1927 Nash Legion Special cyclekart1911 Fiat S76 cyclekart
Cyclekart is a type of gokart racing where competitors drive single-seat, approximately half-scale, motorized cars styled to resemble race cars from the 1920s and 1930s.[1][2]
History
The first Cyclekart, as they are known today, was built in 1995 in Del Mar, California. An "At a Glance" specification sheet for the Stephenson "Type 59 Cyclekart" was formally published in the April 2002 (April Fools) edition of Road & Track magazine, representing the first published of any kind figures for the class, laying out the specifications for wheelbase, track, engine type, and transmission; representing the baseline for the "Stephenson Formula" that most future karts of the class would follow.
In addition to being published in national automotive magazine Road and Track in 2002, Cyclekarts were the cover story for the September 2022 issue of Road and Track in the United States [3] in a larger issue about grassroots motorsports.
Design
Cyclekarts are compact, lightweight, sports machines, home and hand made[4] by their drivers for the pursuit of classic motoring sporting excitement.[5][6]
The mechanical design is a simplified version of a cyclecar. The formula specifies that a cyclekart is a one-seat car using Honda 17 × 1.75 or 2 inch (432 × 44 or 51 mm) rims, 17 × 2.50 (432 × 64 mm) tires, a 38-inch (965 mm) track, wheelbase as close to 66 inches (1676 mm) as the aesthetics of the car will allow, weight no more than 250 lbs (113 kg), and powered by a 200 cc class, single cylinder, 6.5 hp (4.85 kW) Honda or Honda Clone OHV engine (the GX200 or Predator 212). A cyclekart should not cost more than $2100 to build in 2012 dollars and the driver is required to build their own car. Power is transmitted via a Comet TAV-30 or clone torque converter unit to the rear axle. Braking is also on this same axle by disc brake.
Culture and Community
They are not built to be serious race machines or show cars. They're built purely for the personal satisfaction and fun of driving a machine you've built yourself. As driving machine, the cyclekart formula loosely limits certain aspects of the machines to maintain good sporting performance without jeopardising the light-hearted nature of these machines and the people who build them.
Cyclekarts and their builders don't like to take things too seriously, but do encourage good, sporting competitions for fun. The cyclekart specifications allow for all the cars built being similar in performance, without strictly governing the rules.
Cyclekarts are generally not for sale, as they should be an expression of the owner's individual styling interests as well as sharing the pride in building one's own unique kart. Cyclekarts are built for the pleasure of the imagination, the design and the building of the kart. Cyclekarts are based on the styling of 1920s and 1930s race cars to pre-World War II. Making it look good is fundamental, performance is secondary in the cyclekarting community.
Countries with Active Communities
A list of countries with active members and at least one major event per year. Clubs are typically informal without regular meetings or member rosters, and organized through groups on social media, although some do maintain separate dedicated forums or websites.
Argentina
Australia
France
Great Britain
Germany
Hungary
New Zealand
United States
Seattle Cyclekart Club
Northern California Cyclekart Club
Southern California Cyclekart Club
Arizona Cyclekart Club
Northeast Cyclekart Club
Mid-Atlantic Cyclekart Club
Southeast Cyclekart Club
Styling
Builders will pick an inspiration car, an existing vintage full size race car, and model their cyclekart design on the inspiration car, and include details and features on their cyclekart to better mimic their inspiration car.
Due to the karts being scaled down to match the common design feature of a 17" wheel, the scale is approximately 1:2 or half scale, with most common sizes being between 55% and 66% of original size. Cars of the pre war era varied a lot and as a result the wheelbase can vary from as small as 64 inches to over 70 inches, with a wheelbase of 66 inches being common. Since the adult driver does not scale down with the kart design, the cockpit is generally full size, resulting in the car being a "caricature" of its inspiration car, with a somewhat over-sized looking cockpit, rather than an exact scale model with proportional cockpit. Fidelity of the caricature design varies widely, and is up to the builder's time, skill, and personal taste.
Rear axles in the United States commonly come in a 1-inch diameter with 36 inch length. Including the hub adapter and wheel width the combined track width for American cyclekarts becomes approximately 38 to 39 inches almost without exception.
