Anyone know about 1980s dealer promo go karts?

Picked up this deathtrap 80s go kart recently. From what I can find they were sold at Chevy dealerships along side Corvettes as some sort of gimmick.

Body is MIA, but it would have looked like the this yellow kart pic:

Got it running in an afternoon after it sat for years. Kind of gutless with me in it, and not much better with a kid behind the wheel. Not sure what I'll do with it next. The engine is a little 3hp Briggs:

The brake band is about done, so I'll swap it out. It only really gets going if you are on flat, paved surfaces, but I'd guess the clutch could use replacement. It is pretty much useless in the yard, it just bogs down and stops.

The frame is solid, only surface rust. Even the floor pan is solid. Looks like it was stored indoors most of its life. What I can't find is any history on who made it. The manufacturer sticker is faded completely. I know jack-all about go karts. I tried the vintage karting forum but they don't seem to deal with anything this new. If it is something rare then I'll leave alone, but if it is just a common kart then I'll go full Frankenstein on it to make it more fun in the yard.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/42089/for-1750-its-hard-to-beat-a-restored-1985-oldsmobile-calais-pace-car-go-kart

Looks to be similar, maybe you'll find something of interest in the hyperlinks. If not, have a fun read of someone else's journey on a similar path and use it for inspiration! 

This would be a fun option, if you go that way (over 4x the power!) :

What could possibly to wrong?  (make sure to get video)

It will take a little work, but replacing a direct drive clutch with a comet/tav torque converter (read - CVT) type helps tons on karts. Gives peak power all the time rather than struggling out of the powerband hole.

Go shopping in the "torque converter" section here https://www.gopowersports.com/

In reply to Apexcarver :

I had that same idea. Maybe throw in the brake band first because it definitely needs it. Then try swapping in a CVT on the current 3hp motor and see what happens. My kids are small and our area to ride is also small, so top speed is not a goal at this point.

It does have the odd problem of cutting off when you hit a hard bump in the yard. The kill switch wiring isn't the culprit.  There is no low-oil sensor killing it. I can put it up a jack stand while running and bang the crap out of it, never cuts off. Drive it off the end of the driveway into the grass and it is dead instantly. Quite annoying.

Look into Shriners' minicars to see what bodywork is still available.

In reply to slefain :

I'm fighting the same thing on my yard kart, my understanding is that it's a design issue with the carb on Briggs motors.

Yeah, you're probably flopping the carb float around/sloshing fuel in so you get a momentary bog. My lawnmower does this too...very annoying. Depending on the carb, you can make a thin sheet metal shroud that goes bewteen the main jet and the needle jet/emulsificaton tube that will help. Just looks like a thin washer, or a cup upside down if you want to get fancy. Makes sure you've always got fuel around the jet and it can't slosh away.

Is this one of those one-wheel-drive ones or are both rears driven? Seen a couple of these older ones that just have an idle wheel on the off side and can't tell from the pics.

My fix for the power problem on my old Rupp minibike with one of those engines was to gear it down, put a new clutch on it, and then remove the governor. Valve float was a pretty effective rev limiter (and flame thrower). That may not be the best solution for a kid, but it is cheap and may not be an issue if it doesn't have enough power to rev out anyway. At least the ones I've had only made power right around where the governor started pulling the throttle back, so the fun factor went up dramatically by widening the power band.

Sometimes you can modify the governor so instead of 3200 rpm or something, it limits to 4000 or so.

For some reason a long exhaust pipe made a big difference on mine. I'm not really sure why. It originally had one like yours, which caught the seat on fire. ~12" of pipe with a small muffler on the end gave it a bit more oomph off the bottom in addition to sounding less like a lawn mower.

Those engines are splash lubed with a crank dipper. Oil level is very important, especially if you add revs.

For whatever it's worth, there are actually two of those for sale near me on fb marketplace, one with the same body yours should have had. One in Illinois for $700 and one in Kentucky for $1000.

gearheadE30 said:

For whatever it's worth, there are actually two of those for sale near me on fb marketplace, one with the same body yours should have had. One in Illinois for $700 and one in Kentucky for $1000.

Hmm, then maybe they are not rare. If so then I don't feel back messing with it.

I wouldn't feel bad, they stuck twenty different body styles on them as well. I've seen a Ford Flare side, and Chevy Van, Olds Calais etc.... I was thinking about collecting the bodies as they came up on CL and hanging them in my basement 

aircooled said:

This would be a fun option, if you go that way (over 4x the power!) :

What could possibly to wrong?  (make sure to get video)

I have a Predator 212cc on my minibike. It actively wants to kill me. A 420 would be nuts!