Project CRG Go Kart: From Basket Case to Bitchin

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The Factory CRG bodywork is FIA certified for impact absorption and to help reduce the chances of wheel overlap that can cause karts to flip or become airborne.  Bodywork is pretty important and is responsible for Karting’s good safety record.

Then the fun began. We busted out the credit card and called up Acceleration Kart Racing and ordered up some new late model CRG bodywork.  We also added the new style 2010 rules required FIA plastic rear bumper just in case we decide to race the thing.  The new bodywork required that we change the side nerf bars but that was no problem.  We also ordered a new XL Tillet seat from Empire Karts to replace the tiny stock medium part.  We think Italians must all be around 5’6” and 150 lbs as the stock seats are always ridiculously small.  Out of all of us, only Dai and 10 year old Christa can fit in a seat that small, the rest of us had found the stock seat exceptionally painful.  A new steering wheel was also purchased as was a new left side spindle as the stock one was found to have a tiny crack when closely inspected.  Even though it was expensive, we popped for a blingy prismatic CRG body wrap to finish things off.

Unfortunately this ugly plastic FIA approved rear bumper is mandatory for IKF racing in 2010.  Many local tracks also mandate its use.  The plastic bumper really does reduce the chances of wheel to wheel contact and makes a big difference in absorbing shock in a rear end collision.  It does make a trick looking kart look like a rental bumper kart.  We prefer safety to looks though.  The fiberglass Tillet racing seat is actually part of the “suspension tuning”  The attachment method, bolt tightness and number of stays all affect how the chassis reacts to cornering inputs.  The side nerf bar and bumper bolt tightness all affect chassis tuning as well.

Since our chain throwing incident thrashed the chain and ruined all of our sprockets, we ordered a new DID gold chain from Empire Karts.  Empire also makes their own brand of quality sprockets which are lighter than stock and hard anodized for longer life so we ordered a new main and crank sprocket.  We also ordered a Top Kart sprocket carrier as we liked how it was much lighter and more compact than the OEM CRG part.  Empire also supplied us with a billet bracket to relocate our expansion chamber mount and a foam Uni air filter for our rules mandated airbox.

This is the FIA homologation stamp that you need to pass tech inspection.

Our bolts were the part of the kart in the worst condition.  The OEM bolts were all black oxide steel at one time and every one of them had rusted badly with half of them being frozen in place.  When you have magnesium and steel galvanicly rusted together, you have to use a lot of liquid wrench, spray lube, heat, hammering and cussing to get them apart.  We decided never again and called our buddies at Baller Bolts to replace every oddball metric fastener with stainless allen bolts.  No more galvanic corrosion ever!

The CRG bodywork is wind tunnel designed to reduce drag and to increase the air flow to the engine and radiator if so equipped.

Replacing the stock tubular steel rear bumper meant that we had to figure out a new way to mount the pipe.  Empire Karts figured out this billet shock absorbing rubber mounted pipe bracket out of various mount kits which replaced the stock steel one.  We replaced the black oxide bolts with Baller Bolts in stainless.