Getting into Formula

[drunken monkey]

shoes cost around £100
gloves cost about £100
helmet cost £400+
suit costs £400+

unless of course, you don't mind wearing someone else's sweaty seconds.

[LVApex]

Try http://www.racerwholesale.com/

they tend to be reasonably priced.

[drunken monkey]

It could just be me looking at expensive brands....

[Dyno247365]

So I was talking to some people about karting, and while the majority say I should just go to some parking lot and race already, there are some choices I can make. I said I wanted to go into Rotax, but to learn my friends said it was better to start in 4 stroke, possibly two stroke. We're still talking karts here...barely. What do you think? Because the karting forum is a ghost town.

[drunken monkey]

don't you have any recreational turn up and pay karting places near you?
just jump in whatever they use and have fun.

[Dyno247365]

These are the places in NY:
http://www.tsracing.com/NewKarter/St...ks/NewYork.htm

there's only two there that are close to me. The Riverhead Raceway, which is an Oval, and the Uniondale Sprint Track, but I don't even know if it still exists, Nassau Coliseum exists but that has nothing to do with Karting, it's a huge event place. I could call them up tomorrow. Anywhere closer (not listed) is amusement park karting...but I'd even settle for that at this point.

UPDATE- I actually got some useful reading material, Speed Secrets 1 by Ross Bentley.

[drunken monkey]

so you don't have any places where you turn up with a bunch of mates, pay for a session and get to run around a track for a couple of hours?
cos we got a few around my parts and my closest is maybe a 20 minute drive from home.
my local

[Dyno247365]

Good news, I have enough to afford a Skip Barber course...now the ultimate question...is it a ripoff in terms of working towards getting a racing license and the training or is it good value?

[drunken monkey]

don't you think that it's a bit of a stupid question considering that going to a recognised school, which this is, is a requirement for your license?
And considering that you've never been on a track, any experience is going to be worth it just because it gets you away from your pc games.

thing is, i don't think you should be doing this until you have at least $10,000 floating around. That way, you can comfortably get your license, have money in the bank to enter a couple of small events. Of course, I don't know your family background or your personal financial status but I don't plan to go for my proper competition licence until I have about £10K spare in the bank (once I'm a qualified architect to boot that is). I'll be lucky if i can get that done before i'm 35, especially seeing that I've also got to get £100K together to build a house for myself...

in case you've missed it, racing isn't cheap and it isn't something you can do on a "save up until i can afford to race the next time" thing.

[Dyno247365]

Here's what I decided to do. I might go to the FULL 3-day racing school, but I'm not going to do it yet. I have 4,000 but that would be a shabby way to spend it IF I was going to buy my own go kart and gear instead, meaning I could race whenever I want. I do think Skip Barber is worth it though, but like you said, it's better to have more money in the bank.

When I don't have to worry about college this summer, I'm going to look into buying a brand new kart...probably a 2 stroke because I like how they sound, I haven't decided. Then I'll use SOME form of transportation to trailer it around, that's definitely not decided, so does that sound good? I could go to any track i want and practice, eventually join karting events. My main focus is getting into autocross with my go kart, because those events are a lot easier to find. You don't know how badly I want to race right now, anyway to do it, I'll do it.

[NSX-R-SSJ20K]

if you're over 15 years of age you're already too old.

You're only likely to get into F1 or something if you have been doing gokart racing since the age of 5. which requires obsessive parents which means you better get some kids and make them do it instead. Who said brainwashing wasn't useful.

[Dyno247365]

Originally Posted by NSX-R-SSJ20K

if you're over 15 years of age you're already too old.

You're only likely to get into F1 or something if you have been doing gokart racing since the age of 5. which requires obsessive parents which means you better get some kids and make them do it instead. Who said brainwashing wasn't useful.

You know, you're partially wrong. As long as I get out there and do my best in whatever series I join, it's never too late. Yes yes yes I know I'll never be in Formula 1, the higest tier out of like 15 tiers in motosports, which if given the chance I would glady race in any of them.