Go Karts are cool, and you know we love them. Many gearheads and BangShifters got their start wrenching on these small four wheeled vehicles, including yours truly. I remember scrounging $200 together from my paper route pay checks to buy a go kart: a homemade looking thing with four wheels, a red, white, and blue 5-horse Tecumseh, and a giant decal of a cheetah’s head with a big “Rambo” knife between its teeth on the floorboard. Frankly, it was the most awesome thing I had set my 11 year old eyes upon. My dad and I would wrench on it all the time, and one thing he used to always talk about was swapping either a pair of chainsaw engines or a motorcycle engine on the back to make it even more insane. When that poor patriotic 5hp Tecumseh snapped its connecting rod, we took the easy route and swapped on a 6hp unit from a snowblower. But even after that, my dad still talked about how crazy it would be to take a pair of two strokes or a bike engine and toss it on the back.

Well, someone on Cape Cod in Massachusetts was apparently listening to my dad’s dreams and made his wish come true, because this enterprising individual slapped a freaking 600cc Suzuki Katana engine on the back of theirs! And of course, it’s for sale!

The pictures of this thing aren’t the best, but you can still get the idea of what’s going on here. It looks like someone took a single seat kart with some suspension bits and slapped a bike engine on the back. The concept is pretty simple, but the approach is where it gets interesting.

Up front, there’s a headlight, in case you dare to ride this beast in the cover of night. I would imagine that this thing had a roll bar to begin with, but this one looks either bent or modified.

Out back is where it gets really interesting. That’s 600cc’s of sport bike fury slapped on there with what appears to be an air compressor tank serving as the gas tank. The chain from the transmission is mated up with the original live axle. Take note of the single stock rear disc brake on the back. Stopping is best planned well in advance!

Look, it has shocks! From what we can tell, zero chassis reinforcements have been made. No word on how well the chassis puts up with the added mass of the four cylinder engine.

Yeah, we see what you see: booger welds attaching the air tank… err…GAS tank to the roll bar. This is a bit on the sketchy side, even for this thing. One good run through the woods, and you might crack those welds, which could result in gas pouring out everywhere and fiery doom.

You were probably thinking, how do you shift this thing? Well, that chunk of handlebar sticking off the side is probably part of your answer. I’m assuming that the lever is the clutch. Where the actual foot shifter went is still a mystery. If the throttle is on that grip instead of being pedal-actuated, then you basically have to keep this thing straight with one hand. Think about that for a minute!

Let me lay a couple of hair raising stats on you: the 1995 Suzuki Katana 600 came from the factory with 86 horsepower. That’s 80 MORE HORSEPOWER than my old go kart had, and that thing was capable of some pretty crazy speeds after I replaced the 5hp engine with a 6hp one. Not only that, but the Katana was capable of getting up to 140 MILES PER HOUR. Considering that the go-kart is likely lighter than the bike it came from, and if not too many of those 86 horses have left the stable over the years, this thing will almost definitely get you killed faster than you can say “Hold my beer!”. Even so, we want to try it, because we are nuts.

The price of admission is a little steep at $700 since it’s not running well, but man, it’s tempting. If you have a death wish and $700 burning a hole in your jorts, by all means go for it! The ad is right here for your perusal. 

For posterity’s sake, the ad is posted below as well:

Needs the carb clean sat for a month runs but soon as you give it gas it stales runs perfect in warmer weather think it needs to be jetted

Would you have the stones to drive this thing into oblivion? Also, what would you change on it to avoid instant death? Let us know below!