Road Go-Kart

Saw this creation at Larry's Spring Nationals near Dayton OH a few weeks back. Pictures are by my friend Paul, unfortunately he didn't get any close shots of the rear suspension setup which was a thing of joy.

The car was very home brew with a mig welded frame, ford engine and what I assume was a VW transmission. I never spoke to the owner so I'm not sure on any of the details. Hopefully someone recognizes the car and can fill in. It was registered, I can only imagine how much fun it has to be for back road blasting.

Link to the complete show photo set: Larry's Spring

In reply to ansonivan:

That is ubber cool, one of the few vehicles of that ilk that doesn't look too much like a sand rail. Sort of what Midlana is going to be, a middie 7 stripped to the bones.

I'd have that over a sandrail any day...unless it was raining. I'm not that hardcore.

Noice. Back when I was in school at Purdue and crew cheif for one of the Grand Prix teams, I thought about doing something similar. I just wish I had had the funds. For those that don't know Purdue Grand Prix bills itself as "The greatest spectacle in college racing." It's a 160 lap race around a dedicated track on campus in a caged 100cc kart.

Wait, so this is road-going, as in public streets? If it's supposed to handle turns in any way (as opposed to drag-racing) there seems to be a big lack of torsional rigidity. There's not one single diagonal visible on the chassis... hopefully there are some that aren't visible.

AFCO shocks, the man has taste :) I love it.

I've actually been thinking that a street-legal off-road buggy would be fun and easy enough to build. Basically, a rear engined Locost with big suspension travel.

I'd have it, with a nice set of rains, since I AM hardcore enough to get wet. Just remember, change into dry undies ASAP, or all sorts of nastiness can happen.

In reply to kb58:

Look more closely, the inner frame has diagonals

mistanfo wrote: I'd have it, with a nice set of rains, since I AM hardcore enough to get wet. Just remember, change into dry undies ASAP, or all sorts of nastiness can happen.

Haha, you win.

It looks good. The main change I would make is instead of having the fuel tanks on either side, I would run one tank up the middle so that you could achieve the same width and not be bumping elbows all the time.

mw wrote: It looks good. The main change I would make is instead of having the fuel tanks on either side, I would run one tank up the middle so that you could achieve the same width and not be bumping elbows all the time.

Yeah, bumping elbows never really ends well huh?

Those side mount fuel tanks look like they are from an Enduro cart. I like it.

I wonder how much fuel each of them carries?

Aren't there problems with dual fuel tanks?

Wow. That makes me happy in my special places.

(That second photo is really nice, by the way.)

So is that powered by a Formula Ford (Kent) motor?

Where's the radiator?

Forget passengers, and elbow room, I would make it a single seater commuter vehicle, and rock it to work EVERYDAY...rain or shine.

That is extremely cool. Especially as it's road legal.

The crossflow just needs a pair of side-draughts for extra awesomeness.

Evil thoughts... With an intrepid drivetrain

Things like this are what make me want to go to the local Technical College and learn how to lay a proper bead and work with composites.

That is so much berkeleying win!

I have to admit, from the same photoset I really like this one-

No...that's just...no...too much...not enough...just...nooo......NO!!

That looks like a 2.3 to me, and if it were mine, it would have EFI and a turbo on it, because that's just what you do. But that would be just downright irresponsible.