Introduction

This is to document my progress on the road to building a Go Kart.

There has been much dispute over what terminology I should use, as I’m not exactly building a Go Kart, a Dune Buggy, or a Sandrail. It seems a little pointless to me, I'm just going to call it a Kart
I have always imagined a gas powered Kart because as a kid it seemed more powerful than an electric Kart could ever be (I'm not sure I even *dreamed* of using electricity). Now that I understand electric motors I see that really what I want in a Kart – acceleration rather than top speed – is best achieved with an electric motor. Specifically a series-wound DC motor which provides nearly unlimited torque at low RPMs - until you provide enough current to melt the windings that is.

The goal of this project is to do as much of the work as I can, buying as little as possible. This also helps save my budget, as I’m no longer a broke student – I’m a broke ex-student! Well maybe not broke, but if I blew $1000 on a frame and transmission, etc., I certainly would be.

I plan to buy a DC series wound motor, batteries of some kind (probably AGM), steel tubing for a frame, and disk brake for the rear axle. A nice seat and 5-point safety harness also seem like a good idea.

Typically people will buy a motor controller, but as an electrical engineering graduate I feel that would be in poor taste. Besides, I think it would look great on a resume to say that I designed a high-power functional controller for my Kart – they are very difficult to make!