New Kart shop

[RedLS1GTO]

Not quite done... but getting there.

The karting operation very quickly outgrew my garage. You know you have a problem when 2 of your vehicles are out in the driveway covered in snow because you have stacks of karts in their place.

Local regulations only allowed me to build a 900 sqft footprint... so we built up as well. The upstairs will be mostly shelved storage to keep the main floor space clear as much as possible. Nice to have room to actually move while building these things.

[Steve_R]

Nice!

Heated and cooled?

[Bill]

I'm just happy to see that someone has the depth and width to park a crew cab dually inside. Texas tract home garages can't do that. I've got a 3 car garage, but never thought about having it made deep enough to actually fit a truck inside. If I ever build another house, though, I will make that a priority, or do what you did and build an outbuilding with plenty of room.

[Onebadcad]

Damn nice, CONGRATS!!

[RedLS1GTO]

Originally Posted by Steve_R

Nice!

Heated and cooled?

Unfortunately not. The budget did have limits. I'm in Ohio so about 90% of the time I'm good with the doors open. There's a big fan going in that will take care of most summer days. I'll just have a kerosene heater for the cold days.

It is well insulated and so far not too bad. We were down in the 30s last week and about 10 minutes of running the heater kept it warm for a LONG time.

[RedLS1GTO]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

I'm just happy to see that someone has the depth and width to park a crew cab dually inside.

Believe it or not, I can fit it in my attached house garage as well. It was actually 1 of the selling points. I have had that truck, a Yukon, and an Escalade in the attached garage simultaneously.

It was... tight... but it all fit. Moving the truck out to the new shop gives me a nice amount of room for kid sports gear, lawn equipment, etc in the main attached. This new building was absolutely designed around being able to fit a big truck.

[Datawiz]

Looking forward to new videos!

[RedLS1GTO]

Originally Posted by Datawiz

Looking forward to new videos!

Yea man, I'm failing in my duties. I have a ton of footage from Daytona that I just haven't been able to sort through yet. Last year jumping from the kid karts (~40mph) into the cadet (60+) was a massive leap that really turned into a learning season vs. a real racing season. The goal each race was to simply get better and keep it out of the wall.

This year started in Daytona and went pretty well against some of the best 8-10 year olds in the country (my kiddo is still 7, racing on an age waiver). He kept it on the lead lap all weekend and finished solid mid-pack. Made some great passes and really RACED as opposed to just making laps which was awesome to see.

Next comes Charlotte, ... then Indy, Pittsburgh, and a host of others.

I'll get some videos uploaded soon.

I love the last picture. He and 1 of his local race buddies had a great battle out on the track and this was them talking about it after the fact in the scale line waiting to go through tech. They fought like hell for 20 laps, got out and the first thing they did was walk over to each other and give a big fist bump. THAT is why this sport is awesome.

[Chuck A]

very nice/cool, indeed

[Steve_R]

Love the Don’t Lift reminder.

[Wathen1955]

I have a kart track about 5 miles from where I live: https://www.bluemaxkartclub.com/

I had a kart in the mid 70's, but they are so much more advance now. It's nice they have built in starters. I had to wheel out a hand held car starter and a 12v battery. They also have data collection now and other fancy electronics on board.

[LATB]

Super cool. Super dad. Those kids are lucky as heck.

Any pics of the exterior of the new shop?

[RedLS1GTO]

Originally Posted by Steve_R

Love the Don’t Lift reminder.

I leave him notes on the wheel on a regular basis. Some are motivational. Some are a little more direct, such as this one.

Originally Posted by Wathen1955

I have a kart track about 5 miles from where I live: https://www.bluemaxkartclub.com/

I had a kart in the mid 70's, but they are so much more advance now. It's nice they have built in starters. I had to wheel out a hand held car starter and a 12v battery. They also have data collection now and other fancy electronics on board.

That's cool. Regional racing has all sorts of different classes. What he runs would be comparable to the JR1 classes there.

The 2 stroke karts have built in starters... which break constantly, so we all have hand held 12V starters on standby. The 4 stroke Briggs are a pull start still. You can see the dash in the steering wheel picture. That collects all sorts of data from both the engine and kart itself including acceleration and g-force data, throttle positions, slip angle, and more. I can pull the data and plot it on a satellite image to see exact lines that he is running with braking points, and everything else highlighted.

It's wild to see how much data comes out of each session.

Not my data (clearly), but an example of what you can pull. I can get more data from my 7 year old's kart than any race car I've ever owned :

Originally Posted by LATB

Super cool. Super dad. Those kids are lucky as heck.

Any pics of the exterior of the new shop?

Thanks man. I'm lucky enough to be in a position where I had kids a little later in life. There may be some disadvantages to it, but 1 of the clear positives is that I'm at a place in life where I can actually give them some of the cooler things like this. My 4 year old daughter is starting this year as well. She ran her first laps at the end of last season.

[ZipZap]

Sweet. What's the door and ceiling height?

[RedLS1GTO]

Originally Posted by ZipZap

Sweet. What's the door and ceiling height?

10' doors, 12' ceilings so my trailer fits easily if I want it to.

[VatorMan]

Originally Posted by Steve_R

Love the Don’t Lift reminder.

It’s perfect. The next reminder is: Solve your issue with the throttle

[ZipZap]

Originally Posted by VatorMan

It’s perfect. The next reminder is: Solve your issue with the throttle

Probably the hardest thing to learn in racing is to stay in it. Most mistakes are by the driver as opposed to the car. Trusting the car can seem insane at times when you're pinned to the head restraint and still hanging on.

Being able to recover slightly exceeding that edge and then going right back after it is the difference between good and great racers.

RedLS must be having a blast!

[VatorMan]

Originally Posted by ZipZap

Probably the hardest thing to learn in racing is to stay in it. Most mistakes are by the driver as opposed to the car. Trusting the car can seem insane at times when you're pinned to the head restraint and still hanging on.

Being able to recover slightly exceeding that edge and then going right back after it is the difference between good and great racers.

RedLS must be having a blast!

I used to tell everyone my times were based on my equipment. Told them if I drove theirs I would be at least 2 seconds faster as I don’t have to fix what I broke. lol

[LATB]

Shop looks excellent. Clean workmanship.
Very smart on the door height.

[RedLS1GTO]

Originally Posted by ZipZap

Probably the hardest thing to learn in racing is to stay in it. Most mistakes are by the driver as opposed to the car. Trusting the car can seem insane at times when you're pinned to the head restraint and still hanging on.

Being able to recover slightly exceeding that edge and then going right back after it is the difference between good and great racers.

RedLS must be having a blast!

I can assure you that without question the hardest thing to teach a 6-7 year old is to stand on the gas when every instinct tells you you're going too fast and wrecking.

These karts pull massive Gs at 245 lbs. They're actually significantly faster through corners than most of the adult karts. I feel like Harry every time he goes out. Stay in the gas kid. The kart WILL make it. Dad put on a set of "special tires" ...