The Source of Speed: Kart Engines
It's amazing to think what kart engines are capable of. Karts that vary in speed from 50mph to 160mph are powered by these small motors.
There are many variations of motors being run, all tuned in many different ways, but there are some constants you will see out there, and I can fill you in on those.
Each link (when I get to them!) will have more technical information on that engine. Probably more than you want!
Two Major Types of Motors:
- 4-Cycle
- 2-Cycle
4-Cycle
A big brand of 4 cycle engines is the Briggs and Stratton company. They build small engines for various things, but they also have a racing division.
Briggs and Stratton
The Briggs Animal is one of their newer engines for kart racing. It's an overhead valve engine stock at 6.5 horsepower.
Their older engine is the Briggs Raptor. This Raptor III is 5 horsepower stock and a flathead engine. This is the best selling race engine of all time.
Popular 2-Cycle
Comer Engine
The Comer Engine is a small engine for kids ages 4-7 or 8-12 with the larger Comer. They are 50cc and 80cc in size.
- Yamaha KT100
- Comer Engine
- Parilla Leopard
- Vortex Rok
- Rotax 125
- Comer
- 250cc Engines(Fastest in the world for karts)
- Horstman HPV
- ICC 125 Shifter Kart Engine
As you can see there are lots of engines around for karts. It's a wide world of kart racing, and new engines are being designed all the time. We can only try to keep up with the speed!
