Clark Mfg. Co.

Hellion · Dec 31, 2025

Some Clark brochures, info and photos for ID and elucidation purposes. . . .

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A wonderful first-person history written by a lad (@retroracer) that grew up in and around the Clark Mfg. Co.

I grew up in Clark Mfg Co.

I just randomly came across this thread and was surprised to learn our Go Karts were so sought after. I'll give you some brief history and try and answer some questions and if there is interest I may offer a Zoom webinar to host a Q&A.

Clark Mfg Co was owned and operated by Clifford M Clark and was located at 1718 Hwy 138 Conyers Ga. The original plant is still there and you can see it on google earth. The co. was started by his father Robert E. Clark and originally made 2 cycle lawn mowers. It had nothing to do with Clark fork lifts in any way whatsoever

"Cliff" Clark (Pres) was a single man with no children. He and my Mom dated for many years and I came on the scene at Clark MFG at around age 14-15 - Mid 1970's as I am now 56 and live in Atlanta.

We made a wide range of Go-Karts, (there was even a 550 that was gloss black with racing slick tires) and near the end of production we made an adult sized version called the Bobcat which was orange and a very early version of what would become the popular "4-wheeler" (I have some pics of me testing a prototype in a field beside the plant that I'll dig up and post. We also made Mini-bikes and tillers.

The reason it is so hard to find the alum. cast wheels is because we owned the design and the dies to cast those wheels. The dies where held by a contracted forging co and we tracked production to die wear to keep them honest. All original early engines were B&S and in later years some were Tecumseh. All the tires came from Taiwan (also contract mfg exclusively for us) and the seats were made by an upholstery co in Tucker Ga. The floating axles were cut at a machine shop in Peach tree Corners Ga. Everything else was made in house.

All of the Karts were hand made. I could draw a layout of the production plant process if anyone would be interested to see it. I think I had every job in that plant at one time or another. Welders would be on station as whatever model they were jig welding. As they finished a kart someone (me) would walk between welding stations and hang the kart frame on the stat line (Electro-stat paint line) where the kart would go hanging through an acid bath, then rinse, then dry, then through paint booth and on upward into the ceiling furnace for the baked enamel finish. At which point it would come around to a staging loop and be taken off and hung in a production rack. Mind you, this is all open warehouse floor space.

Rupp was never part of Clark Mfg. Rupp was a separate company that went out of business and Cliff bought all their dies and jigs to keep them off the market so no one could start up Mfg again. I was about 16 at this time and didn't know much more. Basically, these dies from another company showed up and some of their left over mini bikes and it all went onto racks in the lower W'hase and were never seen or used again. That was the end of Rupp.

There were 4 build stands with two people on each. That was the production line. They were built one at a time by two people each from start to finish, hand boxed and placed in shipping with the model and color written in sharpie on the outside of each box. The serial numbers were on notebook paper and turned in at the end of each day.

Clark Mfg ceased operations around 1985. The influx of Honda and other recreational vehicles made competition difficult. Liability insurance was increasing. We would get law suits over dead children because someone was standing on the bar behind the driver seat holding on to the back seat arch and of course the kart doesn't steer very well this way and kids ended up in streets under cars. (PLEASE don't let you kids do this) single karts are for one rider only!!!

And, Cliff was getting tired of manufacturing. He and his best friend from H.S. Pat Vincent went on to start Kids- R-Kids day care and then Cliff branched off and started Discovery Pointe Child Care. He is in his mid 70's now. Clark Mfg is where I learned everything in my early years about how a business operates. Today, I am a developmental business consultant. So amazing to see this thread. We were the largest Mfg of Go-karts in the US for a long time. Still, I wouldn't have guessed that this many years later there would be a community around our products. I'll leave the story here for now and if there is interest to know more or ask questions or to have a Zoom webinar - let me know and I'll see what I can do for you. Have fun and BE SAFE! Oh - some of the ads I see you guys posting. I made the mock ups for those during the summers and after school. We had a photography room and we also took all our own product pics, made the ads for dealers - everything.

The back hoop is a separate piece. All tube steel was "fish mouth" cut on a punch press and shaped with manual tube benders at first and then power benders later. The seats had a pouch style pocket on the back that slipped down over the seat hoop then snapped to the frame.

From this thread:

Clark 440 Project

I'm new to the forum - actually found this forum while trying to identify the go kart we just bought. My oldest daughter wanted to "rebuild an old gokart" with me, and my 12 year old twin daughters wanted to learn to drive before they turned 15, soooo we started looking for something with a...

www.diygokarts.com

Threads featuring Clark karts:

Clark "The General"

Hello all, I have a question about a Clark go kart that my wife got when she was very young. I have read some threads on here about the Clark company and the thread from the guy who worked there. After my wife rode it 2-3 summers, her dad hung it on their garage wall. When we went to clean out...

www.diygokarts.com

Clark cyclops

Grabbing this up tomorrow. Supposed to be a close copy to the rupp narrow hoops. I’m thinking about converting this one to duel engine for my pops to race in.

www.diygokarts.com

Picked up this Clark…

Looking for info on this Clark I just picked up. Looks mostly original but I think the motor is not. Also believe the gas pedal is not original. I think it used to be yellow based on the underside where the red paint is scratched off. There is a sticker under the seat pad back but it’s painted...

www.diygokarts.com

Hello my names mike I just bought a Clark yard kart it’s a 320 or a 325 I need to check the hp ,,, I am In Connecticut,,, pretty original condition

Clark 446 Rebel need parts and help please

80's Clark

Just thought I'd show off my early 80's Clark Cyclops. From how I got it, to how it looks now. The original steering wheel it came with is out for chrome.

www.diygokarts.com

Help identifying clark kart

sticker says CLARK Mfg. Co. Conyers, GA Hopefully someone can point me to a site or something that has pictures of a completed version. Any info would be nice.

www.diygokarts.com

Barn find 440 Clark Cyclops

Buddy of mine want to sell . What is it worth? Has not run in a while but engine turns over.

www.diygokarts.com

Clark Rebel 330

Hello, I have never been apart of a forum before so I apologize for asking any questions that have been asked before. I tried the search engine for some of these things but came up with no results. Also, I have done some googling on my questions with little results so far. Anyway... I just...

www.diygokarts.com