Go Kart

I decided to combine my passion for motorsport and engineering by constructing my very own go kart. I fully manufactured and welded every part of it myself. The kart had to be as budget-friendly as possible while still being fast and fun to drive — it runs a Predator 212cc engine from Harbor Freight and a live-axle kit from GoPowerSports.

It was manufactured with the tools and equipment at NOVA Labs.

This was the initial CAD of the go kart. It uses 1" steel tubing for the frame, kept in a single plane for easy welding — a layout that mimics racing karts while still being simple to manufacture.

A few constraints for this frame were:

1. Had to fit a 6' male driver.
2. Had to use a maximum of 50" of 1" steel.
3. Had to be weldable by a novice welder.
4. Could not be wider than 40".

These two images were taken during welding of the go kart chassis — the picture on the left is after the first day, and the one on the right is the final welded chassis. Each steel tube had to be cut to size with a horizontal bandsaw before welding.

This was the first engineering project I did entirely outside of my educational institutions. During it, I was able to apply the engineering and leadership skills I learned in robotics, and I also learned how to MIG weld and understand the various components that go into building a go kart.