anderkart
Moderator
In the early to mid 1950's my big brother (Mike) and several of his friends all built their own go karts.
(but no one had ever heard of the term 'go kart' back then, they called them Micro Midgets)
My brother built his first go kart in 1952, it was just made from wood. He took the (horizontal-shaft Briggs) engine off a lawn mower and then would reinstall it back on the mower whenever the grass needed cutting again. (wow!)
As my Brother and his buddy's got more into go karts they found a nearby welding shop that helped them build much better metal framed go karts. Before long several more of my brothers friends all had karts and they all got together, started a club and built a race track (with banked corners) on a nearby vacant piece of land. They started having organised races complete with Time trials, Heat races and Main events.
Somehow Popular Mechanics magazine found out about my brother and his friends Micro Midgets, and they sent a reporter out here to Phoenix to write this story way back in 1955:
(that's my brother Mike sitting in the top/left kart with the bandanna over his face)
And then along about that time the owner of our towns auto-racing track (Manzanita Speedway) came out and watched one of their races. He was so impressed he asked all the kids if they wanted to race at a real track. Of course they did, so Manzanita Speedway soon built a new/smaller Micro-Midget track just for my brother and all his buddies to race on. Manzanita held these Micro-Midget races between all their normal full size car races (as kind of a half-time event) and gave out awards to the winners.
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My brother Mike told me about one time he was riding his kart around the neighborhood and noticed all his buddies were hanging out (with their karts) in front of a local shop on a fairly busy street near our old house. Mike told me he started riding his kart towards them as fast as he could, and he wanted to show off a bit so he decided to ride up at full speed and then powerslide to a stop right in front of the shop... But things went terribly wrong at the last second when he noticed his throttle had stuck wide open, and then his steering wheel (that was actually just a large V-belt pulley...) fell off and caused him to swerve out into the middle of the road where he began circling the road round and round several times. You see, his kart never had any brakes at all (or a kill switch within reach), but he eventually managed to grab the tie-rod and attempt to steer it towards the curb, and then his buddy's were finally able to grab the kart and get it stopped and out of the middle of the street before any cars came by... Wow!
Evidently my parents found out about this incident, cause they never let me have a go kart when I was a kid. I've got a feeling they'd got pretty worried about Mike getting hurt on his kart, and then 21 years later when I came along they didn't wanna go through all that over again with me. It also didn't help my case that my Mother had saw a race car crash and flip over at Manzanita Speedway the first time she went to see Mike race his Go Kart...
__________
Hey If any of you guys have any pics or stories about the early days of Go karts (50's/60's), post-em up here. I'd love to hear-em and learn more!
(but no one had ever heard of the term 'go kart' back then, they called them Micro Midgets)
My brother built his first go kart in 1952, it was just made from wood. He took the (horizontal-shaft Briggs) engine off a lawn mower and then would reinstall it back on the mower whenever the grass needed cutting again. (wow!)
As my Brother and his buddy's got more into go karts they found a nearby welding shop that helped them build much better metal framed go karts. Before long several more of my brothers friends all had karts and they all got together, started a club and built a race track (with banked corners) on a nearby vacant piece of land. They started having organised races complete with Time trials, Heat races and Main events.
Somehow Popular Mechanics magazine found out about my brother and his friends Micro Midgets, and they sent a reporter out here to Phoenix to write this story way back in 1955:
(that's my brother Mike sitting in the top/left kart with the bandanna over his face)
And then along about that time the owner of our towns auto-racing track (Manzanita Speedway) came out and watched one of their races. He was so impressed he asked all the kids if they wanted to race at a real track. Of course they did, so Manzanita Speedway soon built a new/smaller Micro-Midget track just for my brother and all his buddies to race on. Manzanita held these Micro-Midget races between all their normal full size car races (as kind of a half-time event) and gave out awards to the winners.
_________
My brother Mike told me about one time he was riding his kart around the neighborhood and noticed all his buddies were hanging out (with their karts) in front of a local shop on a fairly busy street near our old house. Mike told me he started riding his kart towards them as fast as he could, and he wanted to show off a bit so he decided to ride up at full speed and then powerslide to a stop right in front of the shop... But things went terribly wrong at the last second when he noticed his throttle had stuck wide open, and then his steering wheel (that was actually just a large V-belt pulley...) fell off and caused him to swerve out into the middle of the road where he began circling the road round and round several times. You see, his kart never had any brakes at all (or a kill switch within reach), but he eventually managed to grab the tie-rod and attempt to steer it towards the curb, and then his buddy's were finally able to grab the kart and get it stopped and out of the middle of the street before any cars came by... Wow!
Evidently my parents found out about this incident, cause they never let me have a go kart when I was a kid. I've got a feeling they'd got pretty worried about Mike getting hurt on his kart, and then 21 years later when I came along they didn't wanna go through all that over again with me. It also didn't help my case that my Mother had saw a race car crash and flip over at Manzanita Speedway the first time she went to see Mike race his Go Kart...
__________
Hey If any of you guys have any pics or stories about the early days of Go karts (50's/60's), post-em up here. I'd love to hear-em and learn more!
