I saw a news clip about this karting place, I want to go. It says "European style karting," does that mean anything? It shows specs of the cars I wonder if you guys can tell me about the cars and some tips to go fast

http://www.tampabaygp.com/index.html

Electric Karts?

This sounds like glorified theme park go-karts.


Good luck with it!

The karts look pretty crap really, they have rollcages which proper karts don't have. It says nothing about the engine but I would expect it to be a 4-stroke thing giving 6-7hp. Won't quite do 45mph I don't think.

Tips to be fast: be smooth. Take the racing line (outside then to apex then back to outside). Don't go flying into a corner just to have to slow down tons to be able to get out of it, slow in, fast out. Oh, and be smooth.

EDIT: Ignore my engine part, I didn't see they were electric. As Stu said, glorified theme-park karts. Search on google for 'karting tampa bay' and i'm sure you'll find something a bit better

Those are as far away from 'European' karts as you could imagine.... we are talking light years away from a proper kart lololol...That statement is meaningless...... lol

right that's the snobbery out of the way....

if you want to go fast in a kart check these tips out

http://www.karting1.co.uk/karting-techniques.htm

hope they help

45mph is somewhat decently quick for a kart though, it should be a fun time.

it says 15 kW max i checked and thats 20 HP u said 6-7hp so 20 sounds good to me

The website says the adult karts are this fast :

Quote :

Specs:
*
Engine from 0-15kw max
*
Adjustable speed from 0-80 km/h
*
4 Hi capacity gel batteries
*
Charge duration from 15-30 min.
*
Rapid-function digital electronic swith energy
*
recovery
*
3 speeds beginner-novice-expert
*
Internal resin body
*
Already fitted for remote control
*
Thermoformed polythylene bumpers
*
Differental
*
Dual rear hydralic disk brakes
*
forward/reverse run switch
*
Knock-proof reinforced chassis in 35mm
*
molybdennum steel
*
Rollbar
*
Rear light to indicate breaking
*
Automatic decelerator for entry to pits
*
Self-regulating brake caliper
*
Red base color

15kw, I think that's enough to reach 45mph.

Quote from srdsprinter :

45mph is somewhat decently quick for a kart though, it should be a fun time.

Even twin engined 4 stroke hire pro karts struggle to top much more than 50-55mph so I'm highly doubting something that's probably not far off the weight can do 45. Maybe 25-30mph with a tail wind

Looks affordable and safeish for your first 50 kart laps. Performance is similar to rentakarts around where I live but probably heavier due to the batteries. I would rank travel times and other conveniences higher than kart quality for newb karting.
Remember to lean out in the turns, not in.

i work at a kart track during the summer which has very similar karts to these just without the stupid roll bars. They are stupidly heavy due to the batteries but they still accelerate quickly to a top speed of 40 mph. Whilst they are by no means 'proper' karts they are a good laugh if you've never been karting before and are easily a match for single engined 4-stroke hire karts that a lot of places have. give it a go but they arent worth wasting too much money on. i only like them because my job is to maintain our fleet and i get to drive them around all day testing them!

I would avoid them, don't be conned into the fact it's outdoors, the better hire centres (and more conveniently located in towns) are usually indoors for noise reasons. These really look like toy karts rather than typical hire four strokes, which whilst they maybe knackered and crap in terms of karts at least give you something fun to race eon the limit, my local kart centre is just full throttle everywhere, but it's a challenge to take everything flat and most people don't, I'd place my bets that those karts are likely to be full throttle everywhere with ease and certainly not fun to balance on the limit.

hmm, well i will try them out, i dont think theres anything better nearby (if u know of any good karting places in florida let me know)

back to LFS for now

Quote from heson :

Looks affordable and safeish for your first 50 kart laps. Performance is similar to rentakarts around where I live but probably heavier due to the batteries. I would rank travel times and other conveniences higher than kart quality for newb karting.
Remember to lean out in the turns, not in.

lean out???? why? wouldnt you want more weight on the inside wheels?

Quote from drinklime :

lean out???? why? wouldnt you want more weight on the inside wheels?

