GO Kart

5-day instructor kart build for SUTD summer program

Stats

Frame: 6061-T6 plate and 8020 extrusion
Drive: Dual custom hubmotor made from bike motors
Power: 8s LiFe pack
Most expensive parts: The seat and steering wheel
Fun Fact: it has no brakes!

In the summer time, the MIT IDC hosted students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) for a series of classes which included engineering challenges. Instructor Charles Guan lead the “2.00 Go Kart” challenge and I assisted as a TA.

Instructors build a kart alongside the students and I had to put this together very quickly to juggle research commitments simultaneously. Leveraging my expertise as a prototype builder, I quickly whipped up the CAD in an evening. I focused on utilizing 2D fabrication as often as possible because it was the quickest path to completion. Even the axle mounts were stacked 2D plates with T nuts or capture features; the only machined part were two holes drilled in a block of Delrin for the steering column bearing.

To keep things simple, components were limited to e-bike parts. My selected motors came from the harvested innards of a bike hubmotor. I dumped the planetary geartrain (after having calculated the change in torque requirement for the change in wheel diameter) and bolted directly to the wheels after designing an adapter plate stack. These had the added bonus of pre-integrated hall effect sensors for low-speed startup!