Club Car
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[edit] Basic Overview
A business unit owned by Ingersoll Rand that produces golf and utility vehicles. Company came about in the 1960s, manufacturing electric golf cars. In the early 1980s, Club Car expanded their line to gas powered carts.
[edit] Gas Powertrains
The DS carts were powered by a 4-stroke Kawasaki FZ340 engine until 1992, when they switched over to a more modern, powerful, and refined four-stroke Kawasaki FE290 engine. Though it lost 55ccs of size, it gained power and acceleration ability. The carts included a Kawasaki two-piece transaxle until 1996, consisting of a transmission unit bolted directly to a differential with a "bell housing" or sorts between. In 1997 Club Car opted for a unitized transaxle that could either be manufactured by Graziano Corporation from Italy or Kawasaki Corporation from Japan, the units are identical besides the labelling. The trade off was that this required a clockwise-rotating engine. Kawasaki had to reverse the rotation of their FE290 9hp, FE350 11.5hp, and FE400 13hp. These engines are available from golf cart suppliers because clockwise rotation engines are not available on the mainstream market.
[edit] Suspension
Club Car carts use a transversely mounted leaf spring/upper delta plate front suspension, and a longitudinal dual leaf spring rear swingarm. The rear suspension has remained basically the same since the gas cart was introduced, but the front has had a few changes. When first introduced on the DS cart, the upper delta plates were mounted on pivot bolts with greased lubrication. The kingpin bracket was also greased. This presented the problem of being too strong. As unusual as it may seem, Club Car had to weaken the front suspension due to crash impact force and frame damage from the crashes. They went to a delta A plate in which only two of the four sides of mounting loops actually touch the shock tower support. The Other sides are held on with a delta strap and the bolts run indiviually through each of the four loops.
[edit] Frame
Club Car's carts feature a light weight, high strength aluminum I-beam frame. Gas carts featured a quad rail frame until 1997, then went to a dual rail like electric carts had. In 2004, Club Car introduced the Precedent golf car with an even stronger, aluminum box tube frame.
[edit] Bodies
Club Car used to use a plastic front body and a fiberglass rear. These were inherently weak and got brittle with age, so they switched to a material called ArmorFlex in late 1992-early 1993. This is flexible, yet nearly indestructable. Color is molded through the entire panel. With the introduction of the Precedent, Club Car used Surlyn body panels, manufactured by e.i. du Pont. These panels have no paint or clearcoat, it is all molded into them from the manufacturer.
[edit] The Club Car
Also refers to a restaurant in Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA. Also refers to a railroad passenger car equipped with lounge chairs, tables, a buffet or bar, and other comforts which is also called lounge car.
