Not to be confused with Cart which is basically the US version of Formula 1 racing, Kart can be either described as mini-F1 racing, or large Go-Kart racing... Everyone knows about Go-Karts - those little gas or electric powered cars that put along an indoor track, and sometimes go all the way up to 30 mph.
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We drove a Rotax Kart which is a style of "stock" karts that people race a lot. The top speed can approach over 100mph, and speeds hit 80mph on the track that we ran (although we probably only got to 60-70mph given our newbie-ness). You encounter up to 2.5g taking sharp corners. Amazingly, the shifter karts (that we didn't rent) can go 0-60mph in under 4s and have top speeds in excess of 120mph. We rented the kart for the day from Cycle Barn for around $250 and raced at XPLEX Seattle - a deal considering that we raced for 5 hours!
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The three of us (Erick, Adam, and myself) each took turns with about 5 laps each on the 7/10's mile track. Eric is the only one that managed to keep the kart on the track for the entire day. Both Adam and me managed to have somewhat significant wrecks, although no major damage was done to people or the kart. We were there on practice day, so there was no real race, but we were continually being passed - we took a turn at 30-40mph and the real drivers went at 50-60mph with about 4in between our open wheels and theirs.
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