DIYbanter - View Single Post - using a VW type 1 engine for a go-kart

wrote:
Greetings all,
I recently acquired a 67 Type I VW engine for free, and just
happened to be planning on building a off road go kart as well.
Now, how feasable is it to use an engine with close to 100 hp for a go
kart? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
BTW, I am a welder, Aircraft mechanic and painter, and have a pretty
endless supply of tubing to use, especially chrom-moly.

If you've got lots of tubing, then a sandrail/dune buggy is what you
want to build. You need the transaxle to go with it, a go-kart belt
drive isn't going to cut it, those can go as little as $25 at the local
U-Pullit. You could probably get suspension parts from the same
source, a Bug frontend with steering gear is fairly easy to pull and
there's tons of off-road parts. Alternatively, if what you really want
is a go-kart, swap/sell the engine for a suitable Briggs/Tecumsah/Honda
single cylinder. There's whole magazines out there dealing with
air-cooled VWs and off-road vehicles built with them. Check the local
newstand.

Stan