Replica Resurrection
| 3 January 2014 |
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Last year, South Australian karter Glenn Davidson built a replica of former World Champion Johnny Mislijevic's Formula A Tony Kart. The machine was driven by Greg Young in the 2013 City of Adelaide Titles at Bolivar (photos HERE, including a huge two-wheel moment!), and now we have the build history of this kart.
Davidson has also completed a restoration of a Swiss Hutless Evolution (which will be featured here on KartSportNews in the coming days) and has similar plans for a Jenson Button Tecno SS22, James Courtney Tony Kart Extreme and Danilo Rossi CRG.
For this project, Davidson purchased an old Tony Kart Esprit off ebay. The chassis came with pod bars, crash bars, steering column, brakes and complete axle set up.
Above: What arrived
pic - Glenn Davidson, reversegraphics.com
"Everything was in poor condition and needed to be stripped, cleaned, polished and re-assembled" Davidson informed KartSportNews.
"The frame had a small crack on the rear cross bar so it was stripped, re-welded and then newly powdercoated. Many parts were sourced through websites like ebay, gumtree and kartbook and slowly but surely all the parts came together. "
Above: Start of the strip-down
pic - Glenn Davidson, reversegraphics.com
While the stickers were based on Johnny Mislijevic’s 1996 European Championship kart, Glenn used 1997 Tony Kart plastics.
"I like the look of those more than the previous plastics" he reasoned. "I'm a graphic designer, so I designed all the stickers myself and had the printing outsourced."
The kart was built in partnership with Greg Young who was responsible for the welding and repairs on the frame, floor tray, rear crash bar and assembling and setting up the kart.
"He did an amazing job with the repairs, especially on the floor tray and rear crash bar which were a mess when purchased."
Above & Below: Rebuild well underway after fresh paint
pic - Glenn Davidson, reversegraphics.com
pic - Glenn Davidson, reversegraphics.com
"The engine used on the kart is a Vortex Vr98 air cooled 100cc rotary valve engine with an Ibea L3 carbie. Tony Kart Italy were sent pictures and were amazed, and wrote back:
“Dear Mr. Davidson,
Thank you for the pics of your Tony Kart Esprit restoration. You kart looks FANTASTIC. I'm worldless. I showed the pics to Mr Robazzi, owner of OTK, and he was very happy and VERY surprised of your job..."
The restoration also raised the attention of famed engine tuner, Martjin Koene:
“He Glen,
That looks awesome and brings so many good memories back. Can I post it on our Facebook page?”
Kind regards,
Martijn Koene"
pic - Glenn Davidson, reversegraphics.com
pic - Glenn Davidson, reversegraphics.com
Above: Ready and waiting for the race track. The restoration took a little under three months to complete
pic - Glenn Davidson, reversegraphics.com
pic - Glenn Davidson, reversegraphics.com
pic - Glenn Davidson, reversegraphics.com
