RPM Raceway | Race Play More — Attraction in Jersey City

This is not only my review of RPM Raceway NJ, but also of my experience getting there. I’m focusing on this place as a go-karting track since “Raceway” is literally in the name. If you want the summary: Don’t come here if you’re a racing fan. I was visiting family in Brooklyn and saw an ad in the subway about a big karting track only 9 min. from downtown Manhattan by public transport. As I don’t have a car, that sounded great. So I planned my trip to Richard St station. Despite being physically close to the track, I had to walk 1.3 miles due to impassable obstacles. The path from the station was no walk in the park either—I had to cross streets with no pedestrian crossings and was almost hit by a car. In hindsight, I should’ve taken a Lyft from the station. The trip took almost 2 hours and was DEFINITELY more than 9 minutes from downtown Manhattan. Not a great start, and unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last time I felt misled by their marketing. Despite this, I was still excited to race. I paid $96 for 3 races, which seemed a bit high, but since it was Monday and they connected their two tracks into one, the price felt more justified. So, how was it? Well… this wasn’t traditional racing, but more like a time trial on a shared track. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but their marketing implies wheel-to-wheel racing. And honestly, one of the best parts of track racing is just pushing a car to the limit and staying on that thin line to find the fastest possible time. Before I dive into the driving experience, I’ll mention something positive—the track! Many indoor tracks suffer from what I like to call “hairpin syndrome,” where designers cram in too many square turns and hairpins to maximize space, which kills flow and variety. Thankfully, this track avoids that pitfall, offering elevation changes and fun, twisty turns that give it a great sense of flow and some cool technical corners. Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end. I’m 6 feet tall, and while I fit in the kart, the steering wheel bumped into my knees every turn, and the seat couldn’t go any further back. This was slightly annoying but manageable. The bigger issue was the brake and throttle pedals—both were super soft with little feedback, and it felt like the inputs were either on or off, with no in-between. This made it nearly impossible to make fine adjustments, leading to unpredictable behavior as the motor would abruptly kick in, even when I feathered the throttle. The karts at RPM are all-electric, which has its pros and cons. Typically, electric karts have lots of torque and great acceleration, which is supposed to be the case here, but not really. RPM’s tagline is “NO LIGHTS. NO LIMITS. JUST SPEED.” The last two of those are simply not true. The impressive ramps on the track are purely visual, as the kart reduces power on the way down to the point where it feels slower than on the straight. You reach top speed so fast that the brakes almost feel optional, and at the ramp before the corkscrew, the kart randomly struggles at the very top. Another issue is the delay from when you stop braking to when you can apply the throttle. This doesn’t happen when you lift off the throttle by itself, making coasting way more effective than braking. The sessions are also so short that by the time your tires are hot and sticky, your time is up. I drove 3 races with 3 different karts, and these issues were consistent across all of them. All of this left me feeling disconnected from the kart and limited, not by my own skill, but by artificial barriers. You could argue this place just isn’t for me, and you’d be right. But their marketing and website make it look like an experience that it isn’t. “Deceived” is a strong word, but it’s honestly how I feel—My $96 could've been spent much better. It’s disappointing because RPM is one of the few adult go-kart tracks nearby and the only one (somewhat) accessible by...

Dangerous experience with defective kart! This Sunday 08/14/2024 me, my brother and his two young kids went to RPM raceway to do a go-kart race. I have been there once before and had fun with my friends. This time was not fun at all. There was an insane amount of emergency stops made which made it impossible to complete one lap uninterrupted. But the worst part is that my steering wheel broke in the middle of a corner. I was able to break in time and get to safety but it could've ended very badly, and I'm really happy this happened to me and not one of the kids.

We were all disappointed by the race and shocked how something like that can happen. The place is pretty expensive and I expected a better experience and definitely expected more due diligence on the karts. I wanted my money back. The manager told me it's not a company policy to give refunds. However, I think something dangerous like this would warrant an exception to the regular "company policy"? The manager offered to give us a private race, but after this disappointing experience and our lack of trust in the karts that day we didn't want to put the kids through that. After a bit of back and forth with the manager that failed to see that a steering wheel breaking is dangerous, he was able to give us a refund but we are banned for life at RPM Raceway because we didn't accept his resolution. I have my refund, but banning us felt like they didn't think we were in our right, and that's disappointing.

We understand that go-karting can be dangerous and therefore we take it serious when we go on the track. We follow and listen to the rules and we want to go to a venue that has a good track record. We thought that venue to be RPM Raceway. And we expect RPM Raceway to do their due-diligence with regard to maintenance and safety because that's something we cant do ourselves. They failed at that and did, in our opinion, not take...

Yesterday December 2nd, 2023 my boyfriend & I visited RPM for the first time. We were both excited and looking forward to having a good time & enjoying ourselves. I'm not really sure how the lockers work, as it wasn't explained to us. But after our ride number was called, we were instructed to put our things in a locker & return for our race. We went to put our things in a locker, waited on the line & a young man with dreads opened the locker for us & also locked it for us. We didn't pay the $2 & he didn't tell us how the process worked; just said we'd be okay when we returned. After our race, my boyfriend wanted to grab his bag & my purse from the lockers to hold ourselves. He went over & someone different was there but the nonetheless, the guy let him take the bags out with no problem. Roughly 10 minutes later, as i ate over at the food stand, my boyfriend stepped out the building for a minute but never left out of view of the entrance. When my boyfriend started to come back in, Two workers, one from the lockers, approached him accusing him of stealing from the lockers. They not only did this in front of other patrons, but they also demanded that he show ID which I believe was discrimination. At NO point during the ENTIRE night were we asked for ID, so why was my boyfriend being targeted? The two employees were so aggressive, my boyfriend wasn't sure they'd let him back inside. & why would your locker attendant give him the bag from the lockers, then wait until after to try & see his ID. & I didn't see this being done to ANYONE else. After this incident, we cut our night short & decided to leave. I am very disappointed as this was our first time & don't appreciate the treatment we received. Things like this make it so that we won't ever return again to this...