Established in May 8th, 1959, by the Carvalho brothers (Mario and Cezar), the Mecânica Riomar was originally an outboard motor manufacturer.

In 1966, Cláudio Daniel Rodrigues, a racing chassis manufacturer, transferred his rights of production to Maneco Cambacau and Wilson Fittipaldi Jr.
Six months later, Wilson and Cambacau began to produce the "lying down chassis", revolutionary at that time (picture above). The Riomar engine was adapted to be used with that chassis. That was the start of Riomar in the racing business.

Later on, Wilson and Maneco transferred the production rights of the chassis to Emerson "Emmo" Fittipaldi, Mario and Cezar de Carvalho. In 1967 Emmo gave up manufacturing karts to focus himself in his successful racing driver career, that gave Brazil two F1 World Championships, one Indy Championship and two Indianapolis 500 victories.
At that time, Mecânica Riomar was manufacturing both chassis and engines, and started to do business as "Kart Mini", the brand that dominates the go-kart Brazilian market since then, helping to "build" generations of racing drivers.

We are very proud to say that drivers like Rubens Barrichello, Helio Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, Christian Fittipaldi, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mauricio Gugelmin, Bruno Junqueira, Tony Kanaan, Cristiano da Matta, Roberto Moreno, Oswaldo Negri Jr., Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, Max Wilson and other champions, all started their professional racing careers racing a KART MINI.

Now we have Rubens Churapatoso, Julio Campos, Joe D'Agostino, Gastas Fragas, Sergio Jimenez, Rafael Sperafico, Pietro Fittipaldi, and many others as up and coming future stars in the Motorsports arena.

Kart Mini produces around 150/200 chassis and 100 engines per month, with state of the art technology and modern CNC machines, they are second to none in the industry.

Kart Mini spends countless hours at the track, testing and improving their products each year so that our customers have the best current technology. Mario de Carvalho still manages all of the testing and development and is seen at the race tracks almost everyday in Brazil.