The mad scientists over at Critical have taken a high-torque electric motor from an obscure motorcycle brand, stuffed it into a go-kart chassis, and created a life-altering wheelie machine that is truly and completely bonkers.
Critical is a YouTube channel and Instagram that does all sorts of crazy powersports stuff, and this latest build has to be one of their craziest yet.
“I’v [sic] taken apart a STARK VARG electric Motocross (80 Horsepowers, 938 Nm Torque) and placed the power train in a Go Kart,” reads Critical‘s video description – and, if you’ve ever spent real time in a proper racing kart, you already know how crazy/awesome that sounds.
Top comment by Doug T
The motor torque rating is mostly irrelevant compared to the power rating, especially for electric motors (vs ice engines), as gear/tire drive ration will give most any peak wheel torque the designer wants (withing the reason). However hp & drive ratio actually determines how much wheel torque can be delivered at a particular speed.
For ice vehicle, torque rating were more useful because ice engine output was very non linear over the rpm band, and also they needed multiple gearing, and clutches/hydraulic coupling at start from a stop. Thus, many high hp engine had poor low rpm torque, and many high torque engines had poor peak hp. It was all about the energy in the rpm power band and selecting the best engine curve for the vehicle application.
Our own Micah Toll covered the STARK VARG donor vehicle back in 2021, calling the bikes revolutionary, “with specs that crush gas bikes.” And, while STARK hasn’t made much noise since, its massively powerful electric motors (at least) proved not to be vaporware! But, while the motor is interesting and the video is fun in a Song of the Sausage Creature kind of way, the kart’s not the real story here.
There’s a bigger story here than a 700 lb-ft kart, though (938 Nm = 691 lb-ft). And it’s playing out over at Dodge, come to think of it. And at drag strips all over America. Heck, even the Hemi faithful and the hillclimbers and the import tuner scenesters understands what’s coming – and that’s this: if you want to go fast, really, truly, pants-s**ttingly fast, you need to start taking electric power seriously.
That’s more than enough opining from me, though. Click play on that video up there, and revel in the smoke-free madness.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Critical, via Ride Apart.
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