KART PAGE
This is where it really all began! During the late sixties I saw a Triumph 500 powered kart running at Santa Pod and I promised myself that one day I would build something similar. It wasn't until 1994 when I met Dave Moss at North Weald with his Suzuki GS550 kart that I finally started the project.

I bought a second hand long circuit chassis, lengthened it by 18", and installed a GSX 550 lump. On its first outing it ran a 14.5 second quarter with a terminal speed of 95 mph but over the following months and with a change of gearing the times were down to 11.75 seconds @ 112mph.

The go faster bug had bitten, the head was reworked and the fuel changed to methanol. Bad Move! The engine wasn't strong enough and it let go "big style", smashing a piston into tiny pieces and spitting the bits out of the carbs and exhaust, bending the con rod, ripping the skirt off bottom of the liner and breaking valves and rockers. (See pic below)
After wrecking the engine, I lent the chassis to my friend Adrian Smith, who installed the Yamaha FJ1200 engine that currently resides in it. My intention was to build another kart from scratch but I got side tracked with the restoration and sailing of our trimaran "Nazgul". Adrian and I lost touch and four years passed before I met up with the kart again. He had only run it once before losing interest and so gave it back to me.
The kart was run at Santa Pod in May 99 and after two runs of 11.06 and 11.01sec's, it broke into the ten's with a run of 10.979 @ 111.3mph but was flat out at 3/4 track due to the gearing being too low. This was probably the first ten second run in the UK by a kart
  
Timing Ticket
0 to 60 ft ----------- 1.244 sec's
0 to 330 ft --------- 4.230 sec's
1/8 mile ---- 6.757 @ 97.27 mph
1/4 mile -----10.979 @ 111.3 mph
 
Kart Chassis Under Reconstruction June 99

UPDATE 4/5/00

Finally lost my unofficial record to 'Dartford' Dave Hersey who ran a 10.90 on Saturday 29th April 00 beating my best run by 7 hundredths of second and that was with out nitrous.

Looks like I have a NOS kit to build .... #:0)

FURTHER UPDATE 25/6/00

Dave has now upped the Nos and has now knocked over a second of the quarter time with a 9.83 secs @ 128 mph. (Full Times)
The kart rebuilt for the Bulldog Bash August 2000
'Dartford' Dave's Kart