Background

This project initially was just going to be a year-long Senior Capstone project, but as it progressed, became much more than that. Ryan was the first to present the idea to the team which everyone was immediately on board for. The project originally had a budget of $500 awarded to every capstone group. However, we were able to secure sponsorship for a value of up to $10,000. This was the point at which all members of the team became very excited and invested in the process of creating our best work. Not only was our sponsor willing to fund the project, but also agreed that depending on performance, would later buy the intellectual property from us. All the more reason to put our best foot forward and make a wicked fast kart.

Research

There were several different branches of research that needed to be done prior to moving forward with any design work. Since the final goal was to produce a chassis that could be sold, it was necessary to research the current market, competitors, and how we could provide value with our design. While Ryan was an expert in this field, Garret and Zach were new to the karting world and had a lot of catching up to do. Garret focused on researching the karting industry landscape, learning about everything from main players, to historical and project industry growth. Zach took a focus on the more technical side of things, researching driver preferences through interviews, analyzing competitor designs and working with Ryan to identify key components and functions of a high performing chassis. If you are interested in any of this information, please feel free to reach out through our LinkedIn profiles, or the form on the home page.