I have written of the go-cart that I built and drove as a child here.
Many years ago I bought (probably at another garage sale) this 8 horsepower Briggs and Stratton engine (shown below), with the intended purpose of someday building a go-cart powered by this engine with my oldest son, David. He is middle aged now and we never did build that cart. Two more children came, Megan and Will, but neither of them wanted to build a go-cart with me either. Part of my thinking was “what I wouldn’t have done as a kid to have this more powerful engine available to me back then”. This was more than double the horsepower of any of my engines in those days.
So, this engine sat in my garage, collecting dust for more than 20 years. I never found another use for it.
There was a garage sale in my neighborhood recently, and my wife and I put some things out to sell. When going through my garage, I saw this engine, knew it no longer had a place in my life, and decided to put it out to sell.
As the garage sale was coming to an end and the engine remained unsold, one of our neighbors stopped by. Her husband builds and races go-carts with their 14-year-old grandson, who was with her. I asked the young man if he wanted the engine and he said that he did not. But he had a friend that he thought might want it for a go-cart that he was building. After a quick call, it was determined that this friend did indeed want the engine. So, I ended up giving this engine at no charge to this 14-year-old boy to put on his go-cart.
I must admit that I was a little sad to see that engine leave, and the finality of what it represented. But I was happy that it was going to a young mechanically inclined person who would hopefully enjoy it like I would have and could put it to the appropriate use as I had intended. This is as it should be.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of many happy and fun times for this young man and the fulfillment of his dream.
I have had many equally great experiences, equal to or better than building a go-cart, with all my children; but I realize that my go-cart building days with them are in the past now, and that is fine with me. But the possibility of enjoying this with grandchildren is a story yet to be written. I would probably buy a new gas engine, or maybe it would be an electric engine at that time. I can’t wait!