And so it begins.

As some of you may know, my oldest son has a highly virulent strain of the car bug. He could identify the make all of his Hot Wheels by age 2.5, about 30% of the field at Amelia Island at age 4, and is always telling his friends that he is going to be a race car driver like Niki Lauda and Sir Stirling Moss....at least on the days he's not telling them he's going to be a football player.

Anyway, he turned 5 a few days ago, so we got him his first "race car", aka a Razor ground force go kart. You should have seen how excited he was. He's also (thankfully) got a weird obsession with helmets, and loves looking at and collecting football and race car helmets. So we also got him a real kids size helmet which he also loved. The crowning glory was the "race car suit", which of course he insisted on wearing to preschool the following day.

No real point to this post than to share a young boy's enjoyment of cars, but I was a bit curious how other folks have gone about letting a kid get started in karting, assuming he/she has an interest. Right now he'd certainly enjoy it, but I don't think he's ready for the real-deal 50cc kids karts yet. From reading up a bit it looks like some folks get started as young as 5 in kids kart, but how did you decide when your kid was ready? Any particular things to try to teach him now, or just let him drive this little electric kart and have fun getting used to it?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd6UZAnv14o[/ame]

 

A couple pics:

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Very cool!

FYI, at age 5, they can begin competing in Kid Karts. I had my daughter in lessons the day after she turned 5, and she then competed in Kid Karts, and Micromax (Rotax) karts until she turned ~10. Eventually she lost interest, unfortunately (or maybe not, as it's an expensive hobby).

Definitely start with lessons, as it will take a while for them to get used to the kart and start getting comfortable.

 

You better teach him to turn right or you will have a future NASCAR driver on your hands.

 

Ha! That thought did actually cross my mind. The problem is the rather large turning radius of that thing means about all he can do in the driveway is a big circle. I think I'm going to buy a bunch of those cheap small plastic soccer cones and set him up some simple tracks in a large unused parking lot down the street from our house.

It will of course have both left and right turns.

 

Great kid!!

Keep him hungry for it!

Bill

 

Back at it this evening, learning what to do with some cones. I'm going to need some spare batteries for this thing.

http://youtu.be/NY9KR5OXY3c

 

It's interesting to me how he naturally is turning his head to look ahead of where is he is. It's something we usually have to teach.....

 

Well, the other half of the time he's driving he's looking 90 degrees to the side at the scenery going by, looking back to see if I'm watching him, or looking straight down watching the wheels turn! How do y'all teach against that?!?

He's gotten a little better about that actually, but still likes to just take in the scenery now and then. I'm just glad this thing tops out at about 10 mph! Also on that note, how low of a speed can the real 50cc kid karts be dialed down to? I still think he's at least a year away from being ready for that, but if they could be restricted to 12-15 mph I may think about letting him try one in 6 months or so.
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Neat video of early karting of some names you will know...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-eMjP6hMSs[/ame]

 

Awesome! Daughter is four and planning to do the same when I think she is ready. Thanks for sharing the info OP and other posters...

 

Today's installment:

http://youtu.be/MmLSlVacE3Y

 

That is simply awesome!

 

When I see those pictures I know the future is in good hands.

Please get him the best helmet you can buy. An inappropriate helmet that is too big and too heavy can actually cause other damage. Maybe it is just the pictures.

 

Yes, that is a youth motorcycle helmet we sized to him. It's actually a bit of a tight fit on him. The shell is kind of big thought. I couldn't find a kart specific helmet for a kid his size, please let me know if there is such a thing.

 

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