Press Releases

Racing Thrills Without The Pricetag

18 March, 2009 - For motor racing enthusiasts, go karting offers a low cost adrenalin rush, fast acceleration and razor sharp handling comparable to much more expensive forms of motorsport.

West Australian motor racing enthusiast and owner of Wanneroo Kart Hire, Michael Laughton operates a racing stable of 25 specialised pro-karts for his team of endurance racers, and has witnessed extraordinary cost savings through the use of twin Honda GX 200 four-stroke engines in his race machines.

"In tracking the maintenance and fuel economy figures over the past 12 months, I have made some remarkable cost savings, whilst also seeing gains in performance," he said.

"After testing a two-stroke and four-stroke engine on the same track for over 280 hours in racing conditions, the Honda GX 200 only cost around $75 in maintenance every 12,500 kilometres.

"We only needed to replace the exhaust valves in the GX 200, whilst use of the two-stroke engine for the same length of time amounted to about $650 after every hour of racing.

"We push our karts to the limit during endurance races and the Honda GX 200 engines only needed an oil change after every four hours of racing," he said.

"The two-stroke on the other hand, required almost a complete engine rebuild. The Honda GX 200's reliability and longevity is just staggering."

Previous fuel comparisons undertaken between the two-stroke and four-stroke engines have also proven impressive, according to Michael.

"The twin Honda GX 200s will run for four hours using only 20 litres of fuel, where as the two-stroke will use 40 litres of fuel in a single engine over the same time," he said.

"Based on these figures, our twin engine Honda-powered karts will travel around 71 kilometres on a litre of fuel, whereas the equivalent single engine two-stroke kart will only cover around half this distance on the same amount of petrol.

"Due to the nature of racing, the karts are operated at full throttle about 80 percent of the time, causing the engine to run at maximum revs.

"I'm very confident in the Honda engines' performance; they offer similarities to professional racing in terms of power, performance and reliability with low whole of life costing.

"Racing greats such as Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ayrton Senna along with a string of Australian V8 Supercar racers all cut their teeth in karts before reaching the pinnacle of motor racing, hence showing the close imitation that karts have to racing at the top level," he said.