The BritishV8 Pub

Ok so my grandson has turned 3. Clearly it's time that he learned how to drive.
His 5 year old sister has a 6V pink Mini that we jacked up to 36V and it pulls awesome wheelies on 4" slicks.
I have a 37 Willy's hood, 18 horse B.S. stripped down twin. some 20/10/8 rear tires and random 8"wheelbarrow tires for the front.
I want to turn this mess into a cool little pickup truck for him to have fun with and show with my son by law's 32 roadster.

The idea is to narrow the hood and put a small fabricated box on it to turn it into a pickup.

We would expose the air cooled fins of the twin through the hood , throw down the exhaust into some side pipes. And basically have some fun with it.
We have some time to refine the design.
I'm looking for some cool ideas to help the project along.
What does the collective think?

Make it big enough so he doesn't outgrow it. Could be a handy item to have around. I love the idea.

Yep, set up the drive so it can be easily geared up later. That B&S will only run so fast so it makes a handy speed limiter. It should be capable of 45mph or better geared up. Maybe you could use a light weight 4 or 5 speed and block the gates to all but 1st and Rev. Maybe a lawn tractor axle.

I used cable steering on my son's go-kart but I've seen an exposed rack and pinion used, that's probably the way to go.

It'll be a bit wide, but that'll be handy later.

Jim

I want it to be narrow enough to fit into a pickup box. So that will kinda set the width limit.
And the cockpit needs to be large enough to accommodate grandpa, you know, just in case!
! hadn't considered a transmission, but that's a good idea. Was going to use a CV belt drive to a driveshaft then into an angle drive at the rear. I've got an old Alfa transaxle/clutch combo from a Milano that might fit well.
For steering I was thinking of a side steer just for the looks.
Thanks for the input, that's why I ask you guy's.

It'll be a while before he can learn to shift with a clutch. He'll have way more fun with it if you set it up where he can drive it... But you might want to consider an extra brake pedal on the passenger side.

Love it!!
Don't know about real side-pipes for kids though......they bite hard when hot (ask any Cobra owner)......would recommend fake side-pipes for safety.........also a kill switch mounted on the back where an adult can get to it

Remote control kill, like they use at the go-cart tracks. ;)

For a 3 yr old, I'd use a centrifugal clutch. Low maintenance and simple. Press the gas and go!

M.