Red Bull Kart Reveal

Let's start with Brian's drawing of our concept F1 car that we submitted with our entry. 
Ha! They let us in the Red Bull Non-Stock 600, so then we had to build it!!

For the past month Brian and I (as part of the MAX WIIINGS 33 Bunch of Idiots team) have been working on turning a plain vanilla white kart body into our entry for this weekend's Red Bull Non-Stock 600 kart race. Here's a recap on our concept, and we'll show you a few steps along the way. Win, lose, or draw, in this race with 20 other teams, it's been fun to turn my garage into a workshop to try and create something fun. While we can't control what kind of karts the other teams come up with, it's been fun working with Brian on different designs, and then figuring out how to actually build the thing. On Saturday we'll actually race this kart with Kyle and Luke, and that should be a fun experience. 

Starting with the white body,

The winning team earns a free trip to the 2025 Formula 1 race in Miami, so that sounds nice! If we don't win, we'll have fun anyway. Along the way we've gotten a free dinner, some drinks, a lunch on race day, free Red Bull to drink, and a pretty good collection of tools from sponsor Northern Tools! Goodrich tires is another sponsor, so if we come away with any free tires, we'll be sure to let you know!

How about an air intake?
Oh, by the way, we'll make it look like a Red Bull can!
This mock-up is an oatmeal container, so we upgraded to aluminum duct work later. 

Maybe a front nose like an F1 car!
This long nose was later simplified. 

OH, and a bunch of front wings!
Because Red Bull gives you WIIINGS!
The final wiiings up here are cardboard and papier mâché. 

Let's try a tall rear wing!
We consulted with the welding instructor at York Technical College, but he suggested that metal for this rear wing assembly would not work well fastened onto the fiberglass body. 
Time for another plan. 

Maybe some rear exhaust pipes from duct work?
Maybe the rear wing from 1/4-inch plywood and foam board?

Rear wing needs more support, so I invented this box to support it and hold the "exhausts." 

More wiiings would be better. Remember, Red Bull gives you WIIINGS!
Trying out alternating plywood and foam board here. 

Let's throw in a front nose!

Front wings with multiple elements and end plates!
Looks like F1 or IndyCar to me!

Let's cut out the "windows" and turn it into a halo!
Mmm, less weight should make us faster, right?

OK, we've got a halo, let's paint this thing!
Assemble the garage paint booth with plastic. 

Start with blue all around, here's a front wing...

and a blue nose...

courtesy of your friendly inexperienced painter!

Blue rear wing. 

Ooooh, shiny!

More blue.
We could have left it plain blue, but we had another idea...

Then we painted silver and then black through some shelf liner to simulate a carbon fiber look. 

Front wings get the carbon fiber paint treatment.

It looks kind of tiger-stripey, but a lot of it will get covered up with graphics.
Maybe we need to budget a few thousand dollars and do it in real carbon fiber. 

This side "door" section will be covered with the team name and car number.

Fitting the front wings with various brackets, plywood, and a few bolts into the fiberglass.
The front nose uses hot glue and adhesive stuck onto the body too. 

With the wings all attached and painted, Brian conducts the SHAKE IT test.

There's a LOT of wings in the back. 
The front wiiings are mounted high enough so that this body will still bolt into the chassis with the engine. 

"Red Bull" on the front wings like the F1 car, and our MAX WIIINGS 33 logo. 

Brian applies more of his awesome logos.
Hey, the air intake looks like a Red Bull can!

One day before the race, time to take the kart to Charlotte!

Thanks for following along. As I write this Friday night, we're looking forward to the racing tomorrow. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.