Karts, “go-karts”, were huge in the late ’50s and into the ’60s, much like mini-bikes a decade later. This magazine, from June of 1961, is just loaded with advertisements that show how specialized, and competitive, karting had become in less than five years. The gallery below includes many of those ads, both from specialty companies and from large retailers, including Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward.
A dizzying number of kart brands are represented, including Simplex, Bonanza, 500 Industries, Gilson (a rotary tiller manufacturer), Percival Manufacturing, Putt-Nik (nice play on words!), Dart Kart (made by Rupp, a company that would excel in the mini-bike market) and Bug Engineering. Most of these aren’t your garden variety go-karts, but purposeful racing machines, with a surprising degree of sophistication. Some feature disc brakes, fuel injection, and even multi-engined karts were commonplace. I can only imagine the headaches involved in keeping a triple-engined machine running smooth. Along with the competition karts are a number that targeted the rental business, as the number of public go-kart tracks was on the rise.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Please advise how I can obtain a reprint of the ad for the Sears 39P300 Racing Kart seen on this website. It is also referred to as the Sears Model 300 Racing Kart. I have been looking a very long time for this find, and it has a special personal value to a very old man.
Thank you,
Patrick J. Flynn
Pat, I have a Sears 1961 Farm and Ranch catalog that features the Model 300, but it’s not the exact same ad you see above. This ad shows the kart from a left front quarter view with a smaller picture of the rear view with dual PP engines on it (look like AH58 models). It’s a full inside back page ad and also shows tires and tubes and different engines that were available as well.
Let me know if this ad would work for you.
Best regards,
Tom