Running Full Speed On Kid Power

Different state - same theme. The Brownrigg kids and friends
prepare for a kid-powered go cart race in Clifton Beach (Cleveland), Ohio.

   Some of the nuttiest things I ever got involved with took place during those years before girls and summer jobs filled the time. For most of those nutty activities, I had a partner named Gary Costa.

   We constructed extravagant slot car layouts, took adventurous bike rides, built car models and learned how to play Risk – sort of. One of our most memorable activities was building a homemade go cart.

   Some of the older neighborhood kids had go carts powered by upright lawn mower engines. We would see and certainly hear them in the empty church parking lot. It looked like so much fun that one day Gary and I decided to build our own cart.

   There were no sponsors for our racing team so spending money was out of the question. The cart would need to be built from materials scavenged from our own garages.

   We started with an old ¾”sheet of plywood that weighed much more than it needed to. A crude seat was built from thinner plywood and an old 2 x 4 would hold the front axle.  The wheels and axles were scavenged from an old go cart and clothesline was tied to the front axle for steering.

   We hammered it together with a box of roofing nails we found and Gary’s father offered advice and hardware for attaching the axles to the cart. We borrowed a half empty can of house paint and ruined a few of my father’s brushes as we painted the entire cart gloss black.

   Before the cart was ready for racing, we needed two more key pieces – an engine and brakes. I am sure the vehicle would have been faster and safer if we included those but unfortunately that never happened.

   Instead we ran and stopped the cart using kid power.  I would push it down the block and Gary would push it back. Stopping was avoided as much as possible. Since running the cart down the city street was not a good plan, we pushed it along the tree lined sidewalks.  If we were lucky enough not to hit a tree, the cart would usually coast to a stop on someone’s lawn.

   On those few occasions where one of us would push the other into a tree, the driver would slide across the splintered sheet of plywood like a test dummy. Later we installed a rope behind the seat that tied around the waist to ensure the driver’s complete safety.

   We knew the go cart wasn’t fast since it was almost as heavy as an SUV and we saw the flaws in an engine-less vehicle.  Still, we were proud of the cart and it filled a lot of time during the summer and fall of 1968. It also filled up Mr. Costa’s garage as he was quick to point out from time to time.

   The best and last time we ran the cart was after a heavy snowfall. The sidewalks had been shoveled but ice covered everything. The pushing was a challenge but the driving was a blast. The car spun and slid on the ice until it struck a large tree at a relatively fast speed. The front end broke and Gary was lucky not to lose a kidney to our rope seat belt system.

   A few years Gary and I would be driving real cars. Fortunately we never slammed into a tree but there was one day when the engine with on his Triumph Spitfire stalled. Just like the old days, I found myself pushing Gary and his car down the street. You know I think the Spitfire was actually lighter than that go cart.