The White Tony Kart

Victorian karter Vas Filips has made a name for himself in the retro-karting world, stripping former race karts and rebuilding them to concourse condition for friends, other drivers and owners.

But this time, he decided it was time to do another for himself.

The finished project. Lots of new & re-finished pieces with meticulous attention to detail

He’d been looking for a Tony Kart Mitox chassis for a couple of years and was lucky to find a 1999 model that was complete.

“Being the last of the Tony Kart line eligible for the RKA pre-2000 F100 series, it made logical sense” he told KartSportNews.

The project utilised a low mileage, excellent condition Mitox frame

“I was lucky to initially find a complete kart that was used as a donor for most of the parts. I eventually found an excellent bare chassis that had very little use to go with the parts collected.

“A good brake caliper was sourced in Europe as I gathered everything else needed. Bob at AGS and the boys at Tony Kart in Melbourne provided all the new parts.”

The seat is a special reverse-moulded T7 Tillett. Vas has had Steve Tillett make them for him in the past, and it’s now offered as a vintage seat option.

“I build a lot of karts from this era for other people” Vas explained. “Generally they ask me to do them as per factory original, with a little custom work for some.

“When I get the opportunity to build my own kart, I like to build a more custom resto kart. It allows me to experiment with different processes and finishes.

“It also keeps me interested, as some of these karts can take many months to build to this level.



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Despite having never seen one he liked, Vas was convinced he could build a great looking kart with a white base.

Ready for assembly. How’s the parts spread on the bench.

“The challenge was to create enough black components to offset the white. I achieved this with a combination of powder coating, anodising and black zinc.

“I wanted a more modern clean looking sticker kit, more in the modern F1 style than the traditional 90s kart look. Aaron Jackson from JBD met me on site to work out how to make my basic idea a reality and did a fantastic job. So big thanks to them for the close collaboration on the sticker kit.

Mechanically, Vas reckon’s this is probably the best kart he’s built.

“I have taken all the time needed to make sure everything is as good as possible.

“The whole kart is bolted together with Pro Bolt fasteners as used on the top Moto GP bikes. I have been using these on my karts for a number of years and while expensive, give my karts a point of difference and quality.

The engine is a 1998 Merlin Reed, 100cc.

“These have a proven record of good power and reliability. This particular engine was built by Glenn Riddell at Pulse Tuning.”

“It was nice to build something for myself again” he said.

“(It was) by far the most time consuming kart I have ever built, the total construction was over five months. But it’s my favourite.”



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