Street Legal Bumper Cars Prove World Is A Beautiful Place

By Ben Wojdyla, 1:00 PM on Tue Aug 25 2009, 60,040 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

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It's easy for a gear-head to be discouraged about the state of the world, especially in times of Carpocalypse and Cash for Clunkers. But occasionally a bright light of awesome renews the spirit. Road-legal bumper cars do just that.

Yes, you read that right, these little beasties are street legal. They run on either Kawasaki or Honda motorcycle engines and co-opt vintage bumper car bodies into the most awesome form of mini-car we've seen in too long. There's seven of these little monsters floating around California, and they're all the creation of one man, Tom Wright, a builder in the outskirts of San Diego who figured the leftovers of the Long Beach Pike amusement park needed a more dignified end than the trash heap. They were originally powered by Harley motors but they rattled like hell and Tom replace them with Honda or Kawasaki 750's and a couple have been measured as capable of 160 MPH, which is terrifyingly fast in machines with such a short wheelbase. Doesn't mean we would totally rock one should the opportunity present itself. In fact, we now have only one burning desire, to see these things running a go kart track with a clown in the drivers seat. No idea where the clown came from.

[via Jalopy Journal, read more at Bench Race]