Anyone own a go kart track?

I have been thinking that my town could support a modern, electric kart track for a while now and I have friend on board now. Anyone have any experience in this area? I am set on an indoor electric karts track. This would be probably have at least a 30 mph top speed (higher depending on building size) and be aimed primarily at the 20+ crowd that is interested in semi-casual racing. There are couple of karts that I have currently found. OTL that produces REALLY nice, REALLY fast carts (overkill, but awesome) or Electra that makes quick karts that definitely fall into the regular kart evolution. I ran the Electra recently and it is probably fast enough for a sub 30k sq ft track.

I thought I remembered reading a good thread on this before. If I can dig it up I will post it. The things I remember were emphasizing reliability and low maintenance.

I was thinking about this last year and may have posted a thread. I am going to feel like an idiot if I posted the same question again.

Not me personally, but This Place is moving towards opening soon about a mile from me in an old factory building. Can't wait!!

Following. I've been to a few indoor kart tracks over the years and always have such a great time.

That looks fun. I am thinking something basically like that.

Following this. The area we're looking at moving to definitely needs something like this. Doesn't hurt that I've been toying with the idea already.

In reply to singleslammer: I think that forum member "loose cannon" is involved in operating an indoor kart track.

Yes - loosecannon (search for a MGB E-Mod build thread) owns an indoor karting facility up in Canada. There are videos of him testing the car on the track.

Found this reddit. http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/218f6e/startup_costs_and_gotchas_for_indoor_gokart/

From my own experiences I would think about what you can do to make the waiting aspect of indoor karting more enjoyable. It always seems you have to wait quite a while to get to race.

The other thing is often families have some people/kids who might not be able to race. Three of my daughters friends and herself had birthday parties up in Washington at this trampoline place but what cool about it is they had a giant version of a mcdonalds play place in there for younger kids this was awesome because (my daughter turned 4) we parents could contain the kids and just kind of let them go in there while older kids could do the trampolines etc. You might be able to do something similar with karting where dad/older siblings can race and the younger kids can be entertained.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YJVj_tRh0E

Found Loose cannons video

In reply to Jaynen:

Awesome link jaynen. Thanks for finding that.

I'm in the process of starting one. Long way to go.

In reply to CGLockRacer:

Really? Maybe we should talk. Contact me through the board if you have time to chat.

Only in my dreams, but I always look when a kart track is for sale. I just wonder if the newest generation of people are interested, or would they rather sit at home and stare at their cellphones.

Given the number of new tracks I see popping up around the country, I think there might be damn for it. There is a need for something to do. Digital only fulfills so much.

I remember the old thread about this. Huntsville, AL is a place that needs one of these. There are some sizable buildings available and there are plenty of people with high paying jobs. I think that besides weekly race series, birthday parties and just random walk in folks, don't forget to market to corporations as a team building. Also consider something type of charity event. Maybe a 12 hour team enduro where people could sponsor a team for so many cents per lap for some sort of charity. When I still lived in AL, I put together a spreadsheet trying to figure out the start up expenses for an electric indoor cart track. I wish there was one close to me.

How affordable is remote video streaming? Because your waiting area would be pimp with TVs streaming the current race karts from a nose-cone perspective. Also, sell the recordings for cheap.

Rent GoPros or have helmet mounts on your helmets. I would love to have video of the on track shenanigans. Also telemetry would he awesome.

I definitely think that all that is possible. Just have to see what is available. Not sure how to live broadcast gopro footage but having it on the helmet is MUCH better than on the car. Those cameras don't handle vibration all that well. Less of an issue on electric carts though. Might be worth investigating.

I wonder how much system I would need to run 10 cameras at a time.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Streaming-Twitch-on-your-Gopro-WIRELESSLY/

OTL karts seem to be 8500+. Waiting to get back an official word from them. I know it is probably the going rate but damn that seems pricey.

Edit: do you think I could use left over Nissan Versas?

I'm all for electric. The place in Cincinnati uses gas carts and within a few minutes your gasping for breath.

Anyone built an electric kart? Running the numbers, we could save something like $130k by building frames and assembling ourselves. This is a little out of my wheel house but my partner is totally capable of this. Getting a solid frame is 90% of the work right? The rest is following the wiring diagram and installing parts. It is hard to swallow almost new car money for some metal tubing, motor, and a few controllers.

singleslammer wrote: Anyone built an electric kart? Running the numbers, we could save something like $130k by building frames and assembling ourselves. This is a little out of my wheel house but my partner is totally capable of this. Getting a solid frame is 90% of the work right? The rest is following the wiring diagram and installing parts. It is hard to swallow almost new car money for some metal tubing, motor, and a few controllers.

If I'm goin to spend $130k for something electric I'm buying a couple teslas