Screw it, it's still on my mind.
The report from a first of possibly numerous go kart gatherings in Utah.
The day began with a lazy morning cruise (pic 1) over to Bret's place.
Once I arrived, Bret was there tinkering with his stuff and boy, he's got some cool stuff. Quite the
mechanic I'd say. Some off the attention to detail & precision stuff he's done is impressive.
We looked at my motor and plain & simple, it's a fuel delivery issue. With that out of the way, we talked
about numerous things and it's clear that Bret and I have much in common.
This is good.
Originally I'd planned on some chatting and some looking things over but then we decided to go to a long &
kind of flat road outside off his area not far away & run them.
Heck, why not? Take a few pics, enjoy the day eh?
Before we get to the driving, I must say that nobody here (unless you have one) can appreciate the power & sheer earth-shaking sound this Wankel makes. It's VERY impressive for the little round box that it is. The videos don't do it justice at all. He mentioned ear plugs. My ears just rang after hearing it.
If I was his neighbors... LOL
When we first met today, he said the same thing about mine that I ended up saying about his, except
backwards.
He thought mine would be bigger while I didn't truly understand the overall size of his. (hold the jokes
now...)
They're different animals altogether.
Anyway...
To the dirt road. We fired em up & took them cruising. Sarge has never been on dirt and, well, it's a dirt
road so not knowing what would happen, I dropped the tire pressure a lot and hit it. Pretty predictable
then something happened with the fuel and it just didn't run right. So, back to the trailer.
Bret on the other hand is RIPPING along with this amazing power and WOW is that thing loud. (don't drive on his left side, that's where this "cannon" of an exhaust pipe is.
Off the trailer with Urban Defiance. Same treatment, except slicks. Tires down a bit and off I go. UD did
pretty well and overall is very fast on the top end but the Wankel has it in the bag, hands down.
30 some odd HP vs a harbor freight clone isn't a match, but it's still fun to do.
Bret let me drive the wankel also... due to my back being a bit out of place I took it easy but this I know.
Might be a tad sluggish on the very low rpms... but it seemed like you could just keep pushing the throttle
and it never stopped. Just more and more power... Almost went deaf when it gets up there.
Now I know why the steering bar is there that way, you need it there.
A hats off to Bret, the Wankel powered kart is one ruthlessly powerful machine and built very well. He kept
saying that it was built that way so he wouldn't break or bend it... but I can't see how that's possible.
It's built like a tank, you could run it over with a truck and it'd just give you the finger. I can't envision it ever breaking.
Ever.
The kart rods did their piece and the Wankel echoed loud.
Bret's a great guy and it was my pleasure to meet him.
In the grand scheme of things, my little kartrods are for one thing and the Wankel kart is for another.
Kartrods are street racers... the Wankel powered kart can handle much more in the off-road, acceleration & flatlands. It's larger tires and seemingly endless powerband gives it superiority. Had an actual race
happened anywhere, the Wankel rules on sheer power alone. If it was through a neighborhood, it might be a different story.
The street racer is a flexible machine, able to handle gutters, twists & turns while the wankel powered kart is very rigid and does what it was intended to do. Go crazy fast on those killer dry flat lake beds we have here. In truth, a no suspension kart runs a dangerous line in the dirt.
But that's ok, cause they're 2 separate creations for 2 separate purposes and it's not a competition. What we have here is the beginnings of the Urban Kart Federation of Utah, with 2 classes so far.
Excellent day and we all drove in style.
Thanks for watching!
Kelly
p.s. Will I get a wankel for my next ride? We'll see. Right now I can only visualize the first launch and the frame turning into a corkscrew.
Look at us, we did something.
Will anyone join us? Only time will tell.
