[Dan Maloy]

Gif and everyone else who commented: thank you for your help to make me a smarter kart racer.
Definitely learning a lot!

[Dan Maloy]

Walt Gifford – “Get the big chassis. At 6′ 180 you’re at the max driver size and weight.”

Walt, at the max driver size and weight for what? The Raptor chassis or a particular racing class?

No doubt on my part that 20lbs in karting can make a lot of difference.

[Dan Maloy]

Tony –
Ahhh…..torsion bars. I’ve seen them in some kart pix. Don’t know why I didn’t think about actually using them, ha! ha! The Raptor moves up the list even more!

Michael –
Do you mind if I ask, if you race at 360 lbs how much of that is the weight of your kart? Are you and I close to the same weight? Champion Racing: already talked to them. They said they sell a lot more Raptors than Sirius Vs. If it were simply a question of “go as fast as you can” I’d get the Raptor without hesitation. But since my main goal is to instead enjoy karting (which also means to not go $$broke$$ while doing it) I wondered if maybe going a tiny bit slower in a kart that would perhaps last substantially longer (the Sirius V) was the way to go. Stu told me that at my weight of 175-180 the (primarily) 30mm Raptor chassis should last just about as long as the 32mm Sirius V, i.e., maybe not quite as long as the Sirius but not so much as to really matter.

Because of Stu’s years of experience and his unbiased opinion recommending the Raptor, unless someone can convince me otherwise, I think that’s what I’ll go with.

(Comments, positive or not, from current / past Intrepid drivers are still welcome.)

[Dan Maloy]

Brian –
Good advice about talking straight to the racers at that particular track. And, thanks for the specific websites you’ve had good transactions with.

Stu –
If your shop is clean, well organized and your website is up to date, in my opinion you are miles ahead of others who don’t. It’s not about the customer being a snob (and I know you know that…you “get it”), it’s about the business owner winning the TRUST of a prospective customer. A messy, disorganized shop, continued preoccupation with other things after a customer walks in, a non-functional / out of date website all screams “I don’t care”; either about their own business or about you as a customer. Either way, to me as a customer, that isn’t good. Good luck to you in your business! I would love to give you a call and get your thoughts on a few questions.

Cory –
No, unfortunately Stu is over a thousand miles away. Thanks, though, for your vote of confidence in him.

Tony –
I’ve done a ton of online research in the last few weeks and am doing more. Driving my wife nuts. (Guess the addiction is already well under way!) The track right outside this guy’s business IS the track I’d be primarily racing at and as far as I can tell it’s the only one (track AND karting shop) in this very large city. I had planned to see this guy and his shop in person even if he answered all my questions via e-mail since I wanted to see in person what used karts he had as well as maybe sit in a brand new kart or two (I’m guilty for getting weak in the knees over the thought of a new kart) or MAYBE….have been able to test drive one. Thanks for the pit pass and shifter info. Was leaning towards starting in shifters, not out of pride, but out of cost….thought it might be cheaper to buy a shifter (once) instead of buy a TAG kart and then spend more money upgrading to a shifter. However, the other employee at this shop told me that all the newer karts from this company I’m interested in are made to accept a shifter setup so I might buy a shifter kart and temporarily pull off the shifter hardware. We’ll see.

Daniel –
Guess I won’t be buying a Birel!, ha! ha!

Anybody else want to chime in? Do kart shops generally help out newbies in terms of getting the kart put together or (if used) getting it in working condition? I mean, how much hand-holding do they generally do for new guys?

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