IRGA

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The Story Behind the Sport of Karting

  ALTHOUGH the sport of karting began only a few years back, it has now snow-balled into a major pastime for literally thousands of men, women, and youngsters of all ages. The first little kart didn't announce itself to the world until rnid-1957. But the sky-rocketing growth of this fastest-expanding of all out­door activities remains unparalleled in sports history.

Fathers years ago began building pow­ered "junior size" cars for their children and it is because of this that karts today are still popularly looked upon as a strictly-for..the-kids pastime. But if a poll were taken of the kart driver's average age the astonishing fact would soon become apparent that adults in the 25-35 age group make up the lion's share of the sport's competitive participants.

The early non-believers spoke of karting as a fad destined only to Hicker out as quickly as it had started, but now even the doubters have been forced to take a second look and accept the diminutive machines as an established part of our wonderful motoring world.

The sport was popularized in its begin­ning by articles and stories which ap­peared in many of the country's leading automotive magazines. The first reports offered readers a chance to look at some­thing decidedly different from the usual run-of-the-mill stories on dragsters, new Detroit iron, sports cars, and customs. The feeling of the editors was that the little karts would soon be forgotten and the publications could return to their more mundane writings. But so many eager auto enthusiasts jumped at the prospects of becoming a racing car owner-driver without the previously necessary outlay of an entire bank account, and so much interest was generated in the racing of the small-scale Grand-Prix-like cars, that today there are several magazines devoted to the subject and there have been one or two paperback books published. As far as is known, however, this is the first and only hardbound book in which the com­plete story of karting has been offered.

It should be briefly mentioned in this introductory chapter that there is still an area of confusion in the minds of some as to just what exactly constitutes a kart. Proper identity for the little machines be­came a problem immediately after their introduction. Some bystanders at karting events likened the bodiless cars to quarter midgets running sans their outer covering. This, of course, is as far from the truth as one can go.

Quarter-midgets are scale-size replicas of American-type racing cars built to run counter-clockwise around a circular or oval track. They are geared for short bursts of acceleration and their chassis are constructed to give ultimate handling in a left-hand turn only. Even without a body a quarter-midget doesn't really re­semble a kart, for the midget carries wheel suspension, runs with a four-stroke engine, and is generally one-wheel-powered. Karts, by way of comparison, are built for both acceleration and top speed, they can negotiate both left and right turns with equal fervor, they can climb hills and dart down long straights - just like Grand Prix cars, but on a much smaller physical scale. While some drive through one of their rear wheels, there is a growing trend toward "locked" rear axles for even single engine cars. And then, of course, the two- and three-engine karts always drive both of their rear wheels.

Another area of confusion on the spec­tator's part is the likening of the karts to the old home-built, washing-machine-­engine putt-putts that doting fathers as­sembled for their kids. Using odds and ends, pulleys, ropes and levers, and by nailing together lengths of two-by-fours, fathers for years have provided their off­spring with a means of self-propelling themselves around tennis courts and back­yards. Karts definitely did not originate from this type of "car."

The first kart was built in Los Angeles by Art Ingels solely to provide himself with the smallest, most economical form of miniature racing car. The body wasn't simply left off, for the kart wasn't intended to carry one - an adult's bulk requires too large an enclosure for the miniaturization of the vehicle desired. Suspension simi­larly was not designed into the first proto­type because of both the economic and weight factors. Thus, a kart is a car apart from all others. It is an inexpensive but thrilling piece of automotive machinery

designed exclusively to provide its driver with all the thrills and chills of competi­tive auto racing without the high costs and the danger generally associated with most forms of motorized sport.

Early magazine and newspaper articles on the singular little karts were responsi­ble for the wide-spread acceptance of karting, but even with so much fanfare the sport wouldn't have grown to its present proportions had it not been for a peculiar circumstance. In fact, it would undoubt­edly have been just a short-lived fad had it been introduced, say, 10 years earlier, in 1947, or even back before the war. The public simply would not have been ready for karting much earlier.

