Go Kart

So, L-Spec's thread (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=639152) gave me and idea and rather than jack his thread, I decided to make my own.

In L-Spec's thread, he said he was going to put his 420a on a Go Kart. I thought it would be really cool then, BAM. Idea. So heres what went though my mind:

Go Kart with car engine = Ariel Atom
Go Kart with 420a = sweet
Go Kart with 4g63 = way sweeter
OH SHIT... parts car+welder in the garage+Ariel Atom idea = 4g63 AWD GO KART! (for the street obviously)

What do you guys think? Worth a shot when the Talon gets done? I dont rightly know how I would do it but wouldn't cost overly much since I already have the welder, engine (thought I would have to rebuild it and probably get a few of my buddies spare parts.

Theres a few ways I can think of to do it... front engine AWD, front engine RWD, rear engine RWD. I have quite a few ideas for each, I think the rear/rear idea would be the easiest, but there woud be a lot in front of the IC (me and the seat). Maybe get a little front engine RWD action going? That would be heavier though, with the added drive train. Rear/rear it is. Maybe soem crazy twin sidemount setup?

I think I would just weld up a tube frame chassis, single seater style. It would look sorta like an Atom/Indy car hybrid and would fuck the atom straight line style from a dig. Baaaaahhhhh, can you guys imagine having go cart with like 350 hp (big 16, E85, link, lots of boost)? Time to start drawing....

Won;t that be really really heavy? I don't know. Seems hard. How are you going to pump fuel into it and all? You need an ECU for that then?

I already thought this up once and it would be rather sweet but too much work. You are really gonna have to know your engineering to actually do this. Suspension, frame design, etc...

I'm not saying its impossible, but your gonna have a ton of time into it.

WTF is go kart ?

You are really gonna have to know your engineering to actually do this.
Hmmm... whats my major again? ;)

No, I know it would take a shit ton of time and work, but a lot of it would just be transplanting. I would probably snatch up a 90 harness to use with it and just take the ECU from my Talon when I want to drive it so I can use link and not have to buy/socket a whole new ECU. It would be probably close to or over 1000lbs, but thats kinda to be expected. Tube frame cars are actually lighter, look at Rau's car. He shaved off quite a bit of weight going to a tube frame. I think suspension is going to be my biggest obstacle by far. I think the Atom has some crazy angled front suspension design and thats probably what I would do but its going to take a lot of thinking to get it worked out so it sticks to corners and has enough clearance to be atleast mildly road worthy. I doubt this will really happen, but its an idea anyway. I read an article in I think Car and Driver about PMV's (personal mobility vehicles). Those and alternative forms of energy are sorta what I want to do after college. This could just be a jump start.

I'll help you, and I'm being totally serious. Maybe we can meet in the cities and go to your place for the weekend and work on it sometime. What you might have to do is but a prefabed chassis and modify it. I think the best way to do it is find a chassis that already is set up with suspension and then from there you can widen it lengthen it and beef it up. Next time your on msn let me know and we can go over this or something.

I'll help you, and I'm being totally serious. Maybe we can meet in the cities and go to your place for the weekend and work on it sometime. What you might have to do is but a prefabed chassis and modify it. I think the best way to do it is find a chassis that already is set up with suspension and then from there you can widen it lengthen it and beef it up. Next time your on msn let me know and we can go over this or something.

if you guys let me come and ride it, i have a t25 i can donate for it.:wink:

Hmmm... whats my major again? ;)
Oh yeah... Kinda forgot about that. lol My bad.

Yeah, Scott you know how to weld right? Maybe you will have to come back the B sometime and help me work on my Talon or start fabbing this project if it happens.

yeah I can weld. Just let me know in advance and I'll try and clear my schedual

Cool man. What is this perfabed chassis you speak of? I was thinking about getting like a pinto chassis or soemthing, or maybe just going all out and making it completely tube framed.

You need to just buy one of these frames...

http://www.miltonsandtoys.com/

thats similar to what I was talking about just more complex

Whoo hoo! Another AF DSM project! The issues with using a piston engine, is that they're quite large, and I've always had problems fitting one in. If you could work in a good tranny + rear wheel drive, it would definitely be kick ass. Some guys from the autoX did the same, but they started putting downforce and before you know it, the result was a mini F1 car haha. They're also university students and somehow, they got a permit on the thing and let it loose on the highway.. and man did that thing haul ass! Not sure what engine they put in it though, I'll have to ask.
http://qcma.org/albums/album14/a100000317.jpg

Good luck if you're really serious with this. Depending on the time of year and what not, I might even stop by and check out the progress. I want to say "throw in a rotary" for weight and size issues, but that's blasphemy in this forum :lol: I hate it when people talk about putting puttins V8s and SR20s in rotary cars so.. I'll keep my mouth shut :wink: Again, I hope this starts, and good luck!

