Within my shop was a 2004
Emmick Patriot. One of the first models assembled from
Emmick held an aftermarket Brake system, and the chassis was
unpainted. On my motor shelf was a Woltjer Blueprinted
Yamaha KT100. Missing was the muffler, and clutch. Someone
wise once told me to never sell what had been given to me.
This chassis was sponsored to me from Ron Emmick and Emmick
Enterprises equipped with a specialty brake system that had
also been sponsored to me by the owner of Dent brake Systems
which supplies the Australian Manufactured Kart Arrow. With
the decline of the Yamaha class over these past few years,
the Yammy was just sitting on my shelf collecting dust.
Where I park my car every
evening when arriving home from work, is a circle driveway.
Half concrete and half asphalt, I now had a racetrack. The
idea was simple, turn my sponsored Emmick Chassis into a
training oval kart equipping it with a Yamaha KT100.
Immediately the negatives came to mind of what could happen
if I went through with such a project.
The first thing that came to
mind is what the Girlfriend would say when I informed her
that the racing season was over, yet I was still going to be
busy consuming myself with racing instead of spending time
with her. However that became pretty easy as she is a
trooper and loves racing as much as I do. The second problem
that came to mind was burning up a clutch on a small oval
track that would never let me build rpm’s. The answer to the
clutch issue was simple as well, Direct Drive Baby! The last
problem, I didn’t have the parts to equip the Yamaha as a
Direct Drive. This is where
sponsorship came into play.
Tuesday morning came and I was
immediately on the phone with one that had supported me in
the start of my Karting career, Linda Emmick. Linda herself
has had quite the championships through her Karting years,
and has those close to her. I informed her of my project and
the parts I was in need of. Linda never batted an eye in
supporting me as she has in years passed. She gave me the
parts needed to complete the Yammy as a direct drive, and
now the work was on.
The first thing I needed to do
is strip the kart of his current setup, as the last time it
had been run was for the 4-cycle Nationals in Atwater. I
cleaned the kart, moved the Gear hub to the correct side of
the Axle cassettes, and began to assemble the chassis back
together and the Direct Drive Yamaha KT100.
Things to keep in mind as I
was assembling my project was I would be going in one
direction, and I would have a hard time getting into the RPM
range needed to get the fast laps and the correct training
to test all my abilities in driving a Kart, or other racing
machines. First I could add stagger into the Kart to help
turn left, and Emmick had sponsored me a 9 tooth driver for
the Yammy. Big gear, long flex, and stagger, I was headed in
the right direction to complete my project.
In the rear, I got out my old
standard hubs. Standard meaning the bolt pattern of the
hubs, as I only ever had one set of standard hubs, and two
sets of wheels that fit the hubs, so it only made sense that
this project would use the parts that take up room in my
shop, and I would not use again. I equipped the kart with a
7” wheel on the left rear, and a 6” wheel on the right.
Through the wheels, and airing up the right side tire up to
30 pounds pressure and only filling the left rear tire with
10 pounds pressure, I now had 1 7/8” stagger to help the
kart turn left. I had several 17 mm direct spindle mounted
hubs for the front, and old KG wheels that were overly heavy
for any kart for racing purposes. I mounted an old seat in
the kart that was carpeted, another thing I no longer use is
carpeted seats, and my all time favorite Steering wheel, a
Sparco flat top, flat bottom molded to fit the contour of my
hand.
I mounted the Yamaha KT100
with the nine tooth driver, and header, regular flex that’s
too long for a leopard, and an old Parilla pipe. I was now
in business. I mounted some new Bodywork that gives quite
the room for sponsorship, and I hit the Driveway for my test
run.
The first run around the
circle driveway I learned quite a bit. To start with its way
more physically demanding then I thought it would be. I
could hardly last more then 15 laps. Second, I had trouble
keeping the motor in the power band. I had to drive the kart
sideways spinning the rear tires much like one would do on
dirt to keep the RPMs up. There was a lot of counter steer
to keep from spinning out while also keeping the kart
straight. The kart was lifting the inside rear tire which
this case I did not want. There were many adjustments that
needed to be made to the chassis before my next run in the
kart.
I narrowed up the left side of
the kart as much as I could, and widened the right as much
as possible (I'm turning left only). The kart then had
better rotation. Going into this whole deal, I new that the
right rear tire would get worn the most thus giving me an
opportunity to use all those two race old tires that are no
longer good for practice. Well it didn’t take me long to
blister the right rear and take it down to the cords. I kept
running it till it popped, and it did.
As I did more laps around the
track I began to study my data. I could turn a fast time of
4.72 seconds, but my average was 5.1 second. My max rpm? ha
ha, only 9000 RPMs. This ought to help the motor last
awhile. At this point I'm contemplating to have an engine
builder go through it to make it a low torque motor that
creates most its horsepower at 7500 rpm. I learned the kart
is fastest if I can keep it loaded on the right rear while
carrying the left front off the ground as much as possible.
The track is small, pretty much a circle track, in fact
there is no straightaway. The driving needed
to be fast on the track, was very skillful. The throttle has
to be flat the whole time to keep the power up otherwise it
bogs. There are parts of the track that’s narrow, and one
mistake your mowing the lawns or in one area, you drop the
tire off and pop a chain. So to be on top of your game
while the throttle is flat out and you hit your marks, it
wears on you rather quickly.
