IRGA

1113 Belle Place
Fort Worth, Texas 76107

Phone (817) 738-3344 Fax (817) 738-6622

The Evolution of the Kart

  KARTING is not new. Dads have built cars of this type for their offspring ever since lightweight, one-cylinder engines were adapted for use on washing machines and semi-portable light plants. We can all remember the early May tag washers with their putt-putt motive power, and how we waited for the ma­chine to wear out so Dad could put the engine on the rear of our coaster.

As lighter weight, more powerful en­gines were produced for a growing list of applications, it became a common sight to see kids chugging around the back streets on what, by stretching the imagi­nation, we could term a car. More often than not, such machines were wooden­framed, had a discarded apple box for a body, and a set of mis-matched wheels; one, perhaps, from Sis's doll carriage, a pair from the rear of an old tricycle and another from a scooter.

 The drive mechanism was usually a nightmare combination of belts and pul­leys. But such cars provided fun, speed, handling ability and looks, notwithstand­ing. Speed seldom exceeded five miles an hour, with 10 as tops. Dad did the build­ing, Sonny did the riding, and Mom stood by with, no doubt, a feeling of anticipa­tion.

The appeal of a self-propelled machine under one's own mastery was enough that Junior imagined himself as a one-day World Champion driver, and he was the envy of every kid on the block. Such cars were, of course, little more than coasters - but at least they went uphill by them­selves!

     In 1956 a string of events caused thou­sands of surplus West Bend 2-cycle power­plants to appear and it was only natural that someone would. adapt one of the tiny but powerful 21/2 hp engines to a minia­ture car. The man who made the first recorded adaptation was Art Ingels, a well known hot rodder from 'way back and an employee of the famed Kurtis Craft plant in Glendale, California, who had a hand in all the Indianapolis cars that Kurtis produced from 1951 to 1958.

Toward the end of 1956, Art picked up one of the little engines and devised a rug­ged tubular chassis which was the utmost in simplicity, yet strong enough to with­stand the strain that his 210 pounds put on it., Mounting a set of semi-pneumatic tires and one of the 2Yz hp engines to drive a rear wheel through a bicycle chain, Art followed in the footsteps of thousands of Dads before him and took off across a neighborhood parking lot.

To Art's surprise, his friends' delight, and his family's horror, the little bodiless machine scampered across the asphalt like something possessed. It was unbelievable that such a small' amount of power could propel so much weight at a speed that Art reported as close to 30 miles an hour.  Believe it or not, the engine could do it, and do it again and again. Art, the builder of many a winning Indianapolis car who has tried out most of the cars he helped design and build was, to put it mildly, ex­cited. Of course, he couldn't possibly fore­see wl1at was to develop out of his early trials, but he knew that he had created a little car that he, his wife, his daughter, and his friends could drive and enjoy.

Wherever Art drove his little car, on back alleys, across parking lots and 'round and 'round tennis courts, he found him­self being watched by an army of on­lookers and began spending more of his time staving off such queries as "Where'd you get that?" "How much are they?" and "Please, can I try it?" Art soon fore­saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall and tried to interest boss Frank Kurtis in the little machines' commercial possibilities. Frank listened, but was far too busy turning out race cars, from the big Indy jobs on down to the then-new 1,4 midgets, to be bothered with some­thing as unattractive as a bodiless, suspension less toy.

The hangers-on kept watching as Art put his car through its paces, and the queries continued. With so much inter­est in his sole machine, Art felt sure that commercially-built cars of similar design would sell, at least in and around southern California from which has come so much of the nation's automotive interest. The engines - usually the most expensive component in a car - were certainly cheap enough and readily available. Why their cost was less than the five-inch wheels upon which the 80-pound ma­chine rode. It seemed that the as-yet-un­named cars could be built and sold for $150 - and many are the auto enthusiasts who would gladly pay that much for a car which provided such sheer enjoyment in this day and age of the multi-thousand dollar drag racing machines and costly imported sports cars.

A southern California surplus dealer, Bill Rowles, saw the car in mid-1957, realized the potential of the tiny racer, and tried first to interest Art in its sales possibilities, then other friends, hot fOdders, and builders of the already popular   midget. But it wasn't until Bill met Duffy Livingstone and Roy Desbrow that he was able to create much interest. Livingstone, a hot rodder since before the war and builder-driver of one of the most successful sports car specials that Southern California has produced, turned up with his own version of Ingels' car. One ride and he'd had it! His first car prompted the building of another, then another, and finally another. The five or six cars, which took over the park­ing lot of Pasadena's famed Rose Bowl, caused such excitement, that Rowles, Livingstone and Desbrow investigated the possibilities of offering the cars for sale.

An easily assembled chassis design was worked out, construction kinks simplified and a whole armful of engines acquired. The still unnamed car was in production. Limited, yes, but available to the lucky few who had tried one of the pilot models or who were quick enough to foresee the fun and excitement by simply watching prototypes at the Rose Bowl.

A careful count of the cars showed that some 30 existed when Rod & Custom Magazine got wind of them and turned up with camera in tow. Staffers, treated to a ride, were quick to get the story into print and stuck tongue in cheek and haz­arded the guess that although only 30 existed at press time, almost 100 would have been built by midsummer of that year.

