Being the kind of kart racer that gets you uninvited from birthday go kart parties is fun and all, but what are you supposed to do in those cold winter months? Not go karting? Blasphemy! Surely there must be some way to keep your skills honed through the winter. Something like a 125-cc two-stroke shifter kart decked out for snow use with tracks from Temu.
Is this kart objectively good? Well, it was before it got the skis and tracks attached. Now it seems like a genuine pain to ride, but it makes its way across expanses of snow better than a set of kart slicks would. It just needs to get the hang of the whole “turning” thing.
Getting the tracks and skis on to the kart is simple enough in theory, but the actual operation is more complex than you might expect. Generally, when someone needs to pull out an entire lathe to make something fit, I’d argue a part no longer counts as plug-and-play. The folks over at The Rad Factory are well-equipped, though, so we can live our winter karting dreams vicariously through them.
The kart only runs when push-started, and seems to stall immediately when it stops. There’s a lot of pushing and pulling, a lot of stopping, and a plenty of pauses when the kart decides to eject one of its tracks in a corner. This happens with a genuinely surprising frequency, which the kart’s creators attribute to the Temu-ness of the tracks.
With a more reliable propulsion setup, maybe this kart would be the ideal way to keep your karting prowess up over the winter. Maybe four strokes for cold reliability, nicer tracks that actually stay on in a corner. That would be a vehicle I’d absolutely love to ride.