Originally Posted by RED MX5,Feb 13 2008, 02:16 PM

I was into kart racing back in '72, at a time when the engines were moving from behind the driver to beside the driver. Guess that was more or less the dark ages.

While some of the guys here won't understand and will think it silly, I think both you and ZDan will appreciate this. Back in '04-'05 CCR held a series of "events," in conjunction with a local "fun kart" track. On Friday afternoon the guy who owned the track would time all the karts, and set their governors so their performance was matched. Then a dozen or so of us would show up and run a series of races. Now these little karts would only go about 15 MPH, but when you put a bunch of highly competative people in equally matched machinery and let them go on a track, you get some SERIOUS racing, no matter what kind of speeds are involved. My daughter, who was 14 at the time, was so aggressive that most of the guys would complain if she ended up in their group, and there were only a few of us who could beat her consistently. Anyway, I wish some of the guys who think it takes lots of power and speed to have fun in a vehicle could have competed in some of our "fun kart grand prix" races. Nobody ever had more fun with a vehicle than we use to have with those silly little kiddy karts.

What's really funny is to see a grown man get out of a kids fun kart, throw his helmet on the ground, and storm away mad as hell, because someone pulled a pit maneuver or blocked a pass attempt and cost him a win. It's amazing how serious racers can get, even when they're racing in toy cars.

If our SCCA region still allowed karts to compete in our autocrosses, I'd have a shifter kart now.