When I was a very young child, one thing I absolutely remember wanting was for my grandfather to take me for a ride on the mower. To little four-year-old me, that riding mower looked like the coolest thing, and the smell of fresh-cut grass couldn’t be beat. I never got to ride it, because my grandparents were afraid that I’d get hurt (and as an adult, I totally understand why not).
That, of course, was a perfectly normal riding mower—and nothing like the Suzuki GS 450 lawn mower go kart build that the guys from Cars and Cameras just built. This contraption is powered by the engine out of a Suzuki GS 450, complete with its six-speed gearbox. It’s really more of a go-kart build than a functional lawnmower, but since they slapped the cover from an old Lawnflite riding mower (completely with enviable patina) over the engine, they’re calling it a mower anyway.
For those unfamiliar with Cars and Cameras, the guys behind the channel cover a lot of different ground with their builds. There are lots of minibikes, lots of go karts, and plenty of other stuff as well—including franken-vehicle creations like this one.
This GS 450-engined go kart build is a lot of fun to watch, primarily because you get to watch a lot of design and problem-solving in action. Although they have that GS 450 engine and that Lawnflite cover, pretty much everything else is stuff that they put together using a tube bending machine, a bunch of welding, modification of some adjustable-length tie rods from the channel’s longtime sponsor, GoPowerSports, and more things in that vein.
All told, true to their usual form, the Cars and Cameras guys are cramming about three weeks’ worth of work into one, because they have a deadline to meet. When they shot this video, they were getting ready to bring this build down to Texas for the Pate Swap Meet, to be held on the last weekend in April 2023.
Even the most rushed of builds needs a good shakedown before you take it out in public, though. Unfortunately, that’s when the guys discovered one of the worst things about previous owners: You never know what kind of damage they’ve done to a given machine. As it turns out, the engine from the GS 450 not only had a seal that was almost completely destroyed, but the engine case had also apparently been gouged by a screwdriver (or something similarly sharp), so the mating surface for the gasket was all messed up.
Where they thought they could solve an oil leak by simply installing a new gasket, they instead had to turn to fuel tank repair putty for a quick fix. The new plan was to have a replacement gasket shipped to Texas to meet them at the event, and then use a whole bunch of silicone to make the repair hold (at least, for the duration of the event). Since the video concludes prior to the event, we don’t know if the plan worked or not—but sometimes, you just have to do the best you can and cross your fingers. That’s probably not a great idea if you’re going to ride it every day, but that’s not what this build is for, so it makes a certain kind of sense.
