Can You Build A Go-Kart Using Only Parts Bought At Tractor Supply?
You guys ever watch Cars and Cameras? If you're not familiar, C&C is a YouTube channel wherein a bunch of gearheads with too much time on their hands make smallbore, mad science creations and film them for our amusement. While they specialize in making go-karts and minibikes as stupid fast and dangerous as possible, they do all sorts of things relating to small-displacement motors.
One of their latest videos is a great example of their mission. It's a mix of technical know-how, fabricating skill, and good old American, "Pssh, I can do that" confidence. In the video, the boys pose a simple question to you, the faithful fan—Can you build a go-kart out of random parts from Tractor Supply Co.?
See, the boys were perusing the TSC website and noticed that the cheapest kart that the company sells—this here 98cc Coleman GK100 single-seater—costs $999 Yankee Dollars. John, C&C's fearless leader, wondered if they could build their own kart out of random parts that TSC sells for less than the Coleman. So, off they went to their local store where they loaded up a shopping cart with random junk, a returned, second-hand pressure washer with a questionable engine, and a short stack of scaffolding that had sat outside for so long that the wooden platforms had started to peel and rot. Then they headed back to the shop and got to building.
Were they successful? I mean, maybe? For various metrics of "success", sure. I'm not gonna spoil it for you, but in the first few seconds of the video you see John in the pilot's seat of one of the dumbest, jankiest vehicles I've ever seen breathlessly telling the camera, "This is one of the most dangerous go-karts we've ever built." Go ahead and give it a watch. It's just a hair over 45 minutes, but I guarantee you it'll be the best 45 minutes and change of your day.
Read more: What Car Has The Worst Build Quality You've Ever Seen?
Along with modifying existing karts and bikes, the C&C boys enjoy the occasional full, ground-up build. Being talented fabricators and knowledgeable mechanics—despite the well-tuned good ol' boy hillbilly engineer demeanors they put on for the camera—they've built some pretty rad machines. They always have a twist, though. A weird idea or an angle that shouldn't work but absolutely does. That's what makes watching them such a treat—they're the living embodiment of the idea that states you have to know the rules inside and out to successfully break them.
It's not all fancy maths and fabrication, either. One time, they dragged a clapped-out Honda CB350F out of the woods where it'd been sitting for 40 years with no spark plugs in the engine and got it running. Another time they bought an abandoned hovercraft, put a bigger engine in it, then went hooning around storm surge from Hurricane Debbie. When I tell you that these dudes know how to have fun, I mean it.
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