Deucekid#2 and the RallyKart

Aww, everything fits with an angle grinder and a welder! If you still wanna try and make the torque converter work, let me know.

That's too bad, torque converter is way better than a clutch.

What was the interference rotating it 90* ccw from where it's pictured?

Parts arrived. Parts assembled.
We are go for kart! I repeat, we are go for kart!

Sweet!

Drove. Lost an axle nut and dropped the chain. Found the nut and reassembled. Ate dinner. Driving more. Deucekid #4 just got ejected over a low speed bumpy section of the lawn. Glad Mrs. Deuce isn't watching.

Have you done a top speed run yet? Man I want a go kart...

Loctite the hell out of go kart axle nuts, they love backing off for some reason.

Have they figured out power slides yet?

Looking good. 2 free Dad points for applying helmets!

Sliding

Learning that bench seats with no belts are bad for certain maneuvers.

I had a set of wheels around from an aborted project from years ago. They're front wheels and quite a lot bigger than the stock front wheels. Unfortunately they're the wrong offset to fit the current spindles. Poop. I did install lap belts. Driver gets the old belt from the RX7, passenger gets the old aux belt from the Mazda2.

Sweet! I want a kart, and I am too old, and the munchkin is too young..

After two rained out events, we finally had our first rallycross. We both had a ball. He picked up 16 seconds over the 10 runs of the day and is about that far off the back of the slow cars still. We need different wheels/tires to deal with how rough the cars make the surface and to improve top speed gearing. He thinks he needs about twice as much power.
If you ever wondered how to make a Miata and a swift look huge, grid next to a kart.

Yeah taller tires and more POWAR!Looks like you have a partner in crime

He had a really good time. He's been tagging along with me for the past year and riding along, but he had a blast competing, even if was only with himself. He was very happy to step up and get his award.
The adults that he deals with in rallycross give him much different feedback than his teachers/parents. I think this is going to be a really positive experience for him as he deals with the crap that is being an adolescent. When I was his age my dad pulled me along to hunt with him and his friends. It gave me some much needed perspective on life/adults that I didn't get anywhere else.
It's two days later and the first thing he wanted to talk about at breakfast was how he was thinking he could pick up more time. I think he's hooked.

In reply to mazdeuce: I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said above. I also noticed the smiles from all the adults pictured, parenting,you're doing it right.

First upgrade to any "car"? Wheels and tires. Some measuring and figuring led us to believe that we could go from the stock 4.10/3.5-5 to a 147/70-6. We go from a 5 inch wheel with a tire height of 11 inches to a 6 inch wheel with a height of 14 inches. Pretty substantial.
It turns out that was the same size tire that I showed previously, but with a narrower wheel that fit on the current hubs. This was good because I only had to buy two tires, but was bad because I had to dismount the old ones. That sucked. The new wheels are splits, it only took me an hour of cursing to figure out how to mount the first tire, and 10 minutes each for the other three. I did this while the kids where in school because I anticipated the cursing. When we wear these out I'll get the kid to do the replacing.
In true racecar fashion, new wheels and tires cost more than our initial investment in the rally kart.
Two day year end rallycross coming up this weekend. A couple of things to sort and we should be ready to go.

Nice! Tread means steering, and taller means more top end :) both good

That's the plan. He was complaining that he didn't have enough top end at the last event. My driveway tests show a definite increase in top speed with the corresponding reduction in acceleration. On a course designed for cars he should be pretty close to WFO most of the time so it should be positive overall for Lap times. That's the theory anyway. I'm going to make him calcualte the theoretical increase in speed when he gets home from school.

TRoglodyte wrote: Yeah taller tires and more POWAR!Looks like you have a partner in GRIME

Fixored it for you

I like everything in this thread. Go karts, creative improvements, and stellar parenting. Keep up the good work!

Not sure if you're hitting the top end? Time for a tach.

Like so. Also handy should you wish to bump the governor up a bit. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hour-Meter-Tachometer-Small-Engine-Spark-For-Motorcycle-Boat-Bike-US-STOCK-US-E1-/321740807933?hash=item4ae93f1efd:g:ZUIAAOSweW5VQKra

This weekend was the third event of the season and the second one we could attend. I forgot to report on the first event of the season, but here's the short version: Intermittent rain made the course insanely slippery for some run groups and the Deucekid beat all but five of the cars including ALL of the mod cars that ended up with the worst of it. He got muddy, had a blast.
We missed the second event of the season due to scheduling conflicts.
The kids and Mrs. Deuce all had Friday off so Deucekid#2 and I loaded up the kart and the RX7 and headed out.
We decided spend the day at my Friend Dave's place. It's good to have friends like Dave.
The kid got some kart time in on the rally training course while I did some tractor work.
Then we loaded up the kart and headed off the the pond. Nothing was biting, but we had fun.
We set up the tent at dark and woke up to the sounds of wild turkeys. Off to the event. My usual co-driver and I swapped from hisi Corolla to the RX7 for this event in order to get some seat time before the upcoming Rally Trials. Good thing too as the cars drive very differently.
Deucekid#2 had a tougher day than the last event. Conditions in the morning were choppy and the fast course favored the speed of the cars over the agility of the kart. He likes to be at least as fast as the slower cars but was a few seconds off pretty much everyone.
In the afternoon the course had degraded to car breakingly rough. He went out with speed to try and make up time, but spun into the rough and put it high on two wheels. He was pretty spooked. He spent the last few runs learning how to read a course and avoid the parts that are rough enough to be dangerous. We talked about it and discussed bringing the car safely home when things go pear shaped. He was mature about what he could accomplish and learned a lot.
At the end of the day he did two fun runs in a friend's diesel Mercedes. He's 20-25 seconds slower in the car but is getting much better at spatial awareness while behind the wheel. I'm sure I could put him in a car now and he would be fine on course. I still worry that he's not tall enough and aware enough to handle a full size car in grid/paddock, so he's going to stay in the kart for a while longer.

A friend just posted this picture from the event. I suppose the boy was driving hard.

Nice shot!...very Steve Kinserish