The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

Anyone do shifter carts?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

I'm going to Sears Point/Sonoma Raceway Saturday to do the kart school. Supposedly they are the fast ones, my bro set it all up so I don't know all the details. Probably 8 of us going as a group, I out weigh the rest of them by about 50 lbs but I'm the only one with any significant track time on four wheels. All the rest of them are bike guys. Thinking about bringing a box of bananas and some turtle shells ;D

My bro is trying to find something to get into instead of bikes. He originally wanted to race bikes but has realized he doesn't have the right mentality for it. Which I can't blame him for. But he doesn't really like my E30, so we are trying karts to see if it is fun enough to both switch into it. Otherwise we are considering Legends cars of building a nasty CMC car.


Anyone have advice on karts vs cars dynamics? My understanding is the biggest thing is that there is no real suspension so weight transfer is different.
 
I raced KT 100's almost two decades ago and frequent a local indoor kart track with my kids. There are some similarities. The two big ones are racing line and momentum. With a 125 shifter kart momentum may not be as important as their power to weight ratio is very good. You're going to have a blast!
 
Yeah I raced them. Alot of fun. the only cart I did not care for is the laydown Kart I ran twinn 100cc yamahas on it. If he is looking for some fun with Karts he should really check into oval dirt track Karts they are a blast.
 
Looks like it is 30 hp Dragons (I'm guessing that is a brand) that do 60 mph. I was hoping for more, but that seems right for an intro class. I'll post up about it afterwards, for any locals who might want to try it. I don't know if we are doing the big track (I doubt it, since it is a weekend) or one of the kart tracks on the back of the hill. Being able to put two vertical in my truck bed is a big appeal, but there is something about taking a real car and racing it that appeals to me so I doubt I will end up switching. The Legends look like a lot of fun too, that is what I want to try next.

jeepincola, the dirt circles are getting rare around here, I used to go watch them back in the day. But the Legends cars run on them too, that is one of the things I like about them.
 
Went up to Fontana a did the intro school in sport karts. Later that summer we went up and did the pro kart school. Beautiful outdoor track at the foot of the San Bernardino mountains.

The one tip I recall is to lean out on turns to pick up the inside rear wheel since they are solid axles, it helps cornering.

Hot busy this summer so never graduated to shifters. Me and my kids had a blast.

We go to local indoor tracks a couple times a year. Went when they were home on thanksgiving.

Outdoor was fast, indoor technical.
 
Karts were a blast. We all agreed to go back and do the advanced class and if we enjoy it as much we may sign up for the arrive and drive race league. We had 7 guys there, which made it extra fun since almost everyone in the group was somebody I knew and could flip the bird to when I passed them. Especially since I have 50 lbs on all of them lol so it was doubly humiliating for them.

One thing I learned: they don't like heavy trail braking. I spun a few times trying to drive it like a car, then I figured it out and was fine the rest of the day. I ended up reintroducing trail braking, but only as a stab to get rotation then using the throttle through the whole turn to push it around the corners with the tail out.

Not going to replace cars for me, but I would definitely get into it if my friends end up doing it. I want to try Legends cars next, I have always thought they were cool and based on this (and the similarities people have told me about) I think they may be the way to go for me as far as racing.


Oh and my friend brought his 13 GT500. The vinyl rotted off after about 300 miles, and he had the stripes painted on to replace them. I wonder if they got bad vinyl like the 13 Bosses had.
 
CaliMR said:
Oh and my friend brought his 13 GT500. The vinyl rotted off after about 300 miles, and he had the stripes painted on to replace them. I wonder if they got bad vinyl like the 13 Bosses had.

Bad vinyl? Eh?
 
1,255
2
GA
LindsayEOD said:
I had to get my stripes replaced. Starting peeling after 500. The "B" in Boss partially fell off too. My dealer told me it was very common with the 13s.

Shelbys have been plagued with stripe problems for years, but I have never heard of it being this bad. I wonder if Ford is using "Chinyl" this year... :D
 
PJWANNABE said:
Shelbys have been plagued with stripe problems for years, but I have never heard of it being this bad. I wonder if Ford is using "Chinyl" this year... :D
Lol. This is my first car with stripes so I was surprised to find that it was common for the 13 Boss to have issues. I actually had issues before my Boss even had it's first wash. I'm really happy that Ford replaced them without hassle, though.
 
1,255
2
GA
LindsayEOD said:
Lol. This is my first car with stripes so I was surprised to find that it was common for the 13 Boss to have issues. I actually had issues before my Boss even had it's first wash. I'm really happy that Ford replaced them without hassle, though.

My Fiancee has a 2007 Shelby GT. Her stripes are all spotty and have some cracks in them. They were replaced before when the previous owner had it, but now unfortunately it will come out of pocket. She wants to have them painted on, but that is a chunk of change. I saw a site that uses painted vinyl, so we might check into that.

Sandra_Shelby.png
 
That really sucks PJ. The dealer told me what my stripes would've been to purchase and it was pretty expensive. Over $1500 if I recall correctly. Maybe painting them on is the way to go.
 
1,255
2
GA
Back on topic, once you get into karting you should check out the new cart track at Atlanta Motorsports Park located on the hill next to the track. Both the main track and kart track have some real rollercoaster elevation changes. I swear it looks like someone could fly off onto the main track one day! The barriers were probably not up when this photo was taken.

AMP_aerial.jpg

Here are some vids:
Track A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuFyENJKgz4
Track B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCyTFSyN2AA
Track C: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prvBWewf8fU
 
Atlanta is pretty far from CA, but we have been talking about doing a motorcycle track day at the big track.

The stripes on the shelby are pretty easy as it is just two solid stripes, no bends and stuff. The guy who painted my friend's car did a pretty crappy job, looks like he used rubber bands instead of masking it properly, but it looks good from a few feet away.
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top