You want to get as much weight on the tyres that are working, it also helps lift the inside rear which helps the kart turn as it doesn't have a differential.

Although those things will be that damn heavy I doubt leaning is going to make much difference.

And they have a differential according to the website.

Karting circuit websites tend to quote the specifications shown by the manufacturer. Which won't represent the actual speed of the kart because circuits tend to restrict them via the amount of throttle cable movement allowed.
Electric karts will not only be horrendously slow (twin engine 4 strokes aren't particularly amazing) but they'll be very heavy. Try and find a petrol outdoor karting track. (indoor tracks tend to be slippy and slower)

I'm sure there's something up there ^ i'll be confronted about...

The key to making crap rental karts turn is to try and get all your weight as far forward as possible. Because they are soo stupidly heavy and have horrible weight distribution u need to have your face on the wheel lol to get them to turn

OK, i just went today and did 3 races. It was really fun, they went pretty fast. At first I was braking for the turns, then I found that you could just lift the throttle and get them to turn in, but you couldnt go flat out. It was cool how the car acted just like in LFS, you could feel the front wheels lose bite. I thought I was doing really well, but the winner is the one with the fastest laptime, and some little kid beat me by 2 seconds there was this hairpin i kept screwing up, i kept sliding sideways through it and probably lost time. The little kid was like 80 pounds vs my 220 so im guessing thats where he gained time

it was funny though, his two older brothers or friends were so scared, they were 5 seconds slower and kept hitting the wall

"the kid" was probably a regular, i do a rental kart series at the same track, and i'm quick (i'm about .4 secs of the "WR" in those karts, and i've yet to have the weather hot enough to set really quick laps), it's great fun going for a "rental run" when the track was extended and utterly thrashing a bunch a' Porsche drivers :P

The only time i've ever seen an electric kart in Europe it was a makeshift oval grass track set up outside a pub for the kiddies to play on. I'm glad we're seen to have the most exotic racing though "European Style" I think just means that the track isn't an oval.

OH MY GOD

I just did the monthly league race, the best drivers show up, these karts are awesome i dont care what any of you said.... it was so amazing!!! There were 32 people, so they split us into 4 races. First each group did 2 qualifying runs, one forward and one backward. I ended up in the slowest group but I started in 2nd place.... right at the beginning one guy passed me, but I got a run on him into the corner but he didnt see me. He hit me and they put up a warning sign for us I hit the brakes to let him go then the guy behind passed, but then the next lap the guy in 2nd spun out. I was in 3rd doing battle with the guy in front. I was right on his tail, there was one part of the track where I took a wide line full throttle and was faster, then it bends the other way into a hairpin and he kept beating me out of there. I was right on his tail and we were catching the leader and then the checkered flag waved

I got a podium and a bronze medal

The karts are not easy to drive! I kept pushing too hard into the corner and hit the wall a few times, and I was getting blue flags all the time during qualifying. I even spun out on the flat out part

You should have seen the final race of the fastest guys, it was INTENSE. The winner gets $100, so they were going crazy. There was a collision between some guys and the marshal blue flagged him and cut his power for a few seconds, the driver got SO PISSED OFF (he was like 45 years old) and when the race was over he cussed everyone out and stormed off. Then two other guys almost got in a fight.

I am covered in sweat it was the most fun I've had in a long time and I'll definitely be going there as much as possible

And im gonna show my bronze medal to everyone

http://www.tbcir.ca/tbc_flash.html

It's the only other place in the Tampa Area that I know of. I personally live in St Pete (as the text under my Avatar would seem to claim). They cost a bit more, but I can garuntee it's a lot more 'professional'

grats drinklime! sounds like u had fun!

Quote from Slopi :

http://www.tbcir.ca/tbc_flash.html

It's the only other place in the Tampa Area that I know of. I personally live in St Pete (as the text under my Avatar would seem to claim). They cost a bit more, but I can garuntee it's a lot more 'professional'

um.... are u sure thats the right link? I dont see any tampa listing....

Someone's got the racing bug!

Edit: Glad you had fun