Alumnus combines automotive knowledge with creative design to build go karts

Arts and designInnovation
A purple background with pink circles on with Pravin's skeletal go kart in the middle of the canvas.

Pravin Rajan always wanted a go kart. Based in India, the costs of importing one would have been much more than the retail price of the vehicle – so he set about designing and building one for himself.

Pravin graduated with a masters degree in Automotive Systems Engineering in 2011. His background in the automotive sphere encouraged him to have a go at the project and combine the skills he already had with product design to develop his own vehicle.

Pravin Rajan's go kart on an industrial background,

Pravin is particularly interested in the minimalistic design of 80’s go karts and his initial inspiration came from reference images he found online. Since successfully building his first retro kart, Pravin has continued to produce more, starting off with karts for his friends and eventually going on to make them for others.  

In addition to his go kart building endeavors, Pravin has begun to take his automotive projects to the next level. He has built a two-seater mid-engine sports car with a unique exoskeletal design. The car is one of a kind and was built in Pravin’s factory in India over a seven-year period.  

A side view of Pravin's go kart design outside.

Pravin shared with us the background for starting his project. He said:  

“Similar to the go kart story, I wanted a two-seater, but didn't want to pay the 200% duty on importing one from the UK. So, I went about designing and building one from scratch. It goes surprisingly well!” 

Check out sgkarts on Instagram.