OUR GO-KARTS

I have been contacted recently by a few people who remember the legendary fleet of go-karts that I built with my brother John around 1976. Huge crowds of kids would congregate in Halewood Drive in the evenings and during school holidays to race the things round a course that we created near the junction with Hunts Cross Avenue. There were many accidents and incidents, including a high-speed collision with a parked car - and we had no insurance! If you ever joined us on these "rallies", the pictures below might bring back some memories. And if you lived nearby and were driven mad by the noise..... SORRY!

THIS IS HOW IT STARTED......

1964 1967 1970

John is seen on Southport beach in 1964, his pushchair ("buggy") parked behind him. When he grew out of this, Our Dad stored it in the loft, so that we could use it for our own children in years to come.........

In 1967, Our Dad removed the bodywork of our old pram from the chassis. This made a great go-kart, but it couldn't be steered. So in 1970 he modified it into the go-kart on the right, which we steered with our feet. This was the forerunner to what was to follow.....

THE PROTOTYPES

THE MOBILE SHED

Sadly, no photographs were ever taken of this contraption, built in the October half-term of 1975. Originally constructed as a four-seater, we added sides and a roof, and "glazed" the windows with sheets of clear plastic, held in place by dozens of drawing pins. We would park it in the road and hold meetings inside it, sometimes up to six of us jammed tightly inside! On more than one occasion we overturned the thing trying to drive it with a full load.

The picture is a sketch, which I made shortly after it fell apart.

The following spring, we turned our attention to building go-karts designed for speed, and ended up with a fleet of seven racing machines.

"CLOGMOBILE"

This was made from a porter's trolley with cast iron wheels, of the sort used for moving stacks of crates. By attaching a plank of wood, a seat cushion and a golf trolley for steering, this was our racing prototype.

I am pictured in Halewood Drive pushing Danny Mcneilis. We also invented the "push-stick", which I am holding. This enabled the pusher to propel the go-kart at great speed without having to bend down. We attached hooks to the bottom of these sticks, and metal loops to the backs of the go-karts. Theoretically the pusher could act as a brake by hooking the stick into the loop and pulling. This was not always successful.....

The cast iron wheels slid easily on concrete, so it was possible to turn a corner at speed and go into a 180-degree spin (a bit like a handbrake turn!) The loud rumbling noise from the cast iron wheels was horrendous, and we received so many complaints and threats from our peace-loving neighbours that we scrapped the machine. But the scene was set.......

THE RACING FLEET

No. 1: "SWALLOW"

This six-wheeler was made by threading a plank through the folded-down framework of a pram, and attaching a golf trolley for steering. The hood at the rear could be pulled up over the driver's head, if he ducked down a bit.

This was considered the most luxurious of the fleet, as it had suspension springs. The pram was found dumped near Allerton Tower on Menlove Avenue, and we persuaded a bus driver that we knew to allow us to bring it home on his bus. It got its name simply because the brand name of the pram was "Swallow", and there were small ornate badges on it bearing the name. We added number plates to the back of the fleet, this one was KKF 73P (1975/6 was the year of P-reg suffix-plates).

I used "Swallow" as a trailer attached to my bike when transporting bulky objects, and it ventured as far as Wavertree!

No. 2: "BLUEBIRD"

We decided to keep the bird theme for most of the fleet, and as the wooden boards forming the seat were pale blue, this was the obvious name.

The wheels were from a supermarket trolley. I had spotted this abandoned on waste land in the Edge Hill area when passing on a bus, so I rode my bike down there, armed with a set of spanners, and removed the wheels. They were fastened onto the ends of the axle-blocks with six-inch nails. This was by far the fastest of the fleet. Steered with the handle of a dolls' pram, it had a great success rate, winning almost 80% of the races in which it competed. (Yes, we kept records, some of which I still have!) This carried the number plate KKF 74P, which we later spotted for real on a Police motorcycle!

No. 3: "EL CID"

This marvellous machine is still talked about today by those who saw it in action. It is probably the only double-decker go-kart ever in the whole world!

