Howdy! As many of you know, karting in the late 50's and early 60's was closely tied with hot rodding and hot rodders, being featured in many car magazines of the era and a number of prominent hot rodders were also kart racers. I just wanted to put out the word that I'm organizing and promoting a 20th anniversary (plus one!) Vintage Kart Reunion on May 6-7 at the Prairie City Kart Track 20 miles east of Sacramento, California. The first Vintage Kart Reunion in 2001 was the first vintage kart meet in California, and one of the first on the West Coast. I did these until 2008 before I burned out on the organization side of things. But as the 20th anniversary was approaching, I decided it would be good to do just one more. Covid s****ped the original date, but we're on now! Prairie City is a State Park, but other than the park fee to get in, spectating is free. Please feel free to bring your rods and customs out - or yourself however you'd care to get there - and come hang out with us! I'm attaching a flyer - Saturday the 7th is when the heat races, swap meet, raffle, show judging and most of the action will be taking place - and there is a dedicated website for the event here: http://vintagekartreunion.com We'll also have a booth in building C at the Sacramento Autorama. If you'll be there, swing by pick up a flyer, check out a few vintage karts and say hello!
The Karts I owned and raced in the 60s had McCulloch Engines and I thought they were fast, but once my sons started racing Karts in the mid 80s they were a lot faster and the karting ch***is had really changed a great deal. In the 60s the International Kart Federation was the ***ociation everyone belonged to, but around 1971 the World Karting ***ociation was formed, and we joined and stayed member all the way to 1993. Jimbo
Perhaps with some clubs. We're focusing on the karts from the late 50's - mid 70's, but allowing late 70's/very early 80's pre-bodywork karts to run in their own group. I don't think anyone is running shifter karts though.
Close? Don't know year or model. Frame is two piece; rubber mounts at base of seat back and heim joints at base of steering shaft hoop.
Looks like a Dart Chaparral that has suffered some " Improvments " ! Same as what I run . Here's my Chaparral with twin Mac 101's View attachment 5374269
yup- Rupp Chaparral (with a lot of "additions") made from 1966-68. This was mine. Fave kart ever, but had to sell it to pay damn divorce lawyers...
It's interesting that I see a lot of sit-up style karts from Rupp but back in the 60s they also made a different style of karts called Lay down karts which were very popular in Enduro kart races. Enduro kart races usually lasted for about one hour, and who ever completed the most laps won the race. Enduro Karting Event were held at larger tracks like Watkins Glen, V.I.R better know has Virginia International Raceway in Danville, Virginia, Bridgehampton Raceway and there were a few tracks located in Texas and my favorite was Summit Point. We also raced in New Hampshire at Brier Motorsports Park, which is now New Hampshire International Speedway and is a NASCAR track. I also raced at Thompson Speedway in Connecticut a few times each year. Jimbo
That is correct- but there has never been a vintage enduro program that has really gotten off the ground, though a couple of small groups back east do run vintage enduros. Sprint racing for vintage is more viable because there are more sprint tracks, vintage sprint karts around, and it's not nearly as expensive as it is to have a small group at the big road racing tracks. I also think more folks are interested in running wheel to wheel rather than against the clock, so to speak.
The reason I stopped racing lay-down karts was all the travel time involved in doing it. I lived in Connecticut at the time and the only track in Connecticut was Thompson Speedway which is still in operation today was about 3 hours from home. All the other tracks were two days or three days of traveling time for each race. I went back to racing sprint karts because there are about 8 tracks located from PA. to New Hampshire that I raced at many weekends. Oakland Valley Raceway in Cuddebackville, New York was another great place to race on Sundays. Jimbo
The Vintage Kart Reunion was fantastic. over 100 karts on the grounds, 300 folks attending. If you are a vintage kart fan and missed out, you missed something really special.
Wow, this is so cool...we had those vintage carts when I was a kid, the only place I knew where to buy them was a place that sold Taco minibikes also...my parents wouldn't get me one... I did take my 911 to autocross a couple times, and it soon became apparent that it was gonna cost some $$$s, so I was looking at the newer 125cc shifters, they raced them up at Thunderhill...even those carts were not cheap to race...the tires will do a guy in, alone...this is not to mention how much 911 tires would cost overall...that last video was spot on when that 'ol timer said, you figure out what you can afford...there is a price to pay to have fun...don't I know that...hehe You guys with those dual engine carts...damn, cool intakes...do you guys race them regularly? @Pete Eastwood I never thought of driving it around the halls on the hardwood floor, but I'm pretty sure my wife would love that...but the funny thing is I have property that could actually host a dirt track around the house and shop, and that would be damn cool to have a couple to race against...I hadn't thought about that... I don't know if that would subs***ute for a hot rod for me, but I like to tinker... There's some pretty darn cool dirt carts that guy's are building on YT, interesting 3 wheel designs also...I should explore that idea more...thanks for posting guys!
We are lucky in Nor Cal we've got three tracks within an hour of Sacramento. The vintage group gets together to run 5-6 times a year. It's a balance from the standpoint that you don't want to run them so much that you wear stuff out because it's getting harder and harder to rebuild these as parts supplies dry up beyond the regular bearings and seals, but you also want to exercise them and have fun with them.
Actually that would be perfect for me, sounds like you have an event every couple months, so it gives people time to fix/mod things in between. That probably wouldn't be too much burden for me. I'm thinking it would also be easier to work on something smaller like a cart as I continue to get older... I've seen some cart stands that make them pretty easy to work on...nothing really weighs as much as full size car counter parts. And engine hoist could easily pick an entire cart and set it on a stand. Thanks for the info...the wheels are turning...
Upper cutoff date is 1982, emphasis is "run them they way they ran them" so it's more about restoring them to period and then running them, and not a "run whatcha brung" kind of thing. Here's the schedule for the West Coast club. https://vintagekartclubofamerica.com/htm/events.htm
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