Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motorsport circuits. Karting is commonly perceived as the stepping stone to the higher ranks of motorsports, with most of the Formula One—including Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Ayrton Senna, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen, and Fernando Alonso—having begun their careers in karting.
A hybrid vehicle is one that uses two or more distinct types of power, such as submarines that use diesel when surfaced and batteries when submerged. Other means to store energy include pressurized fluid in hydraulic hybrids.
Power-to-weight ratio is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement of actual performance of any engine or power source. It is also used as a measurement of performance of a vehicle as a whole, with the engine's power output being divided by the weight of the vehicle, to give a metric that is independent of the vehicle's size. Power-to-weight is often quoted by manufacturers at the peak value, but the actual value may vary in use and variations will affect performance.
The Volkswagen Golf is a compact car/small family car (C-segment) produced by the German automotive manufacturer Volkswagen since 1974, marketed worldwide across eight generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – including as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada, and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico (Mk1).
A go-kart, also written as go-cart, is a type of sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance racing karts. Karting is a type of racing in which a compact four-wheel unit called a go-kart is used. In the beginning, Art Ingels invented the first go-kart in Los Angeles in 1956.
Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe GmbH (TGR-E) is an automotive engineering and motorsport services facility based in Cologne, Germany. It is fully-owned and controlled by Toyota Motor Corporation.
A micro kart is a small, one passenger mini go-kart. These karts typically have two-stroke engines, ranging in size from 22.5 cc to 85 cc, and putting out anywhere from 1.2 hp to over 20 hp, or an electric motor with rechargeable lithium ion batteries.
Brammo, Inc. was an American producer of electric traction motors and traction batteries based in Talent, Oregon, United States. Brammo also developed and sold a range of electric motorcycles via the company's website and motorcycle dealers throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Electric motorcycles and scooters are plug-in electric vehicles with two or three wheels. Power is supplied by a rechargeable battery which drives one or more electric motors. Electric scooters are distinguished from motorcycles by having a step-through frame, instead of being straddled. Electric bicycles are similar vehicles, distinguished by retaining the ability to be propelled by the rider pedalling in addition to battery propulsion.
Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited, formerly known as the Reva Electric Car Company, is an Indian company based in Bangalore, involved in designing and manufacturing of compact electric vehicles. The company's first vehicle was the REVAi electric car, available in 26 countries with more than 4,000 of its different versions sold worldwide by mid-March 2011. Reva was acquired by Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra in May 2010. After the acquisition, the company launched the electric hatchback e2o in 2013. Today, the company sells electric vehicles in different segments – the electric sedan eVerito, the electric commercial vehicle eSupro, and the Treo range of low maintenance, lithium-ion battery-powered three-wheelers. Recently, Mahindra Electric became the first Indian car manufacturer to cross 170 million kilometers traveled on its fleet.
A battery electric vehicle (BEV), pure electric vehicle, only-electric vehicle, fully electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, with no secondary source of propulsion. BEVs use electric motors and motor controllers instead of internal combustion engines (ICEs) for propulsion. They derive all power from battery packs and thus have no internal combustion engine, fuel cell, or fuel tank. BEVs include – but are not limited to – motorcycles, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, railcars, watercraft, forklifts, buses, trucks, and cars.
A kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) is an automotive system for recovering a moving vehicle's kinetic energy under braking. The recovered energy is stored in a reservoir for later use under acceleration. Examples include complex high end systems such as the Zytek, Flybrid, Torotrak and Xtrac used in Formula One racing and simple, easily manufactured and integrated differential based systems such as the Cambridge Passenger/Commercial Vehicle Kinetic Energy Recovery System (CPC-KERS).
Electric motorsport is a category of motor sport that consists of the racing of electric powered vehicles for competition, either in all-electric series, or in open-series against vehicles with different power trains. Very early in the history of automobiles, electric cars held several performance records over internal combustion engine cars, such as land speed records, but fell behind in performance during the first decade of the 20th century. With the renaissance of electric vehicles during the early 21st century, notable electric-only racing series have been developed, for both cars and motorcycles, including for example, the FIA Formula E Championship. In other racing events, electric vehicles are competing alongside combustion engine vehicles, for example in the Isle of Man TT and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and in some cases winning outright.
The second generation Honda NSX, marketed as the Acura NSX in North America, China and Kuwait, is a two-seater, all-wheel drive, mid-engine hybrid electric sports car developed and manufactured by Honda in the United States. Production began in 2016 and ended in 2022 with the Type-S variant. It succeeds the original NSX that was produced in Japan from 1990 until 2005.
The Electric Production Car Series is a proposed zero-emission international auto racing championship organized by Electric GT Holdings. The inaugural season was planned to take place in 2018, but was cancelled due to a lack of a lead investor.
The FIM Enel MotoE World Championship is a class of motorcycle racing that uses only electric motorcycles. The series is sanctioned by the FIM and the inaugural season in 2019 was due to support MotoGP at five of the European circuits.
The Energica Ego is an electrically propelled sport road motorcycle designed and marketed by Energica Motor Company. It is claimed by Energica to be the world's first street-legal electric Italian sport motorcycle. The prototype was finished in 2013 and the vehicle came into the market in 2015. The prototype made use of new technologies such as CNC and 3D-printing, including the dashboard and headlights which were 3D-printed.
The Alfa Romeo Tonale is a crossover SUV produced by Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo. Introduced in February 2022, the Tonale is the first hybrid-powered Alfa Romeo. It slots below the Alfa Romeo Stelvio and became the first new model introduced by the brand in six years. The Tonale marks the brand's electrification effort, where Alfa Romeo will be the first brand among the 14 brands of Stellantis to go fully electric by 2027. The Tonale is named after the Tonale mountain pass in Northern Italy.
The FIA Electric GT Championship is a planned sports car racing series for electric grand tourers sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It was announced with the inaugural season expected to begin in 2023.
The Toyota H8909 engine family is a series of twin-turbocharged, four-stroke, 2.4-liter and 3.5-liter, V6 racing engines, made by Toyota Gazoo Racing for use in their TS050 and GR010 Hybrid Le Mans Prototype race cars, since 2016.
