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New Member

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2020 2:16 pm
by Dave white
Hi Everybody,

I am hopefully getting into this in the next year. As a 62 year old retired teenager, who always loved go karts and had a Stellar A frame minibike when I was 10. There were just more places to ride it vs a kart. But I always wanted a real racing go kart, so I'm excited to start the process and open to ideas, places to visit and suggestions on where to find a good kart.

Been reading about the different karts and still trying to make a decision on which brand and model to go after. Lots of info on the internet, just not sure if it's legit. Hoping to make it to GA this fall for the event there.

I've been a car nut the last 35 years, restored a car and have had and still lucky enough to have a few special cars, which I always drive and service myself. Since I wanted to some track/racing and anyone who is
anyone started in karts, I figured why not start and finish in karts.

Re: New Member

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2020 6:43 pm
by ted johnson
Well, Dave, welcome to the fray. Until you make your mind up as to what era you want to be a part of, you will be overwhelmed. Vintage sidewinder or REAR engine? Foreign engine or American reed valve fan cooled engine? Serious racing or having fun with other folks? There are definite advantages to all these choices, but they're pretty much mutually exclusive. Some events do not allow anything but REAR engine karts with American fan cooled engines and some events run both types, but may segregate them for racing. The Big One allows only REAR engine karts with American, fan cooled engines, so if you want to make Fremont, that's the way you have to go. I WILL say, Fremont is a BLAST! What type of karts were being run when you were young will color your decisions. I'm older than most, so I ran the REAR karts in my youth. At the Tucson events, we allow most types of engine and kart, up to a point of age. There are lots of foreign engine parts out there, but some American reed engine pieces are getting a bit scarce. You've got some thinking to do. A few months ago, you could get a lot of parts for the West Bend 820's, but U.S. Motor Power has been closed since before Christmas, and we wonder if they will ever reopen. Several folks make connecting rods for Mac engines, but they ain't cheap. We have a very nice design ready for both the Mac 101 and West Bend 820 and 610 engines, but whether we actually produce them for sale is a good question. If we DO sell them, they won't be cheap either. Material and manufacturing costs are quite high. One of the shops in Wisconsin may offer West bend cranks for sale as well. The gang in vintage is very helpful, so keep checking the bigger forums like this one, and also the http://www.vintagekartforum.com/ forum. Ted

Re: New Member

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2020 7:01 pm
by REAR
Dave,

Welcome aboard.

Karting has a lot of facets and what we do here is quite a bit different then what others do and it may or may not be what you are lookng to do in karting.

R.E.A.R is primarily a restoration ideology that brings old racing karts from the very beginning of the sport up to 1972 back to life. Our main focus is getting old karts back up and running in a period correct manner, hence our saying 'run em like they ran em" and also getting these old karts back out on the track and run in a controlled enviroment.

When I say run "period correct" and "controlled enviroment" I mean that the karts are correct in their construction with period correct components from their original time period and they are hot lapped not actually raced in competition.

As for kart choices there are many and you'll need to do some internet surfing to see what suits you however the karts we run are in the mechanical configuration of the original kart which was a rear engine configuration from American mfg's and that is the style of kart that we chose to highlight.

As for engines, we concentrate on American fan cooled engines from either McCulloch, West Bend, Clinton, Homelite, Power Products. Engines seem to still be plentiful and there is also a slew of old hop-up components going thru Ebay daily.

This is kind of a overview of what were about and how we roll.

If you decide that you like the karts from the beginnings of karting don't hesitate to stop back.

R.E.A.R.