tinyKart: More Abuse

Poor tinyKart. Pretty much ever since we built it and it didn't fall apart, it's been put through a series of tests it was never designed for, including off-roading, hill climbing, and Radu. But this week, it was given its toughest trial yet: New England winter weather rallying. The thing about living on the coast is that it's not just snow - it's cold rain, mist, sleet, salt, slush, dirt, and sometimes snow. To really handle all the crap that occupies the ground here during the winter months, you would need something like a small tank. But to make some attempt at handling the winter season, we splash-proofed the electronics and fitted Razor Dune Buggy tires to the rear wheels:

After that, there was only one thing left to do, and that was to hand it over to our tame racing driver. Some say his urine turns snow blue, and that he doesn't believe in polar bears. All we know is...

...he's called The Stig.

The aftermath was a very snowy and very dirty tinyKart:

But it was worth it. The kart behaves as a RWD ultralight kart with a lot of torque should in low-traction conditions, which is to say that it either goes in a straight line, if you are trying to decelerate, or spins in violent circles, if you are trying to accelerate. This wonderful combination of user-selectable understeer and oversteer makes it a lot of fun to drive, though not particularly practical for real rallying.

Somebody should make a 4WD version...