Go-Kart

When as young boys we used to spend whole afternoons playing it sometimes happened that after having read all the comic books we could lay our hands on, or having raced with our electric cars and playing flick-board, we didn’t know what else to do to spend our time.

One day after having done all the games we could think of, one of the guys came up with the idea of building wooden go-karts and then having races with one another.

We accepted this proposal willingly and from that day onwards each of us started looking for the wood suitable to make his own go-kart.

Some of us decided to use ball-bearing wheels, others used old baby pram wheels.

We looked for ball-bearings in the workshops and garages of Pietermaritzburg. We found many used ones. The major problem was to get four ball-bearing wheels of the same size and only few go-karts came out with four identical wheels.

These bearing wheels were ideal to be used on smooth surfaces and were not fit to ride on the cement slabs of which the pavements were made. For this reason we decided that we would have raced during the week ends in the parking area of the supermarkets where the surfaces were tarred and particularly smooth.

The pram-wheels we got from old prams that people threw on the dumps. They were just the right size and unlike the ball-bearings they could run on any surface.

We all got busy making our karts in Bugs’ garage. The ball bearing karts were one meter length. The seat was placed on the horizontal axis on the back of the kart. On the ends of the axis were fitted the ball-bearings.

Perpendicular to the seat, in the front part, we fixed the front axis with a bolt in the middle and the front bearings. This front axis was the steering which we maneuvered with our feet.

The go-karts built with the pram-wheels were easier to handle and for this reason were almost twice as long. We used a rope for steering. I chose to build this model because with a good pusher it went very fast and everywhere.

When we all finished to build our own go-karts, we went every Sunday afternoon racing. Those who had ball-bearing karts used to meet at the parking area where we drew a track with white chalk. The others raced on the usual bike track.

For each kart there was a driver and a team mate who with his hands resting on the driver’s shoulders, sweating and panting pushed the kart as fast as he could, while the driver egged him to push faster.

To avoid being pushed off his seat the driver had to keep his back straight and hold on tight to the seat with both his hands. With his feet he steered the kart in the wanted direction.

We took turns to push and also to use the karts.

With our racing machines we had great fun for a long time although very often they would capsize when taking a corner too fast. The result was skin off your hands, elbows and knees.

We should have worn crash-helmets but we didn’t. Luckily we never got any serious injuries.

I sometimes surprise myself thinking where did we get the energy to push so fast and to run for such a long time.