Is Outdoor Go-Karting Different To Indoor Go-Karting?

This summer has been a particularly perfect season for having a go-kart party, as there are few better ways to enjoy a sunny day than feeling the wind rush against you as you tackle a large, technical, engaging race circuit.

Since the dawn of organised go-kart racing in 1960, karting has become hugely popular far beyond the typical niche of track days or enduro, in part because the karts themselves are fast 

enough to be fun but not so fast to be unsafe or too difficult to drive.

You can also build a go-kart track almost anywhere you have the space, from theme parks to car parks, which helps ensure that anyone who wants to go has the chance.

You can even build go-kart circuits indoors, and this led to a debate as old as time.

Is go-karting better indoors or outdoors? We obviously are going to say the latter, but to explain why, we need to highlight the differences between the two and what makes go-karting on a real track so much more enjoyable.

Are Indoor And Outdoor Go-Karts The Same?

The best place to start is the karts themselves, and the reality is that whilst indoor and outdoor go-karts both feature four wheels, two pedals and a steering wheel, outdoor go-karts are significantly faster.

Indoor go-karts are electric, tend to be much smaller and are designed to be used on narrow, smooth, indoor tracks. They are the basketball sneakers of tiny racing vehicles.

By contrast, outdoor go-karts are typically either petrol-powered or use much more powerful electric motors that are larger and designed for the variable conditions that come from true, outdoor tarmac tracks.

Is Outdoor Go-Karting Faster?

Undeniably yes; outdoor go-karts can be up to three times faster than their electric equivalents, and there is much greater scope for you to reach those speeds.

Indoor go-karts are electric and designed for fairly small tracks built to fit in warehouses, which typically limit them to top speeds of no more than 40 miles per hour; given the close-quarters racing and narrow tracks, you may not even reach that speed.

By contrast, outdoor go-karts are variably tuned for the track but tend to exceed 70 miles per hour themselves on larger tracks; in some cases, outdoor go-karts can reach up to 120 miles per hour in some specialist closed conditions.

How Are Outdoor Go-Kart Tracks Different From Indoor Ones?

Outdoor go-kart tracks are much larger than indoor ones, but that is only the most basic change between the two, as there are fundamental differences in how the two are designed.

An indoor go-kart track needs to make the most of often very limited space, which typically means that you have relatively narrow tracks with lots of corners and chicanes that go back on themselves. 

This is great for close-quarters, wheel-to-wheel racing and comes with the advantage of being available no matter the weather, but it simply cannot beat the presence and the thrill of outdoor racing.

An outdoor go-kart track is typically closer in size to a motorbike or car racing track than an indoor go-kart track, with wide corners and long straights where you can feel the rush of wind against your helmet.