Start Your Engines! A Primer on Go Cart Racing Engines

Go Cart Racing – or Karting, as it is called by enthusiasts of the sport – is a motor sport driven by the excitement of racing small four-wheeled vehicles called go carts. Go Cart Racing has gained popularity for hobbyists and professional racers, since building go-carts is relatively easy.

The most important part of a go-cart is its engine. Go cart racing engines are small, to not only fit with the frame of the small cart, but to minimize wind drag and fuel consumption as well. With their small size, go cart racing engines can take their carts to speeds as high as 160 miles per hour (260 kilometers per hour).

Go cart racing engines can run on most fuels, including gasoline, methanol, pressurized gas, and even cart-mounted batteries. They can even come from a wide variety of machines. These include motorcycles, lawnmowers, chainsaws, generators, mopeds, water pumps, and even cars! The engines that drive these machines can be adopted as Go cart racing engines with the proper gears and clutch installed.

Go cart racing engines can be classified into two-stroke and four-stroke. Two-stroke engines are power efficient and strong, and can allow go carts to accelerate quickly. They, however, burn more petrol, and as a result have bad exhaust emissions. Four-stroke engines, on the other hand, do not run as fast as two-stroke engines, but have better gas mileage.

Engines have to be cooled through the duration of the race to keep them from breaking down. Go cart racing engines can be classified into those which are air-cooled or water-cooled. Air cooled go cart racing engines are cooled by the wind that flows around the engine when the vehicle moves at its top speed. They are light, making them the best engines for go cart racing; but unlike water-cooled engines, cannot be run for long periods while a go cart is idle.

Go cart racing engines can also be classified by ignition, or how they are started. Points ignition engines start up when a set of breakers in the engine produces a spark that ignites the fuel. Electronic ignition engines produce a spark via an alternator. Kick start engines start up with a kick start pedal; electrical starts go up and running with a switch; while pull starts set the go cart off with a pull on a cord, much like how lawnmowers are started up.

Go cart racing engines run on two main types of fuel. Petrol, whether pure, or mixed leaded and unleaded, has a high octane rating and can give go cart racing engines more power. Diesel engines do not require spark plugs, but need more powerful batteries to keep the go cart running.

As important as go cart racing engines are clutches. These are sold and installed separately, and like the engine, must be oiled and maintained after each use. Dry clutches are not immersed in any cooling liquid, while wet clutches are continuously cooled in oil. Other types include racing clutches, manual clutches, automatic clutches, centrifical clutches, and belt and tension clutches.

Go cart racing engines have to run fast and furious, but they are not built for long-term durability. Go cart enthusiasts thus have ratings systems by which to judge which engines will best withstand what races.

The exact power that go cart racing engines can produce is measured by horsepower, which is the amount of energy required to lift 550 pounds up one foot in one second. The greater the horsepower, the more powerful go cart racing engines are, and the faster the go cart can go.

Brake horsepower is perhaps a more accurate measure of a go cart's potential speed, and is the combined power of the engine, clutch, and gearbox.

Another important factor in carting is RPM, or revolutions per minute. The greater the value, the greater the acceleration of the go cart.

Go cart racing engines have to carry their carts through sharp turns in most go cart races. The amount of turning force of the engine is its torque.

Other factors to consider when buying go cart racing engines are their cubic capacity, compression, and weight. Since go carts have to go fast, engines should be as light as possible, and produce as much power on a minimum fuel load.

One of the greatest fulfillments of go cart racers is to build their own go cart racing engines. However, if this may be too time consuming for you, you may purchase ready-to-use engines. Just make sure that they are legal and relatively new, with hydraulic, and not mechanical brakes. Good engines make the race worth driving, and the go cart worth assembling. Happy go cart building!

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