Sweet! The king of cool on a 1961 Ala-Kart go kart built in Whittier CA. The shot was probably taken at the Go Kart Mfg. facility in Azusa, CA which hosted the National Championships in 1960?.
An interesting side note: Art Ingels and Lou Borelli were the recognized builders of the first Go-kart. Art Ingels worked for Kurtis Kraft building Indy Cars. Other noted builders of karts included Duffy Livingston, Jim Rathmann (Rathmann X-Terminator) and Frank Kurtis(Kurtis Kraft)as well as Brooks Stevens (Jeepster, Weiner mobile). Unfortunately, karting is an under-appreciated over looked portion of motor-sports history especially here in the US.
Agreed... it sure had a spectacular time in the 60s though. Then people got greedy, plus inflation, and suddenly it's expensive. You can't hit a go cart track for less than 25 dollars at about 5 minutes of track time. That's effing ridiculous. I sure don't make 25 an hour, and to see that much blown in 1/12th an hour? Being generous, if it were 25 dollars for 15 minutes, that is 100 an hour... NO WAY. That's ridiculous. It sure was fun as hell the couple of times I've done it though I think when I get to be a really old bastard, and can't work, I'll try and find some abandoned parking lots, or basket ball courts, or dead end roads, and buy some carts, rent them out cheap, and have a lot of fun and make some more friends. Imagine Einstein racing a cart... and you've got the idea of what I'm gonna do!
Back in the day, karting was developed and grew based on the hot-rod culture in Southern California. It was VERY much a run-what-you-brung affair well for the first 6-7 years. They used to have weekend races at the Rose Bowl parking lot :) By the mid 70's, they had mostly figured out the quickest way around the track so it became a mere stepping stone for race car divers rather than a grass roots blue collar racing vibe.
You can pick up a vintage kart for ~1,000 or so. They have test and tune days a fair bit at Adams Kart Track in Riverside as well as a 3-day event in the Jan-Feb.
Here's a great video of a dual kart at speed...They were NOT kids toys by any means. https://youtu.be/IPLgGCgAlLk
Sweet! The king of cool on a 1961 Ala-Kart go kart built in Whittier CA. The shot was probably taken at the Go Kart Mfg. facility in Azusa, CA which hosted the National Championships in 1960?.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting side note: Art Ingels and Lou Borelli were the recognized builders of the first Go-kart. Art Ingels worked for Kurtis Kraft building Indy Cars. Other noted builders of karts included Duffy Livingston, Jim Rathmann (Rathmann X-Terminator) and Frank Kurtis(Kurtis Kraft)as well as Brooks Stevens (Jeepster, Weiner mobile).
Unfortunately, karting is an under-appreciated over looked portion of motor-sports history especially here in the US.
Agreed... it sure had a spectacular time in the 60s though. Then people got greedy, plus inflation, and suddenly it's expensive. You can't hit a go cart track for less than 25 dollars at about 5 minutes of track time. That's effing ridiculous. I sure don't make 25 an hour, and to see that much blown in 1/12th an hour? Being generous, if it were 25 dollars for 15 minutes, that is 100 an hour... NO WAY. That's ridiculous. It sure was fun as hell the couple of times I've done it though
DeleteI think when I get to be a really old bastard, and can't work, I'll try and find some abandoned parking lots, or basket ball courts, or dead end roads, and buy some carts, rent them out cheap, and have a lot of fun and make some more friends. Imagine Einstein racing a cart... and you've got the idea of what I'm gonna do!
Back in the day, karting was developed and grew based on the hot-rod culture in Southern California. It was VERY much a run-what-you-brung affair well for the first 6-7 years. They used to have weekend races at the Rose Bowl parking lot :) By the mid 70's, they had mostly figured out the quickest way around the track so it became a mere stepping stone for race car divers rather than a grass roots blue collar racing vibe.
ReplyDeleteYou can pick up a vintage kart for ~1,000 or so. They have test and tune days a fair bit at Adams Kart Track in Riverside as well as a 3-day event in the Jan-Feb.
Here's a great video of a dual kart at speed...They were NOT kids toys by any means.
https://youtu.be/IPLgGCgAlLk