If you want to experience hair raising speed on four wheels, you must try the Bondurant Ultimate Shifter Kart Course. The shifter karts have a six speed manual transmission, and are capable of going zero to 100 mph in six seconds, and zero to 100 to zero mph in around 10 seconds.
I didn’t start feeling comfortable in the kart until the end of the three hour class. The experience of driving a shifter kart is unlike driving any street car. First, you sit a few inches off the ground, in a machine with mind-blowing acceleration ( check out the Kart vs. Corvette video on the Bondurant site). The karts do not have a clutch pedal, nor an H-pattern shifter. My left foot kept reaching for the clutch, and instead found the brakes. Unfamiliarity with the sequential gearbox would cause me to lose track of which gear I was in. Making those two blunders and then trying to find the right line into a high-speed turn is an unsettling experience, to say the least. When one finally nails a good lap, it’s quite a rush.
I can’t wait to go back for “lapping sessions…”
Jeff Nappi’s Shifter Kart Gallery, with videos!
