Electric Shifter Karts?

[Samir Darji]

This weekend's racing got me thinking about karts and if there was such thing as an electric kart. I few searches led me to this guy's project:
http://www.evalbum.com/1929

It also led me to this interesting article of Electric vs Gas Karts:
http://www.teamracin.com/articles/el...poweredgokart/

So what's your opinion on electric karts and their future? Possible? Not?

[James Frank]

I've watched a video of racing electric karts in Japan. They were very fast, looked difficult to drive since instant torque when applying throttle off the corners. I think the main issues are battery weights and charging times versus available usage. Indoor karting has more electrics, right now looks like a very heavy kart.

I'd love a 30hp electric motor that runs all weekend on an overnight charge. You'd think a golf cart motor system under different drive ratios would be an option. It would be so much quieter, cleaner, easier to maintain. No worries about engine warmups or carb tuning.

It's out there, just a matter of migrating over to it. There's been talk of converting to 4-stroke for nearly a decade and yet we're still racing 2-strokes. I think as motocross becomes only 4-stroke, karting will transition sometime afterwards.

[Samir Darji]

I found it very interesting that the karts were 2-stroke. I thought the engines in karting were more powerful and were 4-stroke. I think the move to 4-stroke will probably happen before the move to electric.

But electrics have a commercial appeal for the indoor karting places. No worry about fumes or emissions and less maintenance. I think the development of electrics will move very quickly if the indoor karting business model moves to electrics.