It was owned by Brian Rimmer (pictured on the top deck) who built it out of pieces of an old school desk. I did most of the conversion work, adding four uprights, a top platform and an old car seat on top. We measured its height - it was 6 feet and 6 inches tall, and only had an inch clearance passing through the frame of our back gate.

The uprights were later sawn through and connecting plates added, enabling the top deck to be removed for racing, and re-attached with eight nuts and bolts.

The pusher had a hard job as it was very heavy due to the amount of thick planks and the weight of the driver and passenger. The pusher also had the job of preventing it from overturning as it was rather top-heavy.

On one occasion I drove it under a low tree in Layton Road. The top deck passenger would have been sliced in two by a branch had it not been for the quick reactions of the pusher who stopped and reversed. Unfortunately the passenger's jumper snagged on the branch and he was left dangling!

We gave it the registration LKA 147R.

No. 4: "PHEONIX"  (...rises from the attic!)

Future generations of Salmon children were spared the embarrassment of being pushed around in an antique mode of transport when we finally persuaded Our Dad to retrieve John's old pushchair from the loft, where it had lain for ten years gathering dust and going rusty. It was converted into this splendid vehicle, steered by a chain. This was not the most successful method as potholes could easily deflect the wheels and cause the driver to lose control.

The spoked wheels collapsed one by one and when this picture was taken only one remained, on the side that cannot be seen.

Fortunately I found an old kiddies' trike with a front wheel the right size. However, it had a pedal bar welded through the centre, so I sneaked it into school and drilled the centre out in the metalwork room while the teacher wasn't looking.

This one carried the number LKA 310R nailed to the back. (It is pictured at the top of the page on Southport beach in 1964 when it was serving its intended purpose).

No. 5: "STARLING"

(Or, as one of our neighbours suggested, "Startling" would have been a

more appropriate name).

This was a total hybrid - the seat was from a car, the rear wheels from a

golf trolley and the boot from a tricycle, but the steering unit was a complete

electric lawn mower! It actually had a revolving blade underneath, but

we removed this as it kept snagging on bumps in the ground.

A great entertainment of the time was created by driving it at speed into

deep puddles. The flat front of the lawn mower created a high wave of

water, which usually swept backwards over the driver.

We gave it the number LKA 311R.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS!

I posted some of these photos on my Facebook page, and Diane Mcneilis (sister of Danny, pictured on "Clogmobile") sent me this message:

"Those handmade go carts were the best. Don't the kids today miss out on all that 'cos they're just stuck indoors on their computers? They have no get-up-and-go like we all had!"

Never a truer word, Diane! We had no "risk assessments" or Health & Safety regulations. We used hammers and saws unsupervised, and we banged in nails and cut up wood without goggles, gloves or ear-protectors.

When completed, the go-karts had all sorts of unprotected moving parts and jagged edges sticking out. We drove the things at tremendous speeds, often crashing into each other or falling off. We had no protective headgear, or even brakes!

When we came home covered in cuts and bruises, with torn clothes, we didn't start taking legal action against each other - we just got on with it.

And in spite of spending most of our out-of-school time building go-karts in rain, wind and snow, we still grew up knowing how to spell correctly, construct sentences, write tidily and count without a calculator. Those certainly were the days!

If you ever joined us on our go-kart rallies, please CONTACT ME and share your memories of those happy, carefree days.

No. 6: "BLUETIT" and No. 7: "CONCORDE"

Following the success of "Bluebird", these two were built to the same design, and numbered LLV 62R and LLV 63R. We used the same pale blue boards (they were doors from a set of lockers that had been dumped at my school), but could only find one supermarket trolley, the wheels of which went on "Concorde". "Bluetit" had to make do with a set of wheels from a pushchair, but was actually quite successful at racing.

Andy Carpenter is driving Bluetit at speed on Hunts Cross Avenue, pushed by Brian Pearson, who did not have faith in our revolutionary "push-sticks". And, for some strange reason, I am pictured in Concorde on the roof of our kitchen!

This fleet caused mayhem on Halewood Drive for more than a year, until we yielded to parental pressure and scrapped them in April 1977.

MUSIC!

BUSES