Yeah, thats the effect, except I will be welding it. (the bare frames not the car)

Yeah, I dont know if this is really going to happen, but it would be tits if it did. So L-Spec, is yours and actual go kart? How'd you do it?

Depends what you call a go kart lol. We (me and local rotar heads) bought a Chevette, chopped the top off, bought an ebay aluminum spoiler and let her roll haha. Mind you it was a shitty 12a rotary engine. We got everything for cheap, so we mainly did it for shits and giggles. All it took was a bit of time. We didn't start from scratch lol so that is why I'm quite interested in this particular project. It did pretty bad on at the auto x, so it's sitting in the back of a friend's grandparents farm currently. We took the easy way out.

I love the concept of rotary motors but I really dont know much of anything about them. My only concern with this project is size. How big do you plan on making this. When I hear go kart I think somethink like this http://www.motorcycle-export.com/products/go%20karts/red%20250DL%20go%20kart.jpg to me it sounds like your thinking something like a mini sandrail. Either would be bad ass but the sandrail design will be more complex but also easier to fit everything on it as well

After looking closer at the link I bet you could use something similar to that design except modify the hubs to accept larger wheels and tires and maybe stretch the frame out a little. I'm actually excited to help out because this would be a perfect learning experence for auto fab work

I am thinking a big ass go kart and for pavement, not sand. It would be as wide as a DSM for ease of pretty much dropping an engine and FWD tranny in the back along with the stock axles going to some normal sized car tires. I would proabably make it rougly like 10-12 ft total length depending on engine, driver, and suspension position.

I will try to do some drawings.

I vote 2 seater :wink:

EDIT: why not throw the rear diff in the front and run awd? I'm pretty sure it wouldnt be that hard.

Dude I would honestly be there in a hearbeat. I have like a GAZILLION 420a parts from all my shit and I love doing this kind of stuff. When I'm bored on the farm, I'll just make shit. And I have an actual racing gokart for an 1/8th mile dirt oval, so I kinda have some "ideas" that we could pull off of that.

You gonna do this in Bemidji Thor? Cause that's like 3 hours from my house. (2 hours if I'm excited enough :))

Ha ha. Yeah, probably. Well see how it goes. That would be a hell of a weekend, the 3-4 of us making a Atom killer and getting drunk :). I think she's going to be 4g63 though Garrett. And unsafe as hell. I think we're going to have to go 2 seater, after all its going to have to be as wide as a DSM so the axles, tranny, and engine all work easy. I still dont know where the gas is going to go, and welding the suspension is going to suck, but I think we can do it. This might not be until the summer after next though, my DSM is going to come first.

Well I have quite a stockup of 4g63 parts too. But it'd be one hell of a fun project, and would definitely take more than just one weekend.

How about something like this http://videos.streetfire.net/search/go+kart/0/wm/9016dcdb-34af-40e7-876b-980b00b01c3d.htm

Not quite. Basically a white boy ghetto version of the Ariel Atom :p. Can you imagine though? It would be roughly 750-1000lbs and pretty much maxing out my b16g. That would be what, 340 hp? Assuming we get 340 out of it and it weights 900 lbs, thats a power to weight ratio of .3778 compared to a DSM running 340 hp with a power to weight ratio of like ~.1063 assuming it weights 3200 lbs. That DSM would run like a mid 12 right? So what would our big fucking go kart run? :evillol:

you would either need AWD or some good Fuking tires, its going to be hard to get traction.

you would either need AWD or some good Fuking tires, its going to be hard to get traction.

Hmm.. 18" x 15" all around, bahaha. I say after really getting this thing going, come up with some decent body parts, get into a tuner mag, get some publicity, open a shop, and the rest would be history :smokin:

Hmm.. 18" x 15" all around, bahaha. I say after really getting this thing going, come up with some decent body parts, get into a tuner mag, get some publicity, open a shop, and the rest would be history :smokin:

Hah, Niiice

Ha ha, yeah. Actually, two other MechE majors from my graduating class and I talked about making a car company. PMV's on E85. Hmmmmm....

I will scan up some drawings this weekend...