We would like to take a short while of your time and introduce you to yet another iteration of our go-kart and a pretty special one. As you could probably tell by the title it is a racing machine designed to run in a 100% electric championship organised by us – Kinetik Automotive. But more on that in a future post!
Unlike most of our previous versions, this one we started from the ground up. The reason for it is that electrifying a go-kart is hard as it is and using components designed to run on a conventional ICE kart present a lot of limitations. Thus we decided to start on a clean sheet and make not just any go-kart, but the best electric racing kart.
The two main issues with a platform so small are space and weight. Battery technology has gone a long way in the last few years, but the batteries themselves still weigh a lot and take up considerably more space, than a standart fuel tank. Moreover, the additional mass changes the way the chassis flexes, thus hindering the handling.
Therefore, with this iteration, we decided it was about time we create a custom chassis that would perfectly fulfil our requirements. We partnered up with Maranello Kart, as we’ve had great previous experience with their products and considering the fact that they are amongst the leaders on the market. In close collaboration with their engineers, we dialled in the technical specifications for the Kinetik Electric Kart Chassis that they are going to design and build.
The next big thing is our updated drivetrain. We have spent a lot of time and effort on and off the track, trying to improve the setup and we are happy to announce that we’ve managed to reliably extract 40bhp from the current configuration with a range of well over 15 kilometres. Thanks to the extensive testing we have located and eliminated the issues that caused overheating in the motor, which allows us to do full, uninterrupted stints at qualy pace!
The software that we run is yet another unique feature that allows us to add various custom features and functionalities to the kart. For example, we can run different preprogrammed setups that modulate the power delivery and driveline behaviour. Such options can come in handy with tracks where conditions vary from one sector to another, or when racing under unpredictable weather.
One of the aspects that we’ve wanted to introduce to the up and coming field of electric karting is a complex telemetry system that offers drivers, mechanics, engineers and coaches all the information they may need to perform their duties. Contextual interface, full analytics, real-time data collection from onboard and external sensors and more in a cloud-based, easy to access and easy to use platform. We have begun deploying the early versions during testing and it is looking promising! If that’s something you might be interested in, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter, so you don’t miss the official updates!
In the past couple of months, we’ve had numerous track tests, on four different circuits with a variety of drivers, amongst whom our test pilot Pavel Lefterov, American driver Ellis Spiezia, Nikolay Varbitsaliev, world karting series winner Nikola Tsolov, rising star Kaloyan Varbitsaliev and others. The kart has clocked well over 400km on track so far and has allowed us to collect invaluable data, that we are already using to improve the whole package.