Casting about for a general term for the little-powered roller skates, R & C elected to call the creations Go Karts-a name originally coined by the maker of a  a light era, baby buggie! The story broke and that did it! Livingstone, Rowles and Desbrow could see that the term Go Kart would stick with any cars of the type, organized the Go Kart Manufactur­ing Company and wisely began offering do-it-yourself kits which included all nec­essary parts for the construction of a kart. Art Ingels could see what was coming, as customers Hooded Go Kart for orders, and took leave of the Kurtis plant and joined with partner Borelli to build his own karts or Carettas.

Other manufacturers followed suit and soon a whole host of competing makes of karts were on the market. The basic kart design was so simple that little could be done to improve it. Without suspension of any sort, with engine in the rear driving one or both of the rear wheels, and with only the barest of parts for steering con­trol, the karts were easy to build for any­one who had seen even so much as the photograph of one.

The original Ingels kart was built around a single cylinder, air-cooled, two stroke engine which had been originally designed for a rotary power lawn-mower. The mower had been designed and built by the well-known McCulloch Motors Corporation, and thousands of them had found their way to buyers when, for some unexplained reason, the company decided to take the mower off the market-even buying back those that had reached buyers as well as the ones still on dealer's shelves. The components of the mower itself were useless as they had been designed exclusively for the mower and could not be substituted on any other McCulloch product. The engines, how­ever, were eventually released to the surplus industry.

The little engine had been built by the West Bend Aluminum Company to Mc­Culloch's specifications. Though McCul­loch enjoys a reputation for being one of the world's largest chainsaw producers, it turned out to be more economical to contract out the engine, as West Bend's experience with power plants of the type permitted them to be produced more eco­nomically than McCulloch could. Thus, Art's original kart was powered by a West Bend product, though the mower from which it had come was actually a McCulloch item. So two of the giants of the then-unforeseen karting industry played their initial roles in a soon-to-be world-wide sport.

The surplus industry then suddenly found itself with thousands of West Bend #750 two-stroke engines; some used, most brand-new. It was one of these that Art featured on his first car. The engine's 21/2 hp seemed adequate for Art's pur­poses since, like the kart which it pro­pelled, it was utter simplicity in itself. By mounting the two-stroke, then, Art unknowingly established one of the sport's most basic requirements and the first rul­ing set down by the Go Kart Club of America which was formed scant months after Art's early experiments.

Enterprising kart manufacturers, espe­cially those which had the early lead in the sport, grabbed up all the available #750's, thinking their stockpile would last through the karting fad. Once the supply was depleted, manufacturers suddenly found themselves without a power plant for the karts for which a growing market was continuing to clamor.

West Bend was asked if the #750 could be put back into production, for produc­tion had stopped when the mower was recalled. This could not be done, the company explained, since the engine was McCulloch's property. However, West Bend added, they were building similar but better-and somewhat more expensive - engines for the chainsaw industry and these they would be glad to supply to the karters, if a large enough initial order was placed. A sample engine of the type recommended was tried and found to be far superior to the #750, though its cost was about twice as much. Unfortunately, though, the engine designated as the model #510 had to be purchased in quantities of upwards of a thousand units, and no one in the fledgling industry wanted to bet so large a bankroll that the karting sport would last.

Nearly a year after the sport's introduc­tion the Clinton Engine Company came to the rescue with an economical, suffi­ciently powerful two-stroke that would propel a kart more than adequately. Best of all, the engine was available in any quantity - and the Clinton A400 thus be­came the accepted standard engine for karts, and it enjoys that reputation today.

Later, as the sport began to grow by leaps and bounds, the West Bend people did a lot of thinking, finally announced they were ready to enter the field with their potent #51:0 model. To stem the tide of early orders, engines were shunted to karters from chainsaw customers who are probably still wondering where West Bend's usual backlog had gone.

During this time, the McCulloch people had been keeping an eye on karting but maintained a respectful distance. They saw some of their chainsaw engines adapted to karts with amazing success, and at long last announced the availa­bility of their MCIO whose engine was the basis of their model Super 55A chain­saw. The cycle was complete, and the company, which was indirectly respon­sible for karting, had at last jumped feet first into the fray. Oddly enough, other producers of two-stroke engines, used primarily for mowers and saws, had to be similarly encouraged to make their products available to the new industry while under ordinary circumstances it is the manufacturer who goes seeking cus­tomers. Now most have followed suit and along with West Bend, Clinton and McCulloch have come Power Products and Homelite, to name just a few.

Unfortunately, many kart builders took little heed of basic safety requirements and built their creations with, say, three wheels, with chassis of water pipe (seam­less, chrome molly tubing or heavy gauge mild steel is required for utmost strength) and with tremendously large or ridiculously small wheels.

Some builders had their wheelbase and tread dimensions almost equal, while still others built theirs long and narrow. It became obvious that some governing body was necessary to state what was and what wasn't good building practice. A limiting of speeds within the handling capabilities of young drivers was needed, and to prevent over-zealous drivers from installing tremendously powerful engines on the unsprung karts and thus creating a dangerous machine, engine displace­ment limitations obviously needed setting. Thus, in December of 1957, the Go Kart Club of America was formed. Their first action was to divide karts into three classes according to engine displacement. For competition, karts within the same class only may race against each other. In this manner, speeds would not differ greatly between competitors and a much safer form of competition would auto­matically be formed. Chassis require­ments, wheelbase and tread limitations, and other precautions for the do-it yourselfer to follow were set down. Of. course, policing of karts was only possible where club-sponsored events were held, but so much publicity was given the various rules and regulations that prac­tically all karts - even those the home builder has whipped up out of odds and ends acquired by him - come pretty close to the club's requirements. It is to this far seeing group that the sport's safety record can be credited.