Teaching your children to drive a kart?

[myhui]

I have been thinking of taking my 7 1/2 year old to Grange Motor Circuit in Apple Valley where there's a separately-run cart rental company JT Racing Kart Rentals that provides kid carts for children 5 - 10 years old.

If anyone has tried this, can you tell me your experience with it? Or does someone want to go meet up with us there and race together?

 

[nbuch001]

I have not had an experience at that specific track. I have however grown up driving and racing go-karts. I have a Tonykart 100cc blueprinted and a shifter kart Kawasaki 125cc. It is one of the best and somewhat least expensive forms of racing/fun you can have. My little brother started driving karts (now has a 100cc) when he was 5 and myself when I turned 14. We drive at Perris Raceway and Adams raceway in Riverside, Ca. My advice would to take a class at the track. It will teach your little one the basic characteristics of how to accelerate and brake smoothly in addition to reading entry and exit techniques in turns while in a safe enviornment. Depending on how he does they can make the kart a little less restrictive so he can go faster as well. It is also a great experience to learn how to drive at an early age. Also it's VERY addicting. Hope this was informative and if you have anymore specific questions I'd be happy to help! Always good to see people getting interested in karting.

 

[myhui]

Which track offers cart driving classes for 5 - 10 year olds?

My child's biggest fear is crashing the cart and hurting herself (yes, she's my precious daughter), even though she can go down intermediate ski slopes with no problems and is very well accustomed to a Honda engine running 7500 rpm.

 

[ss_md]

Which track offers cart driving classes for 5 - 10 year olds?

Try Adams kart Track in Riverside.

 

[Todd McKelvie]

I taught my kid to drive a kart at the age of 7 this way.

First: I went to an open parking lot. I tier a rope to the front of the cart and then to the back of my truck. I drove REAL slow around the parking lot until he was comfortable.

Second: I pushed him in it as fast as I could run and then told him to slam on the brakes. I did this until he could stop smoothly and stop without hitting a cone.

Third: I set up cones in a big circle and had him drive around it. I had him start and stop without hitting a cone. Then i had him run the opposite direction and then a figure eight.

Last: I had him go as fast as he could and then stop as fast as he could. I would have him throttle on and off QUICKLY so he knew which was gas and which was brake.

I took him to the track on a training day and let him rip! He did great. After 6 months the little turd was BLASTING around the track like he owned it!

Good luck.... karting with your kid is a blast!

I have an 80cc Cadet kart and all the extras I will sell at a great price if your interested. I also have a 100cc and a 125cc Shifter for sale.

I live in Temecula. Let me know.

Todd McKelvie
Cell: 951-795-3098

 

[myhui]

Thanks for the great responses.

However ...

Based on a few sessions I drove at Dromo1 on their rental karts, indoors on slippery cement floor on cold tires, I noticed two very annoying things: the steering is very non-linear, and the lack of a rear differential means throttle modulation to control slip angle is impossible.

Yet those are exactly the crucial things you need to practice to drive a road car fast: keep the steering smooth, and use both brakes and throttle to control the car's direction during a turn.

So will my kid learn the wrong skills driving a kart, and have to re-learn a whole new set of skills when driving a car? After all, I guess the ultimate goal is for our kids to learn to drive our NSX's well. And I mean to drive them really, really well.

Put another way: would it be a genuine horror show if a kid starts to drive a car like it was a kart, and gets it all wrong?

 

[ss_md]

Don't think into the mechanics of how a go-kart handles and drives from your "experience" with indoor karting. Indoor karts are a different animal than say a sprint kart. Indoor karts do not have the same diving characteristics as sprint racing karts. Indoor karts use slip and slide as you describe to overcome the lack of chassis flex.

If you feel that learning to slide a kart is not beneficial to a driver, think again. Your young driver is out on the road on a stormy day and the car starts to slide. With no experience this situation will usually end in tragedy for the driver, the car or both, with experience this situation could be handled safely. Over coming over-steer and under-steer is no different on a kart or a car, it takes skills. Learning these skills is priceless!

Go-karts have been a training ground for race car drivers since they were invented. Most modern drivers have come through the ranks from karting to where they are now. As with any other sport, kids will develop the skills necessary to progress if they are capable and it is their desire. There is no other way to get kids into motorsports at the age of 5 or > than through karting.

Take them out to the track to watch a few races. Locally in SoCal there is LAKC, IKF, PKC and to the south SDKA, all running sprint races. LAKC, IKF and SDKA have kid kart classes, PKC does not. If they show interest enroll them into a training program. If they like the sport great, if they don't you only had to spend a couple of hundred dollars to find out. Another suggestion is to learn as they learn, so you understand the lingo, mechanics and technologies.

PM me with your e-Mail address and I will send you a draft-copy of my eBook "The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Go-Kart Racing".

 

[nbuch001]

To answer myhui with regard to the handling characteristics of a kart in an indoor track. First they are much different that a kart meant for out door, for example a 100cc. Second because there is no differential on a kart you must drive fast enough to get the inner wheels off the ground. I'm really not kidding here. Just watch a few races and you will see that if you are not getting the inner wheels off the tarmac then you aren't pushing it hard enough. The reason for this is because the inner wheel does not povide more power and therefore you want less resistence from the tire on the road. You actually don't feel this effect when driving but it looks kinda neat. In addition, your child will not learn bad driving skills with throttle and braking modulation. In an outdoor kart it is very unlikely that your child will go fast enough to slide. In fact with a proper chassis set-up and tires it is very hard to slide a kart unless you are really pitching the wheel over and applying the gas. It is also likely that if a slide were to happen in a kart it will result in a spin rather than a slide because sliding takes skill to correct before it spins. In a way its similar to the NSX. We all think it's gravy on that first correction in a slide untill BOOM it whiplashes you into a spin. My last thought is that even if you are still weary of the experience there is a reason that every great F1 driver started on a kart and most continute to promote or participate in it.

 

[myhui]

There is a race Sunday morning (tomorrow) run by the Los Angeles Kart Club at the Calspeed track in Fontana, near the I-10 & I-15 junction. I'll go take a look to see what this is all about.

:smile:​