Jet Kart
I have been doing karting for many years, and recently I have had a great interest in jet engines, so I thought, jet engine gokart?!?! After a brief internet search culminating in details of similar projects undertaken by people worldwide (two of which is located here in England, see below), I concluded that with enough care and patience (hahaha!) it could in fact be done!
The two jetkarts that exist in England (to my knowledge) are:
Lee Dennick's twin-engine kart, as yet unfinished
Chy Wright and Henry Donald's kart
The principal of the jet-kart is simple: Every action has an equal, but opposite, reaction (Newtons 3rd Law). So, a jet engine that expells a stream of high velocity air out of its rear end while attatched to a kart chassis will propel the kart forward. Simple? In theory. However there are many little problems that have to be overcome (far too many to be listed here; it would bore you all to death!) Pictures will be coming shortly (UPDATE: See the September 26th 2002 update below) so you can see my progress so far. However, this is as far as I have gotten so far:
Christmas 2001
Bought Comer S60 kart from school for £250. Sold engine for £200, therefore got a decent chassis for £50


Christmas 2001 - May 2002
Chassis cleaned, prepared, repainted silver. Fuel tanks (2x 30 litre) constructed and added to chassis, painted black. Supports for instrument panels fabricated. At this stage there are four possible engines that I could use in the Kart. These are: Plessey Dynamics Solent or Allied Signal JFS-100 (Preferably), Rotax CT.2023 or Lucas CR.201. I still have to make a decision on this matter before I can proceed, and then cost comes into the picture. I may have to sell my regular gokart

May 21st, 2002
Possibly found a buyer for my Comer S80 kart. Final negotiation has to be made, however if this proceeds then the time in which I can purchase the engine itself will be drastically shortened.

September 26th, 2002
I have sold my regular kart, for which I got £500. I now have £700 in the bank for an engine, and I am yet to sell my 1/6th scale Traxxas Monster Buggy, which will be another £500. Totals out at £1200 which should be plenty for the power unit which I want. Also, now I have no debts so I can put all the money I earn into the bank. At this rate the kart will be finished and running by Christmas 2002!

November 17th, 2002
The extensions to the chassis are now finished, and are EXTREAMLY strong! They have been strength tested for 6 times the mass that they are designed to take, with no problem whatsoever. I don't want to test anymore than this so as not to cause any unnecessary metal fatigue. I have also sourced the fuel pumps and construction of the rear wing has commenced. I am also getting a monkey bike to act as a 'tug' as the completed kart will be far too big to move by hand. Not much more work can be undertaken without having the engine, so next item on the shopping list is the turbine.

January 24th, 2003
I have recently been in discussion with Thomas from www.technologie-entwicklung.de, who collects and restores small(ish) gas turbines in Germany. He told me that he is more than likely to be getting a shipment of the Russian APU engine the TS-21 (Written TC-21 in Cyrillic) shortly, and is able to supply them at an exceedingly good price! It is now certain that I will get one of these turbines, that is, if Thomas gets the shipment! It should only be a matter of a couple of months after I obtain the turbine before the whole project is completed... Pictures to follow shortly...
This is a Plessy Dynamics Solent that belongs to John Williamson (Click on the picture to go to his Website). This is the engine that I would prefer to use with my jetkart as they are relatively easy to modify to pure thrust (Stock they come with a power turbine). This is also the powerplant used in Chy and Henry's kart (Top right).