How to Have Fun While Risking Your Life

The best performance cars keep things simple, but even the simplest, most lightweight vehicles on the modern market take steps to protect at least two passengers.

Not so, for one gutsy engineer who slapped a V-8 on some basic wheels, and called it a go-kart, for hope.

Risky go-kart strapped to V-8 engine is probably fast

The result of this Marie-Kondo engineering is just a steel frame, two upright seats, and a 305 cubic inch V-8 from General Motors, listed on the bidding website Bring a Trailer. The seats are glorified bar stools, at least one of the vehicle's gauges show incorrect readings, and the entire vehicle looks like a forklift. But it would add minimal complications to your life — unless you crashed. Crashes make life complicated.

We aren't sure if this thing is fast, but with so little mass tied to a V-8 engine, it probably is. The total weight isn't listed, but the size-to-weight ratio seems closer to 1 horsepower per pound. Near civilization, speed alone won't do much, but this custom death-kart (kidding) comes with a trailer.

This isn't the first custom go-kart made with an unrelenting disregard for personal danger. Earlier this month, a different engineer strapped an RC jet engine to a go-kart frame, and accelerated to ludicrous speeds in a YouTube video.

Engineers during COVID-19 are very passionate about building things that risk their lives

The man with the jet-strapped go-kart used two gallons of jet fuel — providing "a few minutes" of acceleration, according to the video. He controlled the throttle via a classic RC remote control. And it was a very loud jet engine. Using a GoPro camera clipped onto his helmet's visor, the man recorded his exhibition laps in a parking lot — which nearly ended badly when he came within a few precarious inches of a curb.

Later, when his hydro jet fuel got low, air began to fill more and more of the novel vehicle's fuel tank, causing the fuel to slush around and let air into the fuel line, killing the engine. We don't know if there are statistics on bored engineers creating exceedingly life-threatening inventions to jolt themselves awake amid the mundane long empty corridors of time since the COVID-19 crisis caused many to spend indescribable amounts of time at home, but it would be interesting to know.

The tricked-out kart with a V-8 engine slapped on is on its second owner after the un-named engineer and designer finished the minimalist masterpiece — which is still listed on Being a Trailer as of writing, where bidding goes up to $1,200. We don't know why, but it has two cupholders with no extra cargo space. Maybe it's the ultimate in couples' coffee delivery, double-majoring in fear-of-death counseling.