Yard Kart Article

OMG where and how do we start this in North Georgia??

I had a sweet one way back. The parents wouldn't shell out for a 4 wheeler so I used an old Sears riding mower. My grandparents lived across the street so my grandpa helped me hook it up with some kustom tweaks like different pulleys for higher top speed, a welded diff, and gas and brake pedals. That thing was sweet. It was the only riding tractor I know of that could do doughnuts. If you mashed the loud pedal and dropped the clutch it would lift the front wheels about 6" in any gear. And that is how it met its demise... One too many clutch drops and the transaxle grenaded.

My little brother and I had a Sears 2-seater yard kart growing up. 3.5 HP Briggs and Stratton Engine, single wheel drive/braking (left side). about 4 inches of ground clearance. Top speed was about 20 MPH - more than fast enough to learn how to drift. Want to slide the back end in a left turn - hit the brake then the gas. Sliding right turn - turn right hard with the gas down. Want to roll the kart - put left wheel in a ditch in the middle of a 10 MPH drifting right hander (okay, we really didn't mean to do that). Worked everytime.

Man that was thing was fun. Took the engine apart at least 5 times, and it still ran when I put it back together. I credit that little toy with getting me interested in cars.

Mark

I just got rid of 2 of them with 25 hp engines. Pretty fast, but not stable enough. Well over $10,000 later (our share) having titanium rods and constructive surgery done on my daughter's arm took the fun out of them.

The 20 minute ride from way out in the countryside to the hospital at a pace that the ambulance and police couldn't match wasn't much fun either.

carguy123 wrote: I just got rid of 2 of them with 25 hp engines. Pretty fast, but not stable enough. Well over $10,000 later (our share) having titanium rods and constructive surgery done on my daughter's arm took the fun out of them. The 20 minute ride from way out in the countryside to the hospital at a pace that the ambulance and police couldn't match wasn't much fun either.

Yeah, that would take the fun out them. I still can't wait for this article. I have a little weedwacker motor I'm going to use to build my 4 year old niece a cart.

there is a cyclekart group on yahoo, http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/cyclekart/ if anyone want more info for the cyclekart thing. they do look pretty neat though. if we are having yard karts in the zine , then when are we going to something about lawn mower racing? how can you be grassroots if you dont cover something that deals with grass.....and really cheap racing on grass at that....

Brust wrote: Please the cyclekart... son and I are building one if you want the downlow. We're aiming at the type 37 Bugatti:

Yeah, I think we need a complete pictorial build thread

Brust wrote: Please the cyclekart... son and I are building one if you want the downlow. We're aiming at the type 37 Bugatti:

This is a total win! I've said before that I wanted to build a cyclecart replica of a type 35

mine a couple winters ago....Lots of fun in the snow and ice

Billy_Bottle_Caps wrote: In reply to Woody: That cycle cart is cool......

Yes, but that's not what I originally posted about.

Karting is my favorite form of motorsport, and I'm surprised there isn't more content in GRM about it. I'd be willing to write about next season.

For $500-$1000 a year, you can race a couple times a month at an indoor track and do one season in a league. 35 MPH, lots of sideways action, and maybe some wheel-to-wheel time.

For similar running costs, plus a couple thousand tied up in equipment, you can autocross a shifter kart that's become obsolete in sprint racing, and compete for FTD with A-mods and FSAE cars.

For $2500 per year and $1500-$5000 tied up in equipment, you can race wheel-to-wheel all season long with a Briggs Animal, Yamaha KT100, or Komet KPV kart. This is real racing - 55+ MPH, well over 1g cornering, running wheel-to-wheel for position in a true open-wheeled kart, you break it you fix it - for an autocross budget.

For $5000 per year and $2500-$7500 tied up in equipment, you'll be able to race TaG/Rotax. If it wasn't serious before, it is now - they're much faster than anything you're used to, you've got exotic equipment that doesn't suffer fools, the cornering and braking loads demand that you be in excellent shape, and when that big reedvalve motor gets on the pipe it's time to hang on. On the longer sprint tracks they can hit eighty, on a road course a hundred - and you're still an inch off the ground!

For those of us who are loaded and crazy, $10000 per year and $2500-$11000 tied up puts you into a Moto Shifter kart (west of the Appalachians) or an ICC/KZ2 kart on the East Coast. These have similar pilot workload and forces on the driver to an Atlantic car...

I had one of these growing up. We lived in the suburbs and had a place to ride close by, but I had to go on surface streets and through a park to get there. On my dirt bike and three wheeler it wasn't that big of a deal. But when I got my Oddessy, the cops really started to take notice.

double post, ignore

Brust wrote: Please the cyclekart... son and I are building one if you want the downlow. We're aiming at the type 37 Bugatti:

Ok, this is SUPER AWESOME.

But for weird reasons, i think most would agree:
I vaguely want to build something resembling the 'Classic Dragster' kart in Mario Kart Wii. Nevermind the fact that there is no dragster element here, its just a name. This thing is close enough to work for me...

I also plan to paint/customize our 150cc gy6 scooter in the fashion of the 'Sugarscoot' from the game.

Am i banned yet?

If not.. i just got the cheapest harbor freight welder there is and i think i can build one of those yard karts with it..

Am i banned now?

carguy123 wrote: What's a yard kart?

I learned about understeer/oversteer on something like that. My best friend had a dirt "road course" behind his house. I guess nowdays we'd call it a rallycross course.

Looking forward to the article. I thought about building my own, but never got around to it. And my own kid doesn't have the racing bug.

EDIT: Just read the post about your daughter. I'm now going to write "I must read the entire thread before posting" 100 times on the chalkboard in penance.

I have my senior Metalwork students make "MIdget Karts" based on a heavily-modified Toyota starter motor, Ford solenoid and a car battery. Tire are boat-trailer wobble-rollers.

Oh, forgot the video of riding the kart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2hLmB6L7rE

Watch those fingers!

aeronca65t wrote:

The driver needs skates or a skateboard, a Snell SA2010 helmet and a giant pillow strapped to his rear.

SkinnyG wrote: I have my senior Metalwork students make "MIdget Karts" based on a heavily-modified Toyota starter motor, Ford solenoid and a car battery. Tire are boat-trailer wobble-rollers.

I remember seeing your video....great stuff.

At our school, we've been building similar vehicles for the last few years. Toyota starter with "on/off" to solonoid as "throttle". We have set of rules (we call this "Formula-CCM") and we have several local schools involved in a little mini-Challenge. I sort of sell the whole idea to my admins as an "electric vehicle/alternate transporation" project. We never call our events "races". More like "reliability trials". That way the bosses don't get too nervous. We have great fun with them. Here's one.

As an aspiring high school auto-tech teacher, i thank you for this hilarious inspiration

I had one similar to friedgreencorado's, sooo fun. My cousins all had them too and we'd go all over, when you got to something you couldn't get over/through, you just picked them up and pushed/dragged them over, and kept going. Dirt cheap fun. Sold mine for $100 and wish I still had it. Will keep digging for photos.