wrong (at least to some degree) about your assessment of the individual, so think about that. I do think there are a few people out there that sell a worn out packages to newbs. They may be well intentioned or lying POS’s. Either way it is the newb and our sport that suffers.
I had a guy with a sprint car for sale locally years back. They were taking 2 cars apart and putting all the best part into 1 car to sell. The second car was to be the keeper with all the lesser parts. Guy couldn’t just go out and buy a piece of angle to mount a seat. Needless to say I didn’t even go look. Too many red flags.
I had to rebuild the entire brake system on my third day on track (never mentioned), the engine had more hours on it than i had been led to believe, the clutch exploded during qualifying for my first race, and the sprocket and chain wore out much faster than i was led to believe.
I am in Bethlehem, PA. There is a well-reviewed place called Shupp’s kart shop near me that i plan on calling very soon, and even though it’s a bit of a drive the track i would be at is likely Oakland Valley race Park,