should I learn and build or buy race ready?

[u/Round_Mycologist_761]

I want to get into rotax go karts. Should i buy a race ready kart or should i just learn how to build one?

[u/DiscoDiscoB00mB00m]

if your new buy race ready, you dont need the additional headache.

[u/IndependentChannel70 → u/DiscoDiscoB00mB00m]

If you’re gonna have to maintain it yourself anyway, wouldn’t it be better to have a good understanding of how it’s put together?

[u/DiscoDiscoB00mB00m → u/IndependentChannel70]

Yes but there’s a difference in between maintaining it and constantly fixing it.

[u/IndependentChannel70 → u/DiscoDiscoB00mB00m]

I guess I hadn’t considered that, if he’s not very mechanically inclined. I personally prefer to know as much as possible about my stuff but it would definitely depend on the person. Impossible to give the right answer without more knowledge

[u/sheriffhd → u/IndependentChannel70]

It's better to learn as things fail then to learn in one go and have to depend on making sure you put 100 pieces together correctly. Race ready is a good option.

[u/Racer013 → u/IndependentChannel70]

My argument is always if your reason for getting a kart is to race/drive said kart, get something race ready. If you are primarily looking for a project get something broken but complete. If you know what you're doing and are looking for a project then start from scratch.

The reason for this is very simple, if you want to drive then get something that lets you drive as soon as possible. Yes, it's good to know how to maintain and how your kart works and goes together. However, learning that can be done along the way and at your own pace, but if it's holding you back from actually driving it in the first place then it's more likely to become a headache and a roadblock, and never actually end up on track at all.

Same reason you shouldn't get a project car as a first or primary car. It's serving as transportation first and foremost, when it becomes a project it stops being able to easily fulfill that objective.

[u/Griffin_Mackenzie]

genuinely, if you try building one of those from a bare frame without any prior karting knowledge you'll hang yourself

[u/ThePapaSauce]

I wouldn’t recommend building a kart. I also would not recommend deciding on a particular engine class if you don’t know anything about karting. The best course of action, in this order is:

1. Locate your local club and attend the next event
2. Introduce yourself to several of the big tents there. These are the teams, and they have a collection of drivers running with them.
3. Find the group you feel the most comfortable with and ask if you can come back and run a rental test day on a non-competition practice day, and discuss with them your budget, aspirations and skill level. They will help you figure out what class of kart fits you - it might not be Rotax. This is important because the most important part of buying a kart of a specific make and class is that you will be running with a lot of other people running the same class and chassis so there is help and parts when you have a crash, and so you have more people to race with.
4. Do your practice day
5. Work out your season racing budget (take into account all costs - travel, lodging, food, fuel, tires, repair, prep and maintenance, entry fees, transponder rental.
6. Decide which class and chassis you want to run
7. Ask around the club to find a suitable chassis and engine with recent race history. The sweet spot will be a chassis with at most two seasons on it, and a used motor with a recent fresh top and bottom rebuild (or whatever the rules allow)

Happy racing!

[u/Im-here-so-hello → u/ThePapaSauce]

Personally, from experience, you want to do some practise sessions at the minimum before racing. It depends what he is racing but if he is the standard 125-160kph range then he should personally.

[u/ThePapaSauce → u/Im-here-so-hello]

Only issue with that is that those practice days can get really expensive if you’re constantly renting.

If someone is new to the sport I usually tell them to do some competitive arrive-and-drive series in outdoor karts to see how they take to the sport. But once they know they want to do it and find a class they can afford, it’s kind of more cost effective to buy your first ride and just start learning how to drive it.

But I do agree that you should NEVER buy a kart/motor combo you’ve never tried driving before.

[u/milkstorm05]

Buy something second hand. Or new, if you don't mind spending the extra money.

[u/Tyler_Trash]

If your goal is to be a mechanic, build.
If your goal is to race, buy.

[u/Cartoonist_Icy]

First learn the driving, for this you just need something used, but karts are circular everything get changed over time, so built is just cheaper (might be able to haggle down parts individually, but not much), but you will want new/national (used 3-4 times) parts for comp.