Automotive

"World's fastest go-kart" would hit 60 mph in 1.5 seconds

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The Daymak Blast C5 Ultimate uses a fan propulsion system that Daymak says will help it hit 60 mph in 1.5 seconds
The Daymak Blast C5 Ultimate uses a fan propulsion system that Daymak says will help it hit 60 mph in 1.5 seconds
The C5-Blast Ultimate won't be cheap, with a sticker price of $59,999

Tesla has already demonstrated the performance potential of electric power in cars, but the technology hasn't made the same splash in the world of go karting. But that looks set to change with Canada-based Daymak using battery power to develop what it claims will be the "world's fastest go-kart".

Meet the C5-Blast Ultimate, which Daymak says will be capable of sprinting to 60 mph (98 km/h) in a neck-snapping 1.5 seconds. That makes the Tesla Model S P100D, which took 2.28 seconds to hit the same mark in Motor Trend testing, look leisurely. At the moment, the fastest accelerating EV in the world is Grimsel, which hits 100 km/h (62 mph) in 1.513 seconds, but Daymak has that title in its sights.

The C5-Blast's power comes from a 10-kW brushless electric motor fed by a 2,400-Wh lithium-ion battery, but that isn't the only thing helping it leap off the line. The driver is also flanked by four Electric Ducted Fan (EDF) motors that provide 60 kg (132 lb) of forward thrust, whole eight more are mounted in the bodywork providing 96 kg (212 lb) of upwards thrust. According to the company, that means the 200-kg (441-lb) kart performs as if it weighed just 100 kg (220 lb).

"We could actually make it lighter and faster and at some point the Go Kart would start floating like the Star Wars land speeder or we could add wings and it would fly," says Aldo Baiocchi, President of Daymak. "Speed will not be an issue and we think we can even go eventually under one second 0 to 60 making it faster then any vehicle in existence."

Daymak admits that the technology is still at the early stages, so this is all speculative at the moment and the company hasn't said exactly how fast it expects its world's fastest go-kart to go. However, F1 teams have played around with fans for downforce, but there is no proof that creating lift will allow it to go faster. Rather, the horizontal fans in the bodywork would reduce traction, negatively affecting the kart's ability to put its power down, but maybe Daymak is counting on the vertical fans behind the driver offsetting any losses in this area.

Regardless, Daymak, which makes electric bikes, scooters and ATVs, plans to sell two different versions of the kart, with wildly different price tags. The base C5-Blast model, which lacks the EDF system, will hit 60 mph in 3.9 seconds for US$9,999. But if you want the neck-snapping Ultimate model, and we most certainly do, you'll need to pony up $59,999. That isn't a misprint, you could have a Shelby Mustang GT350 and enough change to run a conventional go kart for the price of one Ultimate.

The C5-Blast prototype isn't shown on the track in the video below, but you can get a taste of the jet engine-like sound the kart's fans generate.

Source: Daymak

Update (May 16, 2017): Text was added highlighting the potential reduction in traction that would likely result from the kart's fan system.

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14 comments
ClaytonMacleod
Upward thrust? So these guys are geniuses, and all the F1 teams spending millions of dollars to get the most downforce are idiots. Yeah, ok. Heh.
Bruce Curtis
Erm...lifting motors just lift, they do not reduce weight, or more importantly, mass. That cart will weigh exactly as much as it did with the fans shut off, so its mass remains the same, along with its theoretical acceleration. Unfortunately with less weight on the wheels, traction is reduced and those lift fans become useless--and heavy--appendages. I applaud this company, but I give them little chance of success, at least until their engineer gets some remedial physics training.
VincentBrennan
As for F1 teams, they used fan technology as did the first fan car, the Chaparral, back in 1970 or so. They used it for downforce not lift.
The point is every organizing body in the world had banned fans by 1975 BECAUSE THEY WORKED SO WELL!
I have no idea whether the lift fans actually work or not but at $60,000 I hope no one is dumb enough to find out. Stupid is as stupid does.
Bob
0-60mph in one second would still not be the fastest vehicle in existence. A top fuel dragster would still beat this on its way to 300+ mph. The upward lift part of this story doesn't make any sense either. Downward force is needed for traction. Only the forward thrust would help.
martinkopplow
Ooops! Upward thrust to reduce mass? Ducted fans to improve acceleration from a standstill? Both are, to say it in the most sensible way possible, not the first choice of the educated engineer. C'mon New Atlas, this is way below your capabilities. Please take your readers seriously and apply a minimum of review before publishing.
McDesign
Yeah - that's -
Laughable.
RoGuE_StreaK
In RC planes, EDFs are notorious for the lack of instant thrust, being likened to a turbo in that they have to build up before hitting their stride. They'll barely have kicked in before your desired sprint time is up. Quick compressed gas blast out the back perhaps?
yawood
@Bruce Curtis. The fans do not reduce the mass but they do reduce the weight. Weight is a force which is the mass times the effect of gravitation at that point. The lifting fans counteract the effect of gravitation therefore the weight is reduced, the mass always stays the same. Maybe it's not the engineer who needs the remedial physics training. Having said that, I agree with other posters that reducing the down-force in this way is probably counter-productive.
ei3io
All comments and the author hit the mark on lift vs down force but the president of the company sees this concept flying someday so right there he completely changes the technology from earth traction reaction mass into atmospheric reaction mass. With the downforce and or weight being required for traction the oddly out of place lifting fans help nothing with acceleration but,, not believing they can be so stupid, maybe they have an idea floating [pun intended] that after you use all the earth reaction mass traction you can get from the rear drive wheels,, by next removing weight on front wheels you lower friction and its drag, but,,, directional control goes out with it without any aerodynamic directional control rudders up front.
JimFox
"According to the company, that means the 200-kg (441-lb) kart performs as if it weighed just 100 kg (220 lb)." Newton's Second Law- F=Ma, force = Mass x acceleration, weight being the product of 'a'- acceleration due to gravity 9.81m/sec/sec. So it seems to me that 'performs as if it weighed just 100 kg' is misleading; to accelerate it forward requires the same FORCE whatever the weight, because MASS is the limiting factor. Or is my school physics in error?