Blastacars Drift Racing product reviews

There are plenty of kart racing tracks out there but this is the first drift-kart venue I have come across. And the best bit, it's right here in town.

The first thing you notice is that, though it is tucked away down a long drive in behind a warehouse, it actually backs on to State Highway One - so unless you have hunted it out before you head north to find it, you're likely to drive past before you realise. Fear not... keep going to the lights, hang a left, then the first left, and keep going... you'll get to Duke Street then it's another quick left and you're just metres away from the entrance. Parking down the back behind the warehouse.

I noticed that the promotional blurb states "...three tracks..." - this includes the sign out by the road - yet I could only discover a single track... So I have to ask myself is the paperwork and signage out of date, or were there two hidden tracks somewhere? Perhaps it's a case of the one track can be reconfigured into two smaller tracks... not too sure, and it was too noisy to ask.

Which brings me to a key point - noise. These beasties are NOT QUIET! I would have expected basic safety gear - including ear protection - to be supplied, but nope, nothing. When I asked about this, I was informed that they did have ear protection until recently, but they were all stolen! As much as I can understand how easily that's possible, and how annoying, frustrating and expensive it would be... it's kind of a big no-no NOT to have this kind of gear available really. Maybe some form of refundable deposit that is of a greater value than the replacement cost of the earmuffs? After all, the honest folks won't lose anything, and the thieves basically buy them at cost+handling fee.

So... how good is drift-karting? Well, as a heavier chap, used to driving something that has tyres with grip, I had to fight the instinct to apply MORE gas as I lost traction, and NOT to lead-foot it leading into corners... I basically failed miserably at the corners. Strangely though, it was the big sweeping corner I flaked out on the worst, and most. The tight bottom corner was a doddle by comparison - I think it's because it's a tighter, shorter corner, there wasn't enough time to really see the back end of the kart swing out. The sweeping corner gave lots of drift-time to go past that point of balance and start to get a case of the tail wagging the dog.

Overall, despite having sore ears as I departed, I loved it! It's a neat little venue - if a tad shabby around the edges - but the experience was a lot of fun for all participants. I am thinking that I should go back - not being able to drift is going to bug me. Not only is it fun to do on this scale, but it may be a driving skill that could save my life one day on the road. You just never know. Time to watch "Fast & Furious 3 - Tokyo Drift" a couple of dozen times in a row, I think. Research!

This place was amazing! I have never ever driven in a kart like the ones at Blastacars. This was the first time I had gone drifting in a kart, and I have have to tell you that my experience was both thrilling and scary at the same time, and when I say scary, I mean it was pretty darn close to Brown-pants level.

The karts looked cool and operated well, and the brakes were okay, though I didn't need them half of the time. The track was a little bit hard, and I had a couple of times where I had a head-on collision with the wall, and other times I hit the wall some other way, but all in all it was fun.

I was only on the track for about half an hour, but during that time I quite literally had a blast! The only trouble I had was that many times I either spun too far when drifting around a corner (especially the one at the back end of the building), or I couldn't drift in time and ended up crashing into the walls, which, thank god, were padded with large tyres and stopped too much damage from happening.

With everything taken into consideration, I would say that this is an awesome place, five stars in my book. I can say with no doubt in my mind that anyone who goes to this place with have a great time, so enjoy.