Introduction

This is the first posting concerning the restoration of my Dad's Red Devil kart.

Why am I doing this? An important part of my early life was going to kart races to watch my dad race and work with Indianapolis Kart Club. The first race I attended was in mid-1966; I was born in November! To my young mind the two or three races a year were huge events. The smells, sounds, and rituals were burned into my mind and heart.

I yearned to race, but things got in the way: Dad's advise was that he would help out in any way, except I had to pay for it. His last race was in this kart in 1975. I kept working the races until the mid-1980s, karting stayed in my blood for decades.

One of my hobbies has been computer racing games, mostly based on the Indy 500. Then about 2007 I discovered the racing simulation called rFactor. It's the most realistic racing experience I have seen. rFactor allows users to create their own modifications or "mods" and there are thousands of user created cars and tracks. For about a year I worked on recreating Indianapolis Raceway Park as it was in the mid-1970s and modeling my Dad's Red Devil kart, leathers and helmet. To do that I had to pull the kart out of where it had been stored for nearly 40 years, take pictures and get to know it.

The restoration started small. Dad and I decided to work on a project together... to rebuild the McCulloch engine. Well, you just can't stop there. I decided to go for the whole ball of wax.... restoration and (hopefully) racing it.

I hope to post the major highlights. Hope you enjoy it!