It's a bit of a rough time for America right now, but it's good to know that there are always good old boys out in the woods building stupid machines that go real dang fast. Cars and Cameras is among my favorite channels on YouTube, and they always seem to find a new way to outdo themselves. After the incredible supercharged wheelbarrow hot rod, which I didn't think would be possible to top, these ridiculous boys found a Harley 1200cc Sportster engine on Facebook Marketplace. The next step was to slap that baby on a tiny steel go kart frame and go full-send for the glory of the good 'ol red, white, and blue.
Some of the greatest automotive triumphs of the last 100 years can be boiled down to a hot rodder putting a big motor in a lightweight, small, or simple, no-frills car. Carroll Shelby and his Cobra built a legend around that very concept. The first-generation Dodge Viper is maybe the best example of that sort of formula. All you need to go fast is four wheels, a big-displacement engine, seats, and a steering wheel. Everything else is a luxury.
The chassis of this no-frills kart was probably designed with a tiny motor in mind, you know, something with about five horsepower on tap. With a bit of fabrication, some wider axles, and a bunch of bracing, the new two-hundred-pound iron beating heart of a Sportster was plopped right there on the side where your right elbow would go. It's unwieldy, but it works! This ridiculous little Milwaukee's beast will burn rubber and spray gravel as long as you want it to. "Pick a gear and disappear," so says the Cars and Cameras boys.
It's difficult to say exactly how much power the new Harley-sourced engine is delivering to the tiny kart without knowing the exact year and spec of bike it came from, but a 1200cc Sportsters made between 57 and 70 horsepower, and delivered between 65 and 73 lb-ft of torque. Regardless of the exact engine used, this is significantly more power (and weight) than the kart was ever designed to handle. Pair that with a five-speed transmission and you've got a yard kart that can probably keep up with most high-powered sports cars on the drag strip. And with the big V-twin employing a simple dump pipe exhaust setup, it's probably louder, to boot.
On the first test ride of the new machine, it absolutely spit rocks out the back and churned mud every which way. It'll lay elevens in the dirt with barely any throttle application, thanks to all those bucket loads of torque. This is what American muscle is all about, brother. Shortly after getting onboard, John exclaimed "This is the coolest thing we've ever built!" Considering all of the ridiculous contraptions to come out of their shop, that's high praise.
This is one of those cheap and simple YouTube builds that I deeply enjoy. It's the kind of build that's inspiring me to get out and build something incredibly dumb with my friends this spring. And a kart like this, with knobby tires might just be a good way to get outside and enjoy touching grass. If you can stop scrolling through TikTok, flip over to Facebook Marketplace, find a wrecked Harley and a cheap go kart frame, and get welding, you'll find it tough to wipe the smile off your face. Just make sure you wear a helmet, because if anything goes wrong on this beast, it's going to hurt.
