Kart Racing Is Way More Complicated Than You Think

I'm a little disappointed that he didn't buy a Kart and proceed to spend the next 3 years ignoring all his other projects while he tried to become a competitive racer.... The projects won't go anywhere. Literally.

A work buddy does this, and he flies around the track likes he's merely suggesting the direction the kart should travel. Every turn is a flirtation with control. It's truly amazing.

The Superkart record lap at Laguna Seca is a full second faster than a Lamborghini Huracán LP 620-2 Super Trofeo (and almost 2 seconds faster than a 911 GT3 RSR).

This is absolutely the best explanation of karting I've ever seen. ModeratelyfastDoug says thank you.

I'm surprised he didn't explain the difference between the green shell, red shell and spiky blue shell. It's very important to know the difference.

in europe, there's a tiny class called speeddown karts which drive downhill without any engines built in. that of course removes quite a bit of thrill while getting to speed, but as most tracks go through tiny mountain towns and countryside backroads with tons of curves, theres usually not a lot of space to drive extremely fast anyways. the benefits of this class are the very low cost, the supporting yet competitive scene around it and that it focuses a lot more on braking and finding the absolute best racing line, which often differs from those of motor racing. with speeds upwards of 50 mph or 85 kmh on narrow streets, its really fun and you dont really miss the engine, especially when drivers all across europe drive against each other. check it out if u can :)

I'm 75 now and I started karting when I was 11. Back then there were very few rules, mainly don't kill yourself, other drivers and most importantly the spectators. For the first few years there were no limitations on the size, number or types of engines. I ran two of the biggest chainsaw engines built at the time, around 20 hp each. They could propel the kart to well over 100 mph which was insane for the size of the tracks we raced on. Nothing could touch it on the straights. My Dad who built it was afraid to drive it because it was so fast, but not me. Only flipped it once, not sure how fast I was going but I covered a lot of air before I finally landed with a few bruises and was back out on the track for the next race, abet a bit slower. A few years ago I started designing a kart for the Salt Flats land speed record but the rules they put on karts were outrageous and they limited the top speed so drastically I decided not to build it.

So refreshing to see a video that promotes karting in such a good light. Great work Matt! Let us know if you'll be at any future races!

Had an engineering professor that only talked about gokarts when describing all things mechanical and related to power transmission. It was very effective. His name was Mike! CHEERS Mike, something tells me you are watching!

Having karted for a few years myself, "not expensive" gets pretty expensive pretty quickly depending on how competitive you want to be. Admittedly still way cheaper than running a full size car, but you still go through tires like crazy on a kart and they aren't exactly cheap for all the less time you get on them while still being competitive. Add to that 3+ versions of what feels like every single part on the car (hubs, axles, wheels, bars, etc), plus tools and a trailer to hold all of that stuff and it quickly turns from "this is a cheap way to have fun" to "this is a really fast way to spend money". It was still a lot of fun and something I wish I did when I was younger, but also something I don't mind having stopped doing. Might be different if I had more tracks near me, but running on the same track every time, even in a different config, got a little stale.

Around 1960 my father built a kart with a small rocket motor. He had help from Art Arfons.

"karting a good place to start and a good place to stay" i feel this a lot.

Don't you have some cars to be working on...

When I was a kid, I raced RC cars. Spec racing was similar to what Matt said, buy sealed 10 motors, dyno them, use the fastest sealed motor, ebay the rest, a process that circumvents the cost control and spirit of spec racing. Some people make the racing their identity however. You'd have fervent racers who would cover their car with a towel or something and verbally (sometimes threaten physical) attack anyone within 50 yards who had their camera or phone up, recording, lest the racers' super secret chassis or shock setting be revealed to the masses. It was petty and ridiculous. Kart racing sounds like it has the propensity to be equally petty and ridiculous.

I did electric karting for the first time recently and had SO MUCH MORE FUN than I expected! You're never going very fast, but man does it feel like it. And you pull some surprisingly hard Gs going through the tight corners

Video summary: "Make it more rigid" is not always the solution

Ultrafast Kyle was always very dominant vs all the other FSAE drivers in the same car. I rode as passenger in his car in SCCA several time 20 years ago, a very smooth and natural driver.

Was half way expecting the last sentence of the video to be; "so this is my brand new Kart!"

The karting community needs more content like your's. Thank you. :)

the way that crazy amounts of very technical info that i will never need are structured to feel like i understand everything is just amazing, your videos are now my adhd brain's most favourite procrastination content on the internet, it feels like christmas every time there's a new video notification