If you, like me, enjoy driving your car to the point where your passengers let an “Oh shit!” slip out around tight corners, you made need to get your Kart on. However, not all go karts are created equal, so I thought I’d share my experiences with three of the most popular karting options close to Portland.
Family Fun Center
Originally known as Bullwinkles, the Family Fun Center is fully intended for children. Located in the same parking lot as Fry’s Electronics in Wilsonville, the Family Fun Center lives up to it’s name as a great place for families to enjoy playing together. However, if you are over 5 years old, you’ll find that their go karts are about as much fun as a potato sack race. The cars are designed for two, but the engines are heavily governed, which means they are super slow. Unless you have small children, this is no place to kart.
- Driving Requirements - Drivers must be 58″ or taller. Passengers must be at least 3 years old with a driver that is at least 18 years old
- Price - $6.75/driver/session and $3/passenger/session. Sessions are 10 mins.
- Location - 29111 SW Town Center Loop W. Wilsonville, Oregon 97070
- Hours - 11am-9pm Sun-Thur, 10am-11pm Fri and Sat
- Contact - sykartportland@verizon.net 503-685-5000
SyKart
SyKart is an indoor track, which makes it a great year-round destination. These karts are intended for speed and come in two engine configurations: 6 HP and 9 HP. You have to qualify in order to use the 9 HP karts by achieving a sub 32 second lap in the 6 HP kart, which does take some practice. SyKart is totally fun and a great place to take groups. If it is your first time, they have a cheesy, but informative video that explains the rules. The track is technically oriented as it has no real straight away.
- Driving Requirements - Drivers must have a valid license or take the driving school. Must buy a SyKart license, which is $5. Must have a helmet liner ($2 to buy one).
- Price - $15/driver/session. Sessions are 10 mins.
- Location - 8205 SW Hunziker St., Tigard, OR 97223
- Hours - 11am–11pm Mon–Fri, 11:30am–11pm Sat, 11:30am–10pm Sun
- Contact - 503-684-5060
Malibu Gran Prix
The original public kart company, Malibu still delivers a great experience with the most sophisticated karts available for rent in the Portland area. These cars are fast and the outdoor track is a blast. Unlike the rest of the operations in this list, Malibu is a time-based track, which means you aren’t racing next to other racers.
- Driving Requirements - Drivers must have a valid license. Must buy a Malibu license for $3.25.
- Price - $15.95 for 5 laps, 17.95 for 7 laps, or 21.95 for 10 laps.
- Location - 9405 SW Cascade Ave., Beaverton, OR 97008
- Hours - 11am–9pm Mon–Thur, 11am–11pm Fri-Sat, 11am–8pm Sun
- Contact - 503-641-8122
Pat’s Acres Racing Complex (PARC)
Pat’s Acres is the real deal. If I have a choice for which place to go, it’s Pat’s Acres hands down. While the Malibu cars are cool looking scale models, Pat’s Acres has modern day competitive karts that are designed for optimum performance, not appearance. This is a racing facility, so people bring their own karts down in their racing trailers and make us normal folk look like the amateurs we are. I really enjoy seeing these modded out karts and they are totally fast. The nicest karts have the same power to weight ratio of an Indy car. Crazy, huh? It’s a little humiliating to be passed by the 9 year old kids in their custom rides, but your rental kart is so much faster than any place else available to the public that you don’t care. Make sure to check the PARC racing schedule because they don’t offer rentals on race days. My only caution is that you may want to get into karting a little deeper after going here. Oh yeah, don’t call them “go” karts here, they’re just karts. 
- Driving Requirements - Drivers must have a valid license. Must buy a PARC license, which is $12.50 and it must be renewed annually. Must have a helmet liner ($2 to buy one).
- Price - $25/driver/session. Sessions are 12 mins.
- Location - 6255 Arndt Rd SW, Canby, OR 97013
- Hours - 11am–7pm
- Contact - chris@patsacres.com 503-266-PATS
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Wow, I had no idea we had so many places with go carts here in the area. I had a blast at an Intel event a few years ago where we drove go carts at the Family Fun Center / Bullwinkles. Maybe we need a tech family fun outing sometime soon? It might be fun to converge on someplace like the Family Fun Center to spend the day playing with other geeky families
I second Dawn’s suggestion. Our tech community needs more gokarts and less microbeers. Plus, this might be the chance to settle the long-standing grudge once and for all in an East v. Westside race
this story has researched, actionable content! bravo, Justin! I’ve gone to the grand prix a handful of times in my younger years and it was fun to race the clock. Pat’s Acres sounds awesome!
Great write up. Now I must go karting…no pun intended.
Your next write up should be about Paintball. I hereby nominate myself as a researcher.
I knew other people wanted to know this info! I’m all about us making a geek trip to the karts, but I’d have to pull for either SyKart or Pat’s Acres. I don’t do Family Fun Center.
Thank you so much for posting this you just made my night I didn’t know about these either.
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