Go-Kart Design

[est1984]

Hey,

I am thinking about designing my own go kart. Is there a series that someone can enter their own go karts for racing over a period of time?

[mep]

I don't know about any series but this means nothing.
What you want to achieve when building your own cart?
Do you just want to build it for the fun of building or because you want to save money or because you expect a techincal advantage over competitors?

[PlatinumZealot]

Hey,

I am thinking about designing my own go kart. Is there a series that someone can enter their own go karts for racing over a period of time?

I built and designed one from scratch already. My advice to you: Just buy an existing chassis and make modifications. It's just better that way.

[autogyro]

As mep has already said, it depends what you are trying to achieve.
Unless you wish to compete in the highest technical level of the sport, the only reason I can see to design and build your own kart would be if you were setting up for mass production or starting your own class.
The regulations in the lower classes are to tight to gain an advantage with a one off kart and building one would not be cost effective.
If it is the driving you want use an established make.
If you are solely interested in the technology then IMO something like the 750 club would be a better route.

[marcush.]

A kart seems to be a quite simple device compared to a full racecar ...a very small amount of parts to be built seems to be an excellent starting point for starting a project...
the bottom of it all is to understand what is necessary to be competitive and to really understand the rules.
starting off by racing a proven product is not the worst idea ..who would be naive enough coming into a racing series without any inside knowledge thinking he could challenge those who do this for decades ..those device look rather simple but they do
work ....

[est1984]

mep, the idea of designing my own go kart will enable me to build on my technical knowledge and yes it would be an advantage over competitors. reading about the background of many people in formula one, i think if i don't get invovled within go karting then the fundamentals of racing wont be there for me.

what do I want to achieve? well i want to compete against other designed go karts and make it the best and fastest one on the track.

n_smikle, understanding that you have built one from scratch already, why do you suggest that i should buy an exisiting chassis. why do you suggest its better that way? what did you learn the most from your experience? what would you do differently from what you did?

autogyro, i doubt if i can design to compete in the highest technical level of the sport just yet, but however from the first one that i design i think i can take on the challange of competing at the highest technical knowledge after that. much like how i see the formula one teams at the moment, virgin, lotus (or watever it is due to be called, should be proton now imo) they started of last year on a learning experience, this season they must compete in the mid field of the sport or they will be deemed as failures. i understand that the lower classes have all the technical aspects pretty much fixed so that there is little that can be done to gain an advantage, i agree with what you have said.

the 750 club looks interesting i will look into this more seriously over the next few days.

marcush, thank you for your comments.

[Caito]

Don't want to discourage nor anything. I just wanted to say that kartings and cars are like salt and sugar. In kartings you do things(mechanically) that would never do in a car with suspension. Kartings aren't stiff, on purpose. It's design is basically the same, for all brands. This, of course, does not mean it can't be improved.


Go to the arrows page and download the owners manual. You'll see what I mean, they use the protection holders as torsion bars all round. They lift the inner wheel, and use caster and ackerman to control that. They use different axles and axles mountings to change leverage to twist the axle. Use more holders of the seat or remove them to change oversteer. Ussually increase rideheight to increase weight transfer, etc. Not many things are logical(if you think car-wise). If the karting bends(plastically) a little bit, you'll drop .3sec per lap.

What I mean is, you buy all the car books and use that to build a karting and you are not going to get anything good.

If you want to get involved in karting design, if I where you, I'd first buy one. See all the things you can tweak and how(and WHY) they affect the karting that way. Once you get a complete understanding of the karting chassis I'd go off building one.


At least in Argentina, in lots of karting series an homologated chassis is required, so watch yourself for that.

[ReubenG]

I had a similar thought about 6-7 years ago. I approached the controlling body for motorsport in South Africa, to get the technical requirements for building my own kart. Echoing Caito's comment, their response required the submission of several frames for destructive testing, which was not financially and practically feasible for me.

I would advise that you check with your local motorsport authorities first.

[PlatinumZealot]

n_smikle, understanding that you have built one from scratch already, why do you suggest that i should buy an exisiting chassis. why do you suggest its better that way? what did you learn the most from your experience? what would you do differently from what you did?

.

I found that it was of the highest importance to understand the chassis before I started designing. To do that, I had to visit a local Go-kart dealer a few times to really get hands on, taking a few photos while I was there as well. What I found was that the components as simple as they look are very complex, that is if you want to maintain the proper camber angles, good mountings, generally good geometry and strength. Then after designing everything (using all the strength calculations to make sure everything is safe and within a certain deflection range) I set out to the machine shop to build it. This was a budget project so I didn't get to use pre-fabricated, real go-kart parts..I had to make do with brakes from a nissan, sprockets from a motorcyle, lawn tractor wheels, Sport car momo steering wheel, pillow block bearings and whatever junk I could get my hands on. You see my Kart was built more for "offroad" ability (dirt and grass like a park or football pitch). The chassis dimensions are similar to a racing kart because that's all i had access to. Anyway I remember the manufacturing experience as unnecessarily stressful, especially since I had to make the engine too..

I say just get right to point; buy a chassis, which is already engineered with all the little details made already, the geomtry and mounts, brake cylinders, seat, steering etc then modify the frame to whatever design you want. Test it, assess the performance, understand the chassis and when you are satisfied/get bored then you can build from scratch. It's just the smarter the proper way to do it. And if I had to build another one that is what I would do.

My Go-Kart was special in that the engine was a home made gas turbine.. so the rear axle was really wide... almost to the point that turning performance was extremely poor..

Here is the first version of it.
if you look closely you can see the rushed pedals,later fixed. The camber/caster angles are preset.
That big space is where the fuel tank goes..
It even has hydraulic brakes but only at the rear. This is another reason to start with a pre-built chassis, you can have front brakes off the bat. The mounting brackets for those things are really complex.

[N12ck]

hi, I am intending on racing next year, and i do not see the benefit of building one at home, especially if you are going to race it, Karts chassis' are designed to flex as they ride kerbs and accelerate out of corners, if its due to money, TKM is a brilliant class which is cheaper than rotax aswell, you could always buy the parts and build a kart yourself if you would like the rewarding feel of a home built kart,

however if you choose to build a non MSA homologated chassis yourself be prepared for people to say you are not allowed to race it, practice yes, race no

Another issue is when building one you have to get it homologated ( checking it legal) and that costs alot, it really isnt cost effective to build one yourself to race, the best thing for you to do, if you want to race is buy a 3 or 4 year old chassis clean it up and buy a cheap engine and race,



if its the technical expertise you want then just racing is enough, as you have to rebuild engines, rebuild carbs, clean up the chassis, create strategies on the spot (tyres) replace parts, fix parts, and try and optimise your package such as bringing the wheels in or out depending on if you like over or under steer or balanced, there is no need to build one, as when you rebuild karts you gain all that knowledge anyways,good luck!!

[N12ck]

also i can say your balance on the kart your building wont be great

[FLAVFAST]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for more flexibility on my chassis design. For more detail, please read this post:
http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... 14&t=15401

Feel free to comment,

Thanks in advance.

[strad]

Hey,

I am thinking about designing my own go kart. Is there a series that someone can enter their own go karts for racing over a period of time?

I built and designed one from scratch already. My advice to you: Just buy an existing chassis and make modifications. It's just better that way.

+10