[Ali Rushforth]

I was one of the original cadets back in 1987/88 at 8 years old and it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I raced through Junior Britain (JICA now) and Senior 100B (ICA) until I hit 18 and went car racing.
Before I did cadets I had a Moto X bike for round the garden but from what I've been told it did nothing for Mum's nerves. Alright I wasn't allowed dangerous things like skate boards and roller blades, but I didn't mind!!!!
I found that starting at a young age you mature quicker (girls mature faster than boys, I know I have two daughters and a Son!!) and that can bode well for later life. How many people have spoken to a 10 year old cadet driver about chassis and engine set-up, then thought, how old are you!!?? The average 10 year old talks about Power rangers and the like!!!

My son is 4 and a half and I bought him a comer cadet for his 4th birthday back in april, also got him suit (Not CIK) and helmet so he feels the part and I'm lucky that I have access to 1 mile square bit of smooth tarmac for testing race cars on so I take him up there and make a track with cones and barriers.

The one thing we noticed about our son is that even with helmet on he found the comer (S60) a bit loud, but have improvised a bit with extra foam in helmet.

My main reasons for buying him a kart are; it's me and him verses three women in my house and I need to do "man" stuff with cars and karts!!! plus, when I was younger and raced I was never the type of "lout" who hung round bus shelters in the peeing rain coz it was "cool", I had karts to work on and stuff, which I thought was cool!!! and finally, if by the time he reaches 8, and with 4 years of driving behind him he decides that he doesn't like it, c'est la vie, the kart (c/w slicks, wets, trolley) cost me £150. and I could probably sell it on to like minded dad's or keep for my 4 month old niece. And I'd rather that than have waited till he was 8 and bought everything new and race ready and wasted £3K finding out he didn't like it.

In other words mate, if your nieces parents don't mind, get one, maybe when she's 2-3 and find some land to play on. I'm sure she'll love it!!!