Does your tesla pay you back in a couple years time?
Does your tesla pay you back in a couple years time?
These look OK. http://www.roadratmotors.com/product.aspx?ProductId=127&title=Road+Rat+EXB+Electric+Racing+Go+Kart
OTL has responded. Entry price is $8400 a cart, which is a little better than I expected. In the grand scheme of things. doubling the price of the carts (over the cheap chinese copies posted earlier) wouldn't kill the overall budget. Developing a nice building is a much higher cost, and likely a better place to find financial savings. Meeting with my partner to discuss tonight. The nice thing about these (and likely the Electra) karts is that they have all the little details worked out. The multi-level, wireless speed controllers, the supply chain, etc...
Make sure the location has enough space to do a decent track.
There are two in Columbus, one with gas karts (Grand Prix) and one with electric (Buckeye). The one with gas karts has a nice track layout, lots of fun. The electric kart place has a very tight track with no straights to get speed. It isn't nearly as fun.
what's the start-up cost on these anyway
pretty sure more than one GRMer has crunched the numbers
I am thinking that startup for a decent fleet and a NICELY renoed building is approaching 7 figures. My numbers are over 300k just in karts/support equipment.
In reply to singleslammer:
PM'd
Would it be possible to make a mode like Mariokart? How hard would it be to program red turtle shells and bananas? Obviously we wouldn't induce spins and the race would be at slower speeds; bananas would make you got alittle squirrely, mushrooms for speed boost, turtle shells cutting engine speed, etc... with LCDs on the back of the seat?
Or maybe racing laser tag? mount laser pistols on the carts and every hit slows you down a little?
If you use these ideas, I get an consultant fee 
DuctTape&Bondo wrote: Would it be possible to make a mode like Mariokart? How hard would it be to program red turtle shells and bananas? Obviously we wouldn't induce spins and the race would be at slower speeds; bananas would make you got alittle squirrely, mushrooms for speed boost, turtle shells cutting engine speed, etc... with LCDs on the back of the seat? Or maybe racing laser tag? mount laser pistols on the carts and every hit slows you down a little? If you use these ideas, I get an consultant fee
I've been to some (very low speed) kart tracks where there are patches of track that are oiled. Makes for some fun.
I like the idea of laser pistols. Especially if they only face forward, that way the leader has the largest challenge. Maybe make it so you only get 3 shots per lap or something and its easy to miss.
Ha ha, you guys are silly. I like the idea of slick areas though. Maybe a stick down, disposable plastic sheeting.
Anyone know the liability of making an indoor multilevel course? There is a great building with 24k sq ft that could be made to work if we make it two levels. Finding a 40K+ sq ft building is impossible in my town.
singleslammer wrote: Ha ha, you guys are silly. I like the idea of slick areas though. Maybe a stick down, disposable plastic sheeting.
Actually, I was going to suggest the opposite. The two indoor tracks (granted a small sample) I have been to are too slick which greatly reduces my interest. Can't carry any momentum through the corners. To me this is what separates the men from the boys.
My guess is that slick is probably safer for the masses. Dif'rent strokes.
I always thought that it would be cool to have REALLY peaky 2 strokes that are geared to stay out of the power band when driven by any but the most efficient drivers or at the very end of the straights.
I have thought about this many times but electric is a deal breaker. I look at successful guys like F1 Karting in Allentown, PA. What they did was to take a POS old warehouse in a cheap section of town and convert it ... saving the roughly $2M it would take to build something that large. They bought a significant investment in gas karts and put a bunch of fans in. It's cold in there but when you race, you sweat your ass off so no big deal. THe whole floor is polished concrete so to be fast you must be super smooth... but I can get the thing to 50 anyway. A scrum for the brake zone at 50 is not something to sneeze at.
In any case... they took an old warehouse in a seedy part of town for cheap, polished the concrete, installed movable tire/plastic barriers, a flag system and a scoring system. Then they made it easy to see your score vs today, week, month and all time. Hung some TVs. Got a liquor license and pizza oven. They hosted enduros for clubs. All you can ride Sunday and promoted the E36 M3 out of it.
So, for me, the keys are:
I could put all of that together except the population density. Where I'm at there are only 250k people in an hour's drive. No way in hell that works out unless I also have strippers with a lenient back room policy.
I'm more than double your population but there are zero motorsports options inside 2 hours of me. The idea of keeping it cheap to run is definitely the goal. There is a huge college population here with high disposable income. Lots of young professionals too. It's on the small size for a market but I think with some restraint totally doable/profitable. I know that electric karts have some draw backs but we can get around most with more karts. Enduro races will require pit stop battery swaps. 
Is there a Walmart that closed up to put up a Super Walmart near you? I thought I saw something on converting one of those a while ago into an electric track.
edit: There it is http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Horshams-ex-Walmart-now-largest-US-go-kart-track.html
Link in the article goes to the track
In reply to The0retical:
Nope, all large buildings are currently occupied. I have looked...
Here is some helmet cam video I took at the two tracks here in town.
Electric:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znARWsE7f6c
Gas (on the supertrack, both tracks linked on Sundays):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j93iHLctR8
Gas (regular track):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPZw2iGqK9I
I won't be going back to the electric track. I'd be interested to try the electric karts on a better track but they just didn't seem exciting to me like the gas are.
XLR99 wrote: Not me personally, but This Place is moving towards opening soon about a mile from me in an old factory building. Can't wait!!
holy crap put me in the can't wait crowd for that one.
one suggestion - the place linked above has all these packages, but i would also offer a full year unlimited pass. it would get you some operating capital up front when people buy them, and rarely do people use them as much as they think they're going to.
In reply to EvanB:
I agree that a good gas kart is better than an electric one for some reasons but this is MO and being too hot 2 months of the year and too cold 4 months of the year to leave the doors open means that gas karts don't make sense from a business perspective. MOST people don't push it like the regulars here would. IE Electric karts with instant torque are better for crappie casual drivers.
In reply to patgizz:
I have seen passes that are sort of unlimited but they are 125 a month. That seems like a hard sell.
Anyone know anything about propane conversions on Honda/Lifan 6.5 and 9 hp motors? This would solve my biggest concerns with indoor karts while fixing the issues about performance that you guys have mentioned.
Edit: Nevermind, my brain seemed to forget that while gas smells worse than propane once burnt, they both still have deadly emissions. Blonde moment.
Electric karts can be fast. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MD_4F7sNs
I'm not sure what kind of ventilation the gas track here has. The last few times it has been <15°F outside and slightly chilly in the track area with no windows/doors open. I haven't noticed any fumes.
There's a place down the street from my work that used to run gas karts. They were pretty fun and definitely required smooth inputs+momentum. The exhaust fumes were pretty bad. Visited a propane kart place last year and the fumes were better, but still not great.
The place down the street from me either went under or was bought out by K1 Speed last year(electric karts). I haven't gone in yet as their pricing is higher than what I think their races are worth.
What can you guys tell me about swapping Lipos in place of the Optima Blues that are in the Road Rat karts I am looking (heavily) at. My thoughts are to take a few karts and hot rod them. Run 72v on a little bigger motor for some serious top tier racing action. Longevity and charge time are big issues here that I don't know about.
Also, anyone in Gainesville know anything about this place? It is Road Rat Go Karts. He also owns Bintelli Scooters.
Always wanted to see paintball guns mounted on karts for "Death Race" style events. Would be a mess, but sounds like fun...
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