From the moment you were strapped into a tube frame with a 3.5 horsepower lawnmower engine making power, chances are good that if you’re here reading this, that you love go-karts and everything they are all about. They’re fun, they handle, and for many, they are the first introduction to motorsports participation. But as you get bigger, you need bigger power to keep the same speed and thrill levels, don’t you? When you’re a full-sized adult male, even the better pull-start go-karts just don’t cut it, something that was hammered home when Chad and Keith Haney handed me my ass racing go-karts in St. Louis. So you step up to shifter karts, the real-deal racing machines that will hit triple-digit speeds. These are the little badasses that train up and coming pro drivers. And then, there’s one step too far.
Do you know what a Honda CBR1000RR is? It’s also known as the “Fireblade”…it’s a sociopathic crotch rocket that can run 0-60 in just a tick over two second and trip the quarter-mile in the nines. Now ditch the “bike” part, take that engine, and strap it to a go-kart, tiny tires and all. What have you done, man? You’ve created a machine that doesn’t test acceleration, speed and grip, you’ve created a monster that shrieks like something has grabbed a banshee by the beanbag. You’ve created your own personal g-tester, and the only thing stopping you from looking like a wanna-be astronaut inside of that closed-face helmet is your right foot. And traction? HA! The only way that sucker is getting traction is if the 160 pound human gets out of the seat and someone with much more mass gets in instead.
I call dibs.
The only thing between you and the road….is the road! I might have nerves of steel, just not titanium!
I’m not sure about being strapped into a go-cart without a roll cage?
I would much rather drive the wheelie bus