First off, glad you gave the subject some space, as you alluded to, it was most of the Car Magazines of the day that brought the sport its greatest exposure.
However, for all the reprinted ads shown, and the text, which admittedly didn't get too technical, the name McCulloch was not mentioned even once--at least not that I saw in my first read through the piece!
How many other engine manufacturers built their own chassis; maybe one (1) or two (2?) others, but they weren't mentioned either.
Coming from a family with modest means, buying a new go-kart (my first attraction was to mini-bikes, I discovered go-karts later) wasn't ever going to happen. At ten (>10) or eleven (<11) years old, I pleaded with my dad to let me have a Lil' Indian mini-bike until--just to shut me up, I'm sure--he said that yes, I could have one! I ran to go get the catalog I'd sent for to show him which one I wanted (I knew better than to pick the top model) and his reply forever changed my life: "what'd you bring me that for? I said you could have one, I didn't say I was going to buy it! You want it, earn the money and buy it yourself." And he continued reading his paper. So with a $1.00/week allowance, plus cutting a few lawns, over the course of the 1966 summer, I pieced together a mini-bike. I used a chassis made of threaded plumbing pipe with a bicycle fork receiver welded on, a donated Reo "Slant-1" lawnmower engine, and assorted bits from the local hdwr & Army Surplus stores, I had a machine that would move under its own power! There where no brakes--you dragged your feet to stop--and no throttle, other than your hand on the butterfly itself. No clutch either, just a fan-belt stretched tight between two pulleys: push to start, and hang on!
But I digress...
A year later, and "flush with cash" from a paper-route (it's okay if some of you need to do a Google search...) plus working for one of my route customers after school and on weekends cutting down trees, I had advanced to a go-kart. The guy I was working for (later to become a cop for Detroit's Vice Squad) knew of a guy that might have a kart for sale; someone he'd done some tree work before I started helping him. That guy's sons were grown and no longer interested in karting, and, coincidentally, he could use the additional space for the TR3 he was restoring (not even sure it was called "restoration" back then). So we left that night with a McCulloch F1 with a Mc9 engine.
Ultimately, I put a pair of Mc91s on it, but eventually, I too outgrew it, coinciding with the purchase of a new 1973 MGB.
Well about a dozen years ago, with the onset of old-age and waxing nostalgic, I started searching the webs for another McCulloch kart & engine combo. I eventually found a ratty chassis out of Oklahoma, a gas tank and real magnesium wheels (both unique to the kart) from Arizona, and an engine from a guy in Wisconsin. Mix together in a teeny-tiny condo garage, and voila!
It was that McCulloch kart that swayed me from being a Motor City Muscle Car enthusiast, discovering that it was a lot more fun to go fast around a corner than just in a straight line, to the sportscar infused individual of my entire adult life (continuously owning at least one open 2-seat sportscar since I was eighteen (18) through to today, >62 & with four 2-seaters, to include the Healey I bought 39 years ago, 1999 & 2001 versions of BMW M Rdstrs, plus a 1999 M Coupe with a Eurosport Twinscrew supercharger).
And you didn't even mention McCulloch once.
SMH...
