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Old 07-24-2016, 12:38 PM   #1
romus
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Is it possible to buy some sort of street legal Go-kart ?

(please excuse my English since I'm a foreigner)

So, first a bit of a background story:
I don't like cars. They are way to heavy and bulky, so very hard to control. What i like is something that reacts very precise and instantly to what i want it to do. Now one might say that a motorcycle would be perfect for me, but there's no way I'm getting on one of those (They're higher then they are wide, so pretty unstable and almost impossible to go around corners quickly, or at least very dangerous (also they are for suicidal people))

So what i am looking for is some kind of Go-kart that is street legal, or to define it in general: A car that is:
  • very light
  • very low (flat)
  • small in general
  • doesn't have to have body panels
  • preferably open cockpit
  • cheap
What it shouldn't have (mainly to reduce cost):
  • Some overpowered expensive engine
  • A top speed I'm never going to reach anyway
  • custom carbon body panels
  • being signed by the single special engineer that put all his time into building the car (yes, Ariel atom, I'm talking about you)
  • price over 20.000
Similar cars:
To show you what kind of car i mean, here are a few cars for comparison (none of them suits me, or i wouldn't be asking the question):
  • Ariel Atom: way to expensive, i don't need that power and exclusiveness
  • X-bow: looks awesome, but even more expensive than the Ariel
  • Exocars: actually quiet a nice idea: if i understand it correctly (feel free to correct me) you just take a regular car and strip out everything you don't need. Then you add a exoskeleton type, well, skeleton. This is well within my optimal price range (~10.000), However these are, since they are made out of normal cars, too large.
So: Is there any car within 20.000 (optimal would be 10.000) that suits my needs? I don't really understand why the cars like Atom and X-Bow are so expensive. After all, they have way less parts the a normal car
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Old 07-24-2016, 01:49 PM   #2
Stealthee
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Re: Is it possible to buy some sort of street legal Go-kart ?

Supply and demand. They only make about 100 Ariel Atoms a year. There are only 1000 X Bows produced per year. There is also a lot of engineering that went into them and the fact is, people pay the asking price, so why no ask it?

As far as size:
The Atom comes in at 11' 2" (3.41m) long and 5' 11" (1.798m) wide.
The X-Bow measures 12' 3" (3.73 m) long and 3' 11" (1.19 m) wide
The Miata based Exocet measures 11' (3.35 m) long and 5' 8" (1.73 m) wide

So your concern with the car based exocars being too large is unfounded. A good friend of mine just built a Exocet and it is quite awesome.

One thing you need to concern yourself about is legality. Not all "Go Karts" are street legal and every state/country.
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Old 07-30-2016, 04:19 PM   #3
romus
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Re: Is it possible to buy some sort of street legal Go-kart ?

Thank you very much.
Here in Germany we have a quad vehicle-class that doesn't even require a windshield to be street legal
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Old 03-22-2017, 08:32 AM   #4
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Re: Is it possible to buy some sort of street legal Go-kart ?

Areil atom maybe ??

Last edited by SimplyCB; 03-22-2017 at 08:32 AM. Reason: spelling mistake
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