hp to drift

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OzFab

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No pic :huh:

Drifting is not all about horsepower, it has more to do with gearing as well as other factors like weight, tyre size & tyre material...

Yes, I know, they're all made of rubber but, you wouldn't use wide, soft compound slicks for drifting as they're designed for traction; you'd want a narrow, hard compound, treaded tyre for drifting. Also, the larger the tyre/wheel, the more rotating mass you have to move, best to keep it as small & light as possible...

I think the weight factor is pretty self explanatory, isn't it?

Now, gearing: Even if you have 10" tyres & a 7hp Predator (for arguments sake), 6:1 gearing won't provide enough torque to continually keep the wheels spinning (trust me, I've tried); even with that setup, you'll need a minimum 8:1 gearing...

Yes, more hp= more torque BUT, lower gearing also = more torque...
 
itsid

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nevilleef12 said:
hey i am making a non racing go kart i got the frame and need to know how much hp to be able to drift easy i am probably gona take one off a road,dirt or quad bike this is a picture of the frame.
Click to expand...

Pic:


'sid
 
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nevilleef12

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i was looking into putting a 250cc road bike on to it

hey thanks for the help guys but i was looking into putting a 250cc road bike but they vary from 8hp to 105hp a better way to frase my justion is how much hp can i put on this remembering that they arnt high quality parts
 
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CRN13 said:
A wise man once said "You don't need more power, just less grip"
On that note, how about PVC pipe over your wheels
Click to expand...

This. Drift trike people do this all the time, they can hold crazy long drifts downhill and they don't even have engines.
 
OzFab

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nevilleef12 said:
hey thanks for the help guys but i was looking into putting a 250cc road bike but they vary from 8hp to 105hp a better way to frase my justion is how much hp can i put on this remembering that they arnt high quality parts
Click to expand...

Ah, that's a totally different animal. Motorbike engines have internal gearboxes so, selecting the correct gearing becomes less important...

Now, after seeing the pic, there's a lot of excess weight in that frame; either you need to shed some or source an engine with a little more power; having said that, I suggest an air cooled 4 stroke engine; air cooled because they're not as "involved" as water cooled (no radiator, pipes, etc) & 4 stroke because they have more low end torque...
 
itsid

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nevilleef12 said:
hey still need to know the hp the frame can handle
Click to expand...

tough question...

That's a concession kart, not a race kart;
so my best guess is.. it came with a small or midsized four stroke,
like 6-10HP

Since they're meant to last quite a while I think anything below 15HP is perfectly safe to run.

But I wouldn't try to exceed maybe 20HP with a concession kart like that, not even if it's in good condition;
-the one up there looks like it was abused quite a bit already-

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Friend, 15 is alot of horsepower. I would suggest going with skinnier tires and a lighter rear end if you really want to drift. The advice you get here is good, and you'd be wise to not ignore it.

If you want to strengthen your frame you're going to need a welder. My advice to you would find a way to have less traction than to have more power, less traction is cheap and easy, more power is not always.

Seriously consider reducing traction, I think you'll be much happier with the results, because one thing you might not have considered is that the amount of traction you have controls the speed of your drift, and with no camber on your rear wheels and maybe not even your fronts, you won't want to be moving very quickly sideways with your bottom an inch from the ground.
 
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hey my mate is gona give me a ts 250 engine which is 20 hp for free so i was wondering what i could do to strengthen my go kart and i have pretty much all the tools i would need blow torch welder laves so that wont be a problem.
 
MancoGX390

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Nevilleef12, I got a GX390 bolted to a manco dingo and that runs on 21 inch knobbly tires, sorry not 16 inch that's what I thought they were but they are 21 inch I just measured them, but they are huge and my honda still kicks it into a spin on gravel and mud but I wouldn't recommend with knobbly tires to drift on tar mac, use slicks for that but with 20hp you should be sorted. Bearing in mind my engine runs through a Comet 40 series torque converter too!
 
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