Chassis:
The chassis are made of steel tube welded together. There is no suspension therefore chassis have to be flexible enough to work as a suspension and rigid enough not to break or give way on a turn. Kart chassis are classified in the USA as ‘Open’, ‘Caged’, ‘Straight’ or ‘Offset’. All CIK-FIA approved chassis are ‘Straight’ and ‘Open’
- Open karts have no roll cage.
- Caged karts have a roll cage surrounding the driver; they are mostly used on dirt tracks.
- In Straight chassis the driver sits in the center. Straight chassis are used for sprint racing.
- In Offset chassis the driver sits on the left side. Offset chassis are used for left-turn-only speedway racing.
Engine:
There are three different types used in Go Karts.
Electric go-karts are low maintenance, requiring only that the lead-acid battery from a cars plugged into an array of chargers after each run. Since they are pollution-free and emit no emission, the racetracks can be indoors in controlled environments. A fully charged electric kart can run a maximum of 20 minutes before performance is affected.
2-stroke kart engines are developed and built by dedicated manufacturers. Comer, IAME (Parilla, Komet), TM, Vortex, Titan, REFO, Yamaha and Rotax are manufacturers of go kart engines. These can develop from 8 hp for a single-cylinder 60 cc unit (MiniROK by Vortex) to 90 hp for a twin 250 cc. Currently he most popular categories worldwide are those using the Touch-and-go (TAG) 125 cc units. The recent 125 cc KF1 engines are electronically limited at 16,000 rpm. Most are water-cooled today, previously air-cooled engines dominated the sport.
Karts do not have a differential. The lack of a differential means that one rear tire must slide while cornering, this is achieved by designing the chassis so that the inside rear tire lifts up slightly when the kart turns the corner. This allows the tire to lose some of its grip and slide or lift off the ground completely.
Wheels and tires are much smaller than those used on a normal car. Rims are made of magnesium alloy or aluminum. Tires support cornering forces in excess of 2 G (20 m/s²), depending on chassis, engine, and motor setup. Tires used are slicks for dry weather, rain tires or “wets” for wet conditions, and spiked for icy track conditions.
Chassis:
The chassis are made of steel tube welded together. There is no suspension therefore chassis have to be flexible enough to work as a suspension and rigid enough not to break or give way on a turn. Kart chassis are classified in the USA as ‘Open’, ‘Caged’, ‘Straight’ or ‘Offset’. All CIK-FIA approved chassis are ‘Straight’ and ‘Open’
- Open karts have no roll cage.
- Caged karts have a roll cage surrounding the driver; they are mostly used on dirt tracks.
- In Straight chassis the driver sits in the center. Straight chassis are used for sprint racing.
- In Offset chassis the driver sits on the left side. Offset chassis are used for left-turn-only speedway racing.
Engine:
There are three different types used in Go Karts.
Electric go-karts are low maintenance, requiring only that the lead-acid battery from a cars plugged into an array of chargers after each run. Since they are pollution-free and emit no emission, the racetracks can be indoors in controlled environments. A fully charged electric kart can run a maximum of 20 minutes before performance is affected.
2-stroke kart engines are developed and built by dedicated manufacturers. Comer, IAME (Parilla, Komet), TM, Vortex, Titan, REFO, Yamaha and Rotax are manufacturers of go kart engines. These can develop from 8 hp for a single-cylinder 60 cc unit (MiniROK by Vortex) to 90 hp for a twin 250 cc. Currently he most popular categories worldwide are those using the Touch-and-go (TAG) 125 cc units. The recent 125 cc KF1 engines are electronically limited at 16,000 rpm. Most are water-cooled today, previously air-cooled engines dominated the sport.
Karts do not have a differential. The lack of a differential means that one rear tire must slide while cornering, this is achieved by designing the chassis so that the inside rear tire lifts up slightly when the kart turns the corner. This allows the tire to lose some of its grip and slide or lift off the ground completely.
Wheels and tires are much smaller than those used on a normal car. Rims are made of magnesium alloy or aluminum. Tires support cornering forces in excess of 2 G (20 m/s²), depending on chassis, engine, and motor setup. Tires used are slicks for dry weather, rain tires or “wets” for wet conditions, and spiked for icy track conditions.