Kartifying a Leaf?

The thing's only got 107 horsepower, so what am I thinking?

Good question. Well, it makes that power at zero RPM which is way cool. Dropping a thousand pounds will stretch that power a wee bit too. It's got a low cg, which will get significantly lower after surgery. Yes it's rev-limited to 95 MPH, but on the autocross course, that's plenty. And if one doesn't like the FWD configuration, you could probably flip it around and make it a middie without insane amounts of work.

So go ahead, tell me what a terrible idea I have. I dare you!

Frankly I think the whole Leaf could be great, but I could never get it to an autocross.

Or how about a parts runner?

Are you thinking of something like this?

Something in that ballpark. You see guys stripping down their Miatas and C4 vettes so why not a Leaf? A thousand lbs off a Leaf will make a lot more of an improvement than a thousand pounds off a V8-powered car.

I fully support this idea.

That said, I think I remember people wanting to use a leaf drive train for a swap and running into problems with all kind of bizarre sensors the system wanted to work. I'm not sure how that would play into a kart conversion, but it would be worth checking before applying sawzall.

There are a bunch of smart dudes in the DIY EV community working on decoding the intricacies of the Leaf. As I think about it, the truck idea seems promising. Should be able to cut off a few pounds, beef up the suspension and tires, and write off/have my company pay for the whole thing (parts runner). Throw a generator in the back, drive to the autocross and recharge while I'm course working. My biggest concern would be the thing overheating and going into limp mode.