This may or may not turn into a business idea… 
Say you are a shifter driver, you live in US and want to try the big jump to a KZ.
What if you had a Company that, in a pure online retail fashion, could:
- Supply you with a top-of-the-line kart (name brand chassis, WSK-level engine) for about $8,000 all in, all new, latest model available.
- Same as above, but used with 2 races, for about $7,000. Prior year models, all refurbished at $6,000
- Online engine service: you pack, ship, get your engine redone back in the mail within 10 days. Top end $500, full rebuild $1,000 all in (excluding catastrophic damage). Premium expedite service available within a week (Mon->Fri)
- Buying of kart, chassis, engine, or full engine rebuild gives you access to online database on jetting, HOW-TOs, tips and tricks etc.
- Basic consumables (OEM brake pads, spindles, axles, tie-rods) at affordable prices
Only con is that all that it will be remote to cut costs and lower prices, so you won’t have race-day support. But you’ll get everything shipped to your house.
Would that something you’d consider? Would you consider it, but at a different pricepoint? Not interested at all?
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Price and service sound right - if I wasn’t already part of a competitor I’d jump right on it
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As someone who has spent nearly their entire life in the industry, and happens to consider you a friend; Dear god please don’t do this.
Reasons:
- I like you far too much to watch you lose your mind in an industry that is completely, and utterly broken.
- If there was ever a time to capitalize on an idea like this, it probably isn’t with a 25% tariff looming.
That said, I know you’re not an idiot, and have a whole different set of connections and experience than I do, so I won’t say it’s impossible, but I do/would have a lot of business model level questions.
Anyhow, if you want the input of a surly industry veteran who’s escaped unscathed, we should probably grab dinner again soon.
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Thanks for your kind words Ryon, I always appreciate your point of view!
Let’s grab dinner again and talk about it!
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Not to derail the thread (I’d vouch to say it’s a great idea for people that just don’t want to have any hassle with researching ad infinitum for builders, chassis retailers etc… A turnkey package for anything karting related sounds good)
Is there a fundamental reason linked to working conditions or other variables that justify the price different of routine engine rebulids between the EU and the US ?
Cost of parts aside, people will change a piston and make a correct ring gap for 50 EUR more or less here. With the piston being 75 EUR or so, ir brings the total to 125 EUR. Re-honing a cylinder is also roughly 50 EUR, depending where you go.
Is the definition of “top end service” different than what i understand it to be ?
A full rebuild is roughly in line nonetheless. Considering labor time, the complexity of the work at hand and parts, cost is similar.
Simone, I expect it’s the difference between a cottage industry specialist that just does some work on engines in his garage and a full service racing team only doing a few per year.
Probably the best example would be crank rebuilds for KZ. A guy could have a couple thousand euros in presses and dies in his garage and do five cranks a week in an evening to bring in 500 euros of cash to supplement his day job income. In the US nobody would have the volume needed to get away with that.
That’s a very fair statement Charles, volume is something i had not relativized…
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EDIT- sorry to derail, Andy. I have some thoughts on this that I’ll contribute shortly!
As someone who now has a small business doing engine work (among other things), I try to set my pricing based on: 1) what others are charging in the market, and 2) the value of my time considering I have a day job as well as a young family. For parts, that means setting retail prices at or around what I see at larger operations like PSL, Italian Motors, and other online retailers. For labor I’m typically around $100-150 for a top end, carb cleaning/preparation, and inspection (for engines that haven’t come to me before). For full rebuild labor starts at $400, and also includes the above top end services.
To Charles’ point, I’m not exactly geared for 100% operational efficiency, and I try to uphold extraordinary attention to detail.
It’s been very rewarding to have folks trust me with their business, especially when a driver shows great speed on track. Perhaps more importantly, I try to be very communicative and clearly set expectations. I can remember early in my karting days when it felt like costs would just pile up based on what a shop “recommended”, and that was very overwhelming since I didn’t know how to fact check them. Karting isn’t something that will make me rich (or anything close), so I want to build a positive reputation, and develop relationships with satisfied customers…even through the ups and downs of racing.
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This seems like (to me at least) fair pricing, altough i admit i am speaking without contextualizing and understanding American cost of life as a whole.
I think another diverging revenue stream is linked to engine tuners in Europe making the bulk of their revenue from engine blueprinting and tuning. A full blueprint service from big names will run you somewehre in the 4k EUR region (plus the purchase of the engine itself, of course). This allows most of them to charge relatively little to open a cylinder and change a piston.
Added to the above is also the ammount of engine tuners in Europe vs the US. A reduction in price is also a consequence of a lot of supply, which is the case in Europe.
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Thanks! Great point of view! What I’m trying to solve for is to keep high standards while scaling, I think it can be figured out. At least for the engine work. It won’t compete against the high-end tuner, nor the small operations that can be 100% flexible on every aspect…I think there is a way it can be done.
