Zen and Flyn are right: it's true that in the end you won't save that much money. It's also true that there is a little (not a lot, I think) of science in a WKC kart. However, it is also true that you'll get an invaluable experience that will serve for you to understand how the d*mn thing works. You will be a better driver just by building it, no driver course experience comes close.
Besides, repairing and mantaining the kart during its life cycle will be incomparably cheaper. I know that the first kart I built 30 years ago it's still alive. It's sort of Frankestein like, but you cannot break this thing anymore: it's made of welding material almost completely, after so many crashes, breakages and enthusiastic changes made by different members of my family!
Same thing with airplane models: in the end they are almost entirey made of glue and the little balsa wood that remains is interspersed with all kind of materials.
A racing kart has a high maintenance cost, not as high as a modern printer, but close, specially if you tend to have out of track excursions... which you will, if you try hard. Finally, you won't be that much afraid of "wasting" your toy: what the..., you'll think, you can build it again. Just
be careful with the only piece in that kart that has no spares: you. Get a good racing suit, get gloves and a good helmet. Race only in a track, never, never ever, in your neighborhood. I repeat: never ever.
The fun part (for me) is tuning the thing and trying to get close to the professional times. You also will lose a little of respect for professional drivers, when you see how close you can get just by following your instincts, latin style, if I may put it that way. Just don't lose respect for other drivers on the track.
Racing (for me) it's that spirit of "the last one to get to that tree is a wet chicken... one, two, three, go!": it's a thing you do with friends. Even if they have better machines, the fun is in trying, not in winning.
If you learn a little tuning you will also know things other drivers don't know: racing starts at the garage. You will spend many stupendous hours with your friends around the machine and, let me tell you from the vantage point of my age, that those hours none of you will forget, ever. Just painting and naming it will be a talking point for many years...
You won't have
a thing made by someone, you will have
something you'll love because it represents your friends. Just look at the kind of eyes a man like Frank Williams have: you'll get a little of that.
For me, the main reason to spend the time and the money is that it is impossible to understand anything until you can close your eyes and "see" it, if you know what I mean. You won't see just a lump of steel: in that piece of sheet (metal sheet, that is
) you will see the beers, the laugh, the conversations in the silence of work, the warm wind in a summer night. On the other hand, you'll get a couple of scars and burns that will be with you forever.
Besides, you'll learn a little about welding and that's a purpose in itself. A man that can weld is afraid of nothing. I've seen people walking in a
different way just by learning to weld. Don't take that too seriously... I'm known for exaggerating a
little bit.
Just a word of advice: make a financial plan. Nothing can take you down more than an unbuilt project: assure yourself you have a financial plan and stick to it, before making grandiose asumptions about the parts you wish to have. It's better to waste a couple of cheap rims in the beginning than crushing the ultra expensive ones that took you six months to get. This is another invaluable lesson for any future engineering project. As we say down here: "wasting a little you learn a lot". In the end, if you buy a ready made kart, you'll know well what you want. Actually, until you don't buy one (and mantain it), after building one, you won't finish your education... that day you will see how intelligent mankind is, compared with you (and me), I bet. Thats' what happened to me, at least.
