We started by taking out all of the components of the go- kart and laid them out on a table. At this stage we didn’t know how much work was ahead of us. After laying out the parts we assembled the chassis and started planning a schedule for the coming weeks and months. For the next couple of lessons we built up the body of the kart and laid down the ground work for the electrics.

After the body was done we started to assign jobs for people to do. This changed every week because some were more interesting than others, but we had one group doing the steering, another group doing the axles, and the last group doing the drive train. The steering and the axles were relatively simple compared to the drive. For 

the drive we had to bolt the motor to its mountings. We then had to connect up a seemingly infinite amount of cables for what seemed like hours, but at the end of it all we had a go-kart.

Then came the testing phase. For the first test we got Max B, our driver, to try the brakes, the drive and the steering. Then after a whole year of work, we tested it on the playground. It was making quite a loud noise but it was going well and working, until it broke. One of the wires started to arc the chassis so we packed up for the day and left it in the garage for the next few weeks. After the weather had cleared up we decided to fix the go-kart. We insulated the offending wire, checked all the connections and told Max to do a flying lap of the playground. We managed to get it up to a good speed until we had to stop. We then packed it away in the garage for the last time and left it for next year.

Overall, I think that we did a good job building the go-kart and I also think that it taught us about being mechanics and how teamwork makes thing easier. Hopefully next year’s Year 8 can do the same.

Benji (Year 8)