145 in OK Senior including kart. So weight any more than 70kg and you’ll be struggling.
and my Tony with an OK was 73 kg so I would’ve had to be 72 kg while wearing 5 kg of safety equipment.
I have weighed 67 kg, I couldn’t sprint 100 meters at that weight without pulling a hamstring.
Weight limits have been low before, but I personally believe really the FIA wants karting to be Formula 5 in all but name. KZ kinda is allowed to exist so the big teams can still race in a traditional manner, but the OK stuff is purely to serve the F1 ladder now. Can’t see there ever being a professional karter ever winning it again to be honest. It’l be 15 years old every year.
It’s too bad because I think an OK is the most fun engine I’ve had next to me - and yes, I had a Maxter ICA.
Athletes have gotten heavier in every sport besides karting because adding muscle makes them faster and protects joints against injury. I was at my fastest, 11.6 for 100m standing start, when I was 87 kg. With how heavy karts are these days a 155 kg weight limit in that class would make sense, but on the other hand having one class for light drivers and one for heavy might not be a bad idea. KZ at 175 kg allows an 80 kg driver.
CIK have a class called OK+ within the Technical regulations where the weight limit is like 155kg… weird I know as no one is ever going to race it.
Hi, I’m in Europe, I’ve raced OK and currently KZ.
The FIA OK World Championship just took place at my local track a few weeks ago.
Not sure what you mean by “getting serious” but if you want to compete forget about KZ, start with OK or maybe better start with an X30 or Rotax Max, learn the basics properly.
OK engine maintenance is higher than an automatic, almost like a KZ, download their respective manuals and see for yourself.
In terms of Teams, there are many to choose from, better to find someone locally.
Best of luck
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I don’t think you’ll find anyone on here who wouldn’t give an arm and a leg to go karting more
The guys and gals in this forum are very knowledgeable, and if they say the license is a possible problem I would look into it
Fighter pilots all started in small single prop planes and worked their way up to jets. Same thing with mountain climbers. They start on small mountains and work their way up to big ones. If you start in a Kz, you probably won’t even be able to shift gears properly, let alone learn how to drive on the limit. You’ll have too many things to focus on that you’ll end up not getting better at anything.
Again, as a newbie, I would recommend listening to these people. They all have tons of experience and knowledge, that would be very useful to you
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I am too. I’m an adrenaline junky. I started in world formula (14 hp) one of the slowest engines. This was more than enough for me. Karts are so inherently quick, that even the slowest karts feel like an f1 car. Just 14hp has kept me content for 3 years. Only after that 3 years have I started wanting a little more.
I am also very competitive. If I were to jump into something too quick, and not be able to figure it out, I would become extremely frustrated and hate it. And I’m sure you would too. That’s not what we want
I’ve been told that there a budgets out there passing the 500k mark.
Not really important info, but found it itnteresting
Well yeah, people have the money and spend it. There’s mega bucks spent in x30 too.
But really the important thing is if you can be competitive of a fraction of that. I can only think of one example in the last few years and that was Danny Keirle winning the OK world’s at (I think) his first OK race. But it was at a track he knew very well and I assume Dino Chiesa gave him a good package. Danny Keirle doesn’t have big cash, I think he’s a fabricator at Williams, @Alan_Dove probably knows more.
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Really we can close this topic, the conclusion has been drawn: I will first rent something from a team, speak with them and go from there.
I have other things to do with my life than debating eudaimonism here.
I had to look that word up 
People are giving good advice with the intention of helping you.
You obviously know nothing about karting, so listening to those who do know and are willing to give you free advice, it should be appreciated.
The best thing you can do is forget about a team, just buy yourself a secondhand kart with a Rotax Max engine, low maintenance, very reliable, then you go to the local track and you practice as often as you can, and you ask around what kind of lap times the good guys are doing, that will give you an idea of how terrible you are, so you practice on and on and in about a years time, you will improve quite a bit, then you’ll get to a point where you won’t be able to go any faster, not even a couple of tenths of a second faster, going faster than that is gonna take a very longgggg time, at that point you contact a small local team that can help you get into local races, you do that for a few years and you go from there.
There’s no point in contacting an official team, those team are mainly focus in the European championships, such as the IAME or Rotax series, getting there will take you many years, all the guys competing at the European level are very good, they are all very talented, there will be many races where the top ten drivers will finish a race within the same second, most of us started very young, we’ve been racing for 10, 15, 20 years nonstop.
Makes no sense to want to run when you can’t even walk on a straight line, KZ is the top of the top, go ahead and rent a KZ and you’ll understand there’s no point, yes you can do it as a hobby, but you can’t compete, you won’t even qualify to get into proper races, you can do amateur races and I guarantee you you’ll finish last, and btw, a KZ depending on the track can go above 140km/h, you crash at that speed and you are going to fly out of your seat and really hurt yourself.
So take it easy, learn everything there is to learn, slow and steady, and be realistic.
Have fun, stay safe.
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Thank you, as a parent of 2 disabled children, it was beyond reproach.
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No worries, mate. KP is meant to be an oasis, not a wasteland.
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Ha. You screw up slightly in lo206 against competent drivers and 3 turns later the pack eats you up.
It’s the same in Shifters IME, what you’re seeing when the pack eats you up speaks more to the level and parity of competition.
At least with the 206 you have a linear torque curve. If you scrub 1 or 2 MPH that’s bad of course, but doesn’t compound the way it does in a shifter where you basically lose all power if you fall off the pipe. It literally feels like someone pulled the spark lead.
This forces you to have to drop a gear and lose 5MPH or more during the process. Sure, visually it looks like there’s no deficit to the outsider because the kart takes off like a rocket when you drop that gear. But on the clock, as soon as you do that, you’re shot.
Similar thing in the 100cc classes in the 90’s. Folks that didn’t race them (Cough 4T classes, cough) assumed that it was easy and forgiving because you could “power your way out of mistakes”. Not even close to true because if you scrub enough speed (esp in the tighter turns) … you also lose power dramatically… As demonstrated by the 4T kart passing you on exit 
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I don’t find that it’s much different in 206 vs. KA, or even X30 and Shifter. The biggest differentiator is that the skill ceiling is lower in a 206, which means there are more drivers that are able to capitalize on a mistake than in a higher speed class.
I’ve said it before, but I actually found 206 to be more forgiving than a 2-stroke. Since you ride the clutch out of the corner, you’re always in the powerband. Everytime I made a mistake, I could get on the gas earlier and minimize the damage, whereas in a 2-stroke, you never disengage the clutch, so you bog and don’t have as much power exiting the corner.
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I guess what I’m saying is that it plays out slower and longer in lo206/rentals. At least it seems that way to me. That little mistake seemed ok in the moment but the relentless nature of lo-hp momentum will have a surprise for you in the next few corners, likely.