Duke Fox kart pics

[Frank Payne]

Does any one have pics of a Duke Fox kart?  Bill Priors site has a test posted on one in Kart Sport Magazine but I don't have Adobe flash so can't open it.  Thanks a lot.

[Randy Dacus]

1960 Duke Fox of Fox Manufacturing Co. in Fort Smith, AR

The only ads I found from the Duke Fox Company were just concept drawings, but Ted Johnson had mentioned
his pops involvement with Mr. Fox and I thought I would see if I could find one restored.....not many still around.

Here's a link for you to see more of the one I found :

http://www.daboyzcarclub.com/billy-and-a...stuff.html

[ted johnson]

1960 Duke Fox of Fox Manufacturing Co. in Fort Smith, AR

The only ads I found from the Duke Fox Company were just concept drawings, but Ted Johnson had mentioned
his pops involvement with Mr. Fox and I thought I would see if I could find one restored.....not many still around.

Here's a link for you to see more of the one I found :

http://www.daboyzcarclub.com/billy-and-a...stuff.html

Aside from the addition of those God awful sissy pads, the kart looks original. A lot of Midwestern karts had that style of sissy pad added to them after purchase. Of course, the kart in the photos is a finished off a lot better than a stock Fox was from the factory. The stock wheels are gone, and that's too bad, as they were very unique. Looks like it'd be a fun ride with those fire-breathin' Clintons!

[Frank Payne]

I just can't get Google to cough up anything. Da Google must not like Duke Fox?

[ted johnson]

I'm with you. Frank. Fox Champ pix are scarce as hen's teeth. Ted

[Randy Dacus]

The thing with Google searching is you have to know what you are looking at, the search engines just look at "word" data
it just copies what people put up on the websites .

If you looked up Duke Fox......then looked at the karts, you might have thought that a Norseman kart was a Duke Fox
based on some posted on old mini bikes posts.  

I've spent a lot of time buying old karting publications, that ironically I got rid eons ago, so I could research restorations
...of course the reason I got rid of these old magazines in the first place is because of the lack of decent pictures and correct information back in the day.

But I did keep a few of the Trend books, but even they don't tell the whole story of early karting.....so it was back to collecting the old karting publications.

Thanks to Mike Berg I got a big collection that he had amassed through time, mostly the time I was away from karting in the 70's through 2000's ......lots of European karting though.

My best finds came from listings on ebay.  I found a lady selling the early kart  mags one at a time, so I said how much for them all ?  A bit of haggling finally got me what I was missing, never inexpensive now days.

The big problem is the newsprint used is crumbling and yellowed from time, plus newsprint soaks up and spreads the half tone dots so copying for posting on the internet is almost a waste of effort .

The better paper used by some of the publications works for copying old images, but the best images come from
the archives of film negatives or Kodachrome slides that were captured by the people writing about this in the magazines.

Sadly most of them have passed away now and it up to their children to unearth those archives for us .

Even at Petersen Publishing.....which has changed hands, who knows if the new owners have any interest in reviving
any of the historical images or story material.  Hot Rods sure, but early karting......we're such a small niche that money wise for them.....it's not in the cards, but do you think those archives could be accessed.......not likely unless they have some new staff member who has a passion for this sport/hobby !

Funny .....or maybe ironic.....I was reading an editorial in a 1963 Karting Magazine about the affordability of karting and where it was heading, putt putt family karting for the majority or more professional hard core racing .

With the putt putt's having got it going for the manufacturing side, the racing pro's took center stage, but in time
kart racing became just a stepping stone for the up and coming drivers.......it seems now modern karting has club karting for those that like this stuff or hard core National Karting for the up and comers .

Of course for us old guys......Vintage Karting climbed back  down out of the rafters......maybe we are just passionate hardcore putt putt guys and gals......that don't want to give up the old pro aspect of it ?

At least .....it's a worthy cause to keep at for some fun ......now back to searching for any history available to share .

[steve welte]

i have a nice 8x10 pic from 1960. I'll take a pic of it and post it. I also have some others that maybe can be zoomed in on.

[ted johnson]

What ticks me off is that I took some 2-1/4 square pix of the two karts that Mr. Fox brought to Florida to our shop so Pop and I could drive the kart. When my kart albums were stolen in the mid sixties, those pix were in them. I don't know what Mom did with the negatives, but I'd wager she pitched them when she dumped all our magazines after Pop passed away. I couldn't find any kart or model airplane negs in the boxes that Sis took from the house when Mom passed. She sure hated karts and model planes! TJ

[Randy Dacus]

Ted......wonder what the misguided souls did with your album.......?    If for some reason those that did this want
to redeem themselves.....they can send Ted a Private Message or email and send him back the album or if anyone
that for whatever reason happens to know the whereabouts of said album can return it ......no questions asked !

Yeah right that's going to happen, but I do believe in strange things happening .

I happened to see in an old Karting World Mag that the Duke Fox engine prototype was being redone with upgrades
for the production engine.....have never seen any other news on the Fox engine or if any were produced ?

The domination of the McCulloch engines, West Bends, then the foreign engines made the Fox too late to the scene ?

Since Vintage Kart restoration is now a great hobby for many, finding these old engines, especially the ones that you hardly ever  see at the events on running karts......might be the greatest quest.  

I'm having a hard time finding intact old magazines or books to see what was actually used in the early days besides
Macs, WB's, Power Products, Homelites, and the usual culprits .......like Clintons !

I've seen Solt engines in 1960 sold a Rotax 125 cc , there were Poulan S-100/200's, an Italian twin cyl. Rumi, but that
Duke Super Motor 11.5 cu. in 21 hp @15,000 rpm ......never !
How about Villiers.....besides Duffy's Go Kart ?  Anzani, Excelsior, Zundapp, Maico, Benelli, Aermacchi, Puch.....another Duffy GK powered, Yamaha......twin.....any besides Chuck Balsiger ?
There's the banned water cooled outboard engines.....Koenig and Mercury from the early days .
Anyone restoring a "Drone" engine .....there use to be a few running way back when  ?

There's probably more of these rare engines that someone used.......but never seen on todays Vintage machines !

[ted johnson]

Every saw and outboard motor were used on karts. Pop and I had a 15 C.I. Mac twin cylinder drone engine, but someone made Pop an offer he couldn't refuse. I had a Clinton outboard conversion for a few months. Here's Gary Brewster.s 250 Yammie Go Kart 1200 setup. We worked to get the carbs set up, but I was never happy with the engine. Don't know what Gary finally did with the kart. It never did get repainted from the wheelbase extension job. Ted