David Barbosa has delved into one of the world’s motor racing hotbeds to buy seven sparkling new bespoke rental karts.

The karts, available to hire from Sunday at Southside through the Bermuda Karting Club, were built at industry giant CRG’s factory in Lonato del Garda, northern Italy, close to the headquarters of Ferrari in Maranello.

Long-time racer Barbosa, who has driven for the CRG team in the United States, developed his contacts during a visit to Europe last year. A project long formulated in his mind, Barbosa took the plunge — along with wife Kellie — and decided to invest.

Each kart cost between $9,000-$10,000 but Barbosa and Scott “Skitchy” Barnes, the club president, believes their availability is a huge boost to the programme.

“I’ve had this idea for the past few years,” Barbosa said. “Then last year I went over to Italy, met up with one of the factory teams and it just grew from there.

“It went from something big to something a little bigger. “The factory is amazing — it’s huge, a complete production line from racing to rentals.”

Five of the karts will be for adults and children 12 years and older, while two are for smaller children aged five years and up.

The karts, which were shipped from Italy to Jacksonville and then on to Bermuda, were designed as rentals to a safety spec and to Barbosa’s specific requests.

He describes the karts as “reliable and durable” and perfect as a stepping stone into the sport — for adults and children — or for private functions likes birthday parties.

“The karts are mine but we have to integrate with the BKC and the motorsport park, so we are all a big group,” he said.

“I had spoke to a lot of people [about the idea], especially overseas. I actually had to make a decision while I was in Italy. I worked there for three days and that’s when they drew me in a little bit farther.

“I had to come up with the investment and that’s what I did!”

For Barnes, this represents a major coup for the club. “They’re a lot better than our rentals before and they are a lot faster,” he said. “Obviously, they are also brand new and more reliable. It’s going to be a lot better deal than what we had going on before.

“They have a full cage going around the whole kart — there’s no open wheels exposed so you can nudge and bang each other and have some fun. Obviously they aren’t bumper cars but it’s safer if that did happen.

“We are looking to try to push this to get people involved in our sport. New people, younger kids and adults now — our rental class before was strictly kids.

“This opens it up to adults, fathers and sons who want to come down, families — it’s going to be a great thing.

“We’ve had several juniors come up through our rental programme so I think that now we’ve got some better karts this is going to be that much better to grow our sport.”

Private parties on off-race days is also a major business opportunity for the club, says Barnes.

“Kids who want to do a small private birthday party or if you and your mates want to get together and have some fun with them, David is now available to do it.

“This is a private thing with David but we are working together. They are not BKC karts but it’s a BKS programme.”

Rental karts are available on Sunday, 11am to 11.30am sign-up on a first-come, first-served basis.

It costs $120 for a 15-minute race/session with potentially all seven karts on the grid. Cost includes all equipment, gas and safety gear.

Races start at 12.15pm. For more information go to www.bermudakartingclub.com or go to the club’s Facebook page.