People have always been reasonably car-conscious, but only since World War II has this interest grown to huge propor­tions. The introduction of flashy foreign sports cars brought automobile racing back to the United States and millions of spectators flocked to watch them in action, and to gasp in awe at such American-built race cars as those built expressly for Indianapolis. But spiraling costs were slowly eliminating the participants. Many gave up the game to take a seat along with the rest of the trackside spectators. Cars were becoming more and more expensive and, because drivers and owners needed increasingly more incentive to risk their expensive machines, spectators had to pay higher and higher fees to sit in the stands. At last the turning point was reached and something had to be done to satisfy the American's urge to watch, and to participate in, automobile racing. Too many of them relegated themselves to reading race results in the morning papers and letting it go at that. Auto racing was dying a slow death, primarily because of the sums of money it required, whether it be on the owner and driver's side of the fence, or on the spectator's side. And it just hap­pened that the first kart came along at just this time.

Its immediate acceptance was chiefly due to the low cost which a person had to face in order to get down on the track. For less than $200 a fan could not only have the race car he had so long dreamed of owning, but there was enough change left over with which to buy a crash hel­met, perhaps a leather jacket, a couple of spare tires - and the entry fee to the next race. They will produce the sensations of big-car racing without the risk. And thus did the spectators find themselves moved from the stands out onto the track.

The story of the amazing growth of what may correctly be viewed as an un­usual sport-hobby is not over. Experts from all phases of the pastime - manufac­turers, component suppliers, and engine builders - all look for the popularity of the little cars to continue its meteoric climb. One might think that at the rate karts are being produced, a limit or satura­tion point would soon be reached, but that is exactly what Henry Ford was told when he was building 1000 cars a day. By the time he reached the 10,000 per day level, the market still had utterly no limit. We must, though, be a trifle realistic and state that while Ford's products have a utilita­rian purpose, karts must remain a luxury item - unless you classify pure fun as a necessary commodity.

Where the "estimate" came from, that there are somewhere close to 250,000 karts in use in this country, remains a mystery, for all the engine manufacturers combined haven't supplied the industry with any­where near this many power plants. Someone is over-exaggerating, perhaps because of his intense excitement over the sport. A more conservative estimate, and certainly much closer to the truth, puts the number of karts in existence at 100,000, even despite the high rate of production which most kart manufacturers seem to boast about. And, as this is but a tiny scratch on the surface of the millions of would-be race drivers in the country, ex­perts who closely follow growth trends in the industry are looking for at least an­other 10 years of intense activity. At the end of that time the accelerative climb or interest may level off, but the day the de­mand begins to drop lies many, many years ahead. Even when a leveling-off point is reached, there will remain a gigantic replacement market which would keep even the present number of manu­facturers running their factories at full tilt. Let's face it - and as we have said often in the past - karting is here to stay.

Karting is not restricted to the United States alone. Europe has just about reached the point where we were in 1959.

American karting fans may find it surprising to learn that they are a part of a world-wide sport, but then why shouldn't we be able to invent and develop something that all the world can enjoy?

A rather new facet of the karting indus­try which has come to light only recently is the building of trailers exclusively de­signed for the hauling of one, two, or even three karts. At first, transportation of a kart wasn't much of a problem, for one could be stowed away in the trunk of the stand­ard passenger car or in a station wagon or pick-up truck. But now the sports car fanciers are going karting and there are few foreign cars whose luggage space just won't seem to swallow up a kart. And there are those among us who must trans­port three or even four karts, each in a different racing class, to and from events. So while we at first saw the familiar U-rent box trailers being pressed into kart-haul­ing duty, then adaptation of midget trail­ers, now we have reached the plateau where kart trailers may soon become as prevalent on our highways as house or  boat trailers. So, if you're faced with a hauling problem, look into the trailer situation.

There are many makes available, from stock models on through the plushiest you could imagine. Many cost less than the average kart. They will eliminate all those scratches that have been mysteriously ap­pearing on both your kart and around the trunk area of your car. No longer is haul­ing an excuse for not getting into the karting sport.

In conclusion to this introduction of the unusual sport of karting, just where did the term "kart" come from? A report on the world's first karts was published in the November 1957 issue of Rod & Cus­tom Magazine. At the time there were fewer than a dozen of the bodiless little creations in existence, and their owners were having so much fun driving them around the famous Pasadena Rose Bowl parking lot that not one wanted to take the time to christen them with an appro­priate title. Rod & Custom, casting about for a title for their initial karting article, came up with the name "go-kart." Why the letter k instead of a c was used, no one can say for sure. It was probably an idea to create a different image in the reader's mind than the word" cart" usually conjures up.