First Test of a Six Speed Shifter Kart (Updated Mar 02, '07)


On Sunday, Aug 20th at Mosport Karting academy Track, I had the opportunity to do a test on a Swedetech Honda CR125 6-speed shifter kart. The event was the Salmon Shifters Shifter Kart Experience(see www.Salmon Shifters.com ) organized by a team of guys affiliated with 'Formula Kartways' in Brampton.

All equipment was provided as part of the cover charge: including helmet, balaclava, gloves and racing jacket.

After a basic introduction on using the clutch and gear changing, we took off behind our instructor to do a few laps on a highly shortened version of the track.

It took a few laps to get a hang of the 'lift and shift' gear changes on these sequential shifters but once I was able to cycle through a few gears the enormous power of the Swedetech Engine package became all too apparent!

Here is video I shot on my cell phone of the short track runs (Added Mar, 2007)

Turn up the volume.




In 2nd gear at low to moderate revs, the engine exhibited a low throaty growl which gradually increased with revs until somewhere around 9-10,000 rpm. At which point the engine seemed to explode into a high pitched scream as it shoved you back into the seat and exploded down the track. Feverishly cycling though gears, you hang on as the beast rockets up to as much as 70mph on the relatively short straight-away before you had to dive on the brakes and reign it in. Amazingly, even in 5th gear (which was as far as I was able to get before running out of road), it felt like the machine was just getting ready to accelerate.

The only way to describe the effect of the 45HP was like having twin turbo-chargers under the hood. If these 125cc engines gives this kind of kick, I can't but wonder what a ride on A formula 250 twin-cylinder would feel like?..