Heselewood/Villiers
Heselewood special/Villiers built in the late 1950s by George Heselwood of Wynnum Qld.
Still wned by the Heselwood family the kart was restored by and is in the care of Trevor & Robert Beetham
The engine is a Villiers 197cc motorbike engine complete with gearbox and clutch
The kart still has the original number plates
Engine modifications carried out by George include machining the head to increase compression, reshaping ports, modifying piston skirt, welding and re-machining ring grooves to take Cord rings, replacing original ignition with a chain driven magneto, reversing the barrel to allow a rear exhaust outlet and manufacturing a new inlet manifold to accept a larger Amal monobloc carburettor.
George also mixed his own racing fuels from different petrols and Castrol racing oil. Melted piston tops were not uncommon but in those days the barrel was simply boiled in caustic soda to remove the alloy from the bore and started over again.
The kart is locked into a single gear but still has the clutch available to assist with starting.
Later rules stated that the clutch could not be used by the driver, only the pusher.
The kart was initially raced on dirt at Mount Gravatt Showground and later at a oiled dirt track behind the current greyhound track at Capalaba.
When the Southside Go Kart Club built a bitumen track near the current Big Gun Shopping Centre, George built another kart for his son Jeff this time powered by a CZ bike engine. Both raced at Slacks Creek for a number of years in the early 1960's
Period costume is available for use with the kart
Some of the documentation which came with the kart
