I GREW UP in Southern California in the 1960s, when car culture was a big influence on a boy. Slot cars and plastic models were the gateway drugs, so to speak, which were followed by go-karts and minibikes. I lived in a rural area on the family chicken ranch where there was plenty of room to rod around on hardpacked dirt. My dad, who built much of his own farm equipment, fabricated a gokart for my older brother when he was 5. I inherited the kart when my brother moved on to bigger things. Of course, I modified it by installing
