Hi Guys,

As you may know I have been involved in indoor karting for the last couple months and have caught the go karting bug, but want some thing better.

I used to race sprint karts from age 7 till about age 10-11, so we do have some understanding of the sport.

$500 on eBay got me a rolling chassis:



2002 PCR Jaguar (we think) 30 mm all round chassis, CIK and FIA stamped id plate, 50 mm axle and 4 spot brake calliper. It hasn't been used in a while but the parts (specifically the above mentioned) are high quality bits that we think will have some decent pace once we tidy it up.

How bad is the condition?







One of the Seat stays has been re-welded which can cause stress in the chassis and effect rigidity:






Hydraulic brakes too:




We just ran a buff over the brake disc and axle to get rid of that hideous surface rust:


Came with 81 and 82 tooth sprocket, these may be a little short for the Newcastle track but it will at least get me running:


Came with a seat that has never even been mounted that fits me perfectly!


With the older style karts they had a slot it you wanted to chuck a stabiliser bar in the stiffen the chassis you wanted:




Will need engine, engine mount and auxiliaries to get running, but all in good time:


Just a chost of the axle, hub and sprocket carrier:




So at the moment i am trying to get a suit organised to fit my tall skiny body so that I don't have any excess suite creating wind drag, get a helmet that is also aerodynamic and decide on what motor. I will be running in TaG (Touch and Go - refers to push button start) restricted, where you can run one of 4 different water cooled 2 stroke 125cc motors: Rotax, Fireball, Leopard and Cheetah. Each having certain advantages, ie more torque, more high range hp and some are most cost effective.

I will upload more pics tomorrow as it current a bare bone chassis.

nice dude nice

sweet as, not that i know heaps about carts, i reckon it looks like a pretty good starting point. abit of surface rust never hurt anyone

Oh yeah, the rear axle was bent, so it is in getting straightened for $40 rather than buying new for about $200.

This is essentially the simplest for of motorsport, but the are so many variables to consider. Not only ride height front and rear, but camber caster ackerman angle, chassis stiffness, tyre pressures, chain tension, axle stiffness, aerodynamics and rolling resistance and that is without even thinking about the motor

yea, well, thats all stuff you need to know in any further form of motor sport, so it will be good learning i guess.

and yea, good that you can fix the axel.

i hadn't even considered the aerodynamics that much, but when you talk about getting a suit that fits, and a good smooth helmet, yea, it really makes sense.

i guess everything you can do to help is worth it.

So chassis is bare, being prepped for a spray job.(sorry about the camera phone photos) We have got a start on building a kart trolley which I will post up soon.


So I can fit the newer style wheels I got new hubs for the front which adapt the slide stud axle to 3 bolt pattern. This is particularly so I can fit Low volume magnesium wheels. The lower volume of air in the tyre, the less the air will expand going from a cool to hot tyre, thus giving more grip earlier in race and more predictable tyre pressures. The Magnesiumis a more porous metal than the alluminium alloy wheels which means they are light and also retain less heat, which in turn keeps the tyre pressures more stable as above.

I have also bought an aerodynamic helmet which I will post up when I receive it

Hand Built Kart Trolley built specifically for my kart compacts flat for storage:






Chasis all primed:






Mid way through painting:





All done :







Close ups so you can see the texture of the paint:




Slowly Slowly, I will keep you informed

coming along nicely. thats a heaps nice blue 2

Damn dude looks brand new again.

Nice effort.

The Rotax Pro Tour was in town (cameron park) today so we went around to have a look at some top gun karts.

We can across a bin which had a set of tyres sitting next to it, they were mojo's with about 50% tread left. so we thought we will take them but we kept watching the races, and as we did someone put another set behind us. So we took both.

As we were walking back to the car, we found another set.

Mojo's are a level above what I will be racing on, but with 50% tread left (probably only used for today) we couldn't say no. Especially compared to the old, hard MG yellows I have at the moment lol

3 set, woohoo!

I know a guy who knows alot about tuning carts and working on their engines and stuff so if you need something like that I may be able to hook you up.

Thanks tom, I will be starting with a brand new motor so hopefully won't need an engine builder for a while yet.

Got my helmet today




Aerodynamic so that when you put your head down for the straights, you don't create any extra drag.

nice, though where is the photo of you wearing it? bring on the model posing

so your going blue i guess, blue frame and blue helmet kinda qave it away

lol damn hand models.

bring out the bikini girls.

My Data Logger that I imported from the US.



Records lap times, split times, exhaust temperature and water temperature. It has some cool features like your potential best lap time by combining all you best split times, best rolling lap which is you fastest full lap but could be say from sector 1 to sector 1 rather than start to finish line.

Has ability to have RPM set to any where between 4,000RPM to 24,000RPM. And you can set the middle light to come on at a certain RPM. So mine is set to a scale of 0 -16,000RPM with a light that comes on at 15,000RPM as a warning of over reving, which may apply more to a gearbox kart, but still handy for me.

Top left light will illuminate when exhaust temperature gets to high, and top right light comes on when water temperature gets to high. (you can set what temperature it is that it comes on at)

Lap counter, grphic and numerical Tacho.




Ok, So I got a basic model, Some of these machines measure and record your braking presure, steering movement and if you get really technical, GPS that you can use to monitor your race line and G forces.


But is it just a go kart and I think mine will do



Edit: I forgot to mention that I got a cable so that I can download my telemetry to a computer and reveiw all recorded datafor upto 3 hours of racing

Hey Guys,

Bit of an update, we decided to get the motor now because It was holding up putting the rest of the kart back together.

Fireball is the choice of motor for me. 125cc water cooled 2 stroke reed valve motor.

Retails for ~$2600 but I haggled my ass off and got it for $2275.




I also tidied up some rusty bits and made a new floorpan:




More updates to come soon

This is looking promising. Great work. Cant wait 2 c it done

I received a set of wheels today:

These are magnesium which is more pourous than aluminium which means they are lighter, but also less dense and retain less heat. The less heat means less expansion of the air in the tyre. This helps with grip early in a session.

The profile of the wheel means it retains a low volume of air. Less air in the tyre means less air that can expand, giving the same results as above.



more to come

Motor is on and rear end is back together.

My dad went a bit crazy with some Hi-vis tape but at least I won't go un-noticed and I probably look a bit dorky sitting so high up but that was done for weight distrobution.

Anyway, we ran it for the first time on Saturday, but even without doing any fine tuning of the motor, steering or chassis it was incredibly fast, it even could hold some power slides for about 10-15 metres. By the end of the day, we had it hitting a bit over 15,000rpm down the main straight.