04-30-2017, 02:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-30-2017, 03:51 PM by JB Marston.)
This is essentially a duplicate of a post I made on the Vintage Karting Association regarding my very early Go Kart. In fact, it may have come from the days when they were still operating out of the muffler shop in Monrovia - we lived in Arcadia, so very close to there. I asked my dad and at 94 years old, he really doesn't recall. The big difference between this kart and the 400 is the 400 was lowered and had a pedal operated brake instead of the hand brake. A little later, they added the side rails for the seat (note the difference in the pictures for the thread).
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For Christmas 1957, my father surprised me with a Go Kart kit. This is a picture of it, taken in the driveway of our house in 1959. My dad welded it together using a gas welder – he didn’t have an electric, and he was very good at gas welding. One point of interest – note that the larger hoop is in front, for the steering. The kit actually came from Go Kart Manufacturing with NO INSTRUCTIONS. It was basically by guess and by gosh. Dad thought it made sense to get the steering yolk up higher, so he put it together that way. West Bend engine driving only the left rear wheel. The brake was operated by hand (you can see it to the left of the steering hoop), and was just a bracket with some brake pad material that pressed against the large sprocket, which was welded to the wheel. Later on we replaced the hand lever with a pedal, and also put a steering wheel on it to replace the yoke. After we got a newer chassis that I raced a few times, we further modified this one, dropping the front axle, lowering the back by heating the tubes behind the seat back, and adding (finally) some side bars to the seat. It was last used on a dirt track my dad cut on the property for the radio station and tower he owned in Bakersfield. Ultimately threw a rod which destroyed the engine, and that was that. I have some other pictures of it somewhere, and when I find them I’ll post them.
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For Christmas 1957, my father surprised me with a Go Kart kit. This is a picture of it, taken in the driveway of our house in 1959. My dad welded it together using a gas welder – he didn’t have an electric, and he was very good at gas welding. One point of interest – note that the larger hoop is in front, for the steering. The kit actually came from Go Kart Manufacturing with NO INSTRUCTIONS. It was basically by guess and by gosh. Dad thought it made sense to get the steering yolk up higher, so he put it together that way. West Bend engine driving only the left rear wheel. The brake was operated by hand (you can see it to the left of the steering hoop), and was just a bracket with some brake pad material that pressed against the large sprocket, which was welded to the wheel. Later on we replaced the hand lever with a pedal, and also put a steering wheel on it to replace the yoke. After we got a newer chassis that I raced a few times, we further modified this one, dropping the front axle, lowering the back by heating the tubes behind the seat back, and adding (finally) some side bars to the seat. It was last used on a dirt track my dad cut on the property for the radio station and tower he owned in Bakersfield. Ultimately threw a rod which destroyed the engine, and that was that. I have some other pictures of it somewhere, and when I find them I’ll post them.