Superkarts or Shifter karts as they are often referred to, are designed to operate on full size motor racing circuits, and evolved from the early, much simpler Go-karts.   Superkarts are fitted with engines sourced from racing motorcycles of various capacities with a gearshift, hence the American term Shifter Karts.

Go-karts began their lives in the U.S.A. as barely more than fancy billy carts usually fitted with small stationary engines and run around back streets, empty parking lots and dirt paddocks!

Before long, organized events were being run in empty shopping centre parking lots and the sport of Go-Karting, now known as Sprintkarting was born! A good site worth checking out is www.vintagekarts.com. Plenty of pix and stories on old karts from the 50's. Its worth a look to see how it was done real early!

Exactly when superkarts appeared, and then became a stand alone category in kart racing, is somewhat shrouded in mystery.
What is known though, is at some stage, some of the sprintkart fraternity in the quest for more speed fitted motorcycle engines to their sprintkart frames and superkarts as they are now known were born!
With the higher power outputs available from motorcycle engines and the flexibility afforded by clutches and gearboxes, speeds far higher than the shorter sprintkart tracks could safely handle were being achieved, so some clever characters decided to give their toys a run on the full size motor racing tracks.

The rest, as they say, is history!!

Apart from 100cc No Gearbox and Rotax Max 125cc, Superkarts are predominately fitted with motorcycle type engines. These engines are sourced from either Grand Prix motorcycles such as RS Hondas, TZ Yamahas and RS Aprillias of single cylinder 125cc and twin cylinder 250cc variants. Or from single cylinder 80cc, 125cc or 250cc Motocross bikes such as CR Honda, RM Suzuki, KX Kawasaki and YZ Yamaha and utilize 5 or 6 speed and sometimes even 7 speed gearboxes!

Austrian engine manufacturer Rotax manufactured the venerable twin cylinder 250cc inline superkart specific engine that have, for many years powered so many state, national and world champions around the globe.
Rotax also manufactured kart specific single cylinder engines of 125cc and 250cc capacity as well. Other manufacturers are now entering the 250cc (F/E)  twin cylinder fray, riding the back of the ever increasing world wide popularity of this big inch superkart class by designing and building their own 2 cylinder inline engines in a very similar configuration to the Rotax 256 and these makers include Hemmingway, SGM, FPE, Vee-Dot and BRC Engineering.

Obvious features of most superkarts are a gearshift lever, front disc brakes and the addition of various aerodynamic aids such as wings, fairings and bodywork. Aerodynamic equipment is largely unnecessary on sprintkarts due to their lower engine power output and lower top speed.    

100cc NGB karts are fitted with unmodified Yamaha KT100S sprintkart engines only. 125cc Rotax Max class karts are fitted with the very reliable and successful Rotax Max water cooled engine.

Front brakes, wings and full fairings are not permitted in these non-gearbox classes.