Boys Will Be Boys and Geeks Will Be Geeks: The LOLrioKart

Who needs a skateboard when you can simply fire up that shopping cart.

Sometimes you wish you had just applied yourself a bit more while in school. In fact, the folks at Gizmodo lay it all on the line:

When you were in college, you spent your free time drinking tallboys of Bud Ice and playing Mario Kart 64 until 5am.

Instead, an adventurous and yes, more serious MIT student has spent his time turning a standard shopping kart into the LOLrioKart. There is much more on the notion of choosing something other than longnecks for a good time at EqualsZero but here are some of the key elements:

……a whimsical attempt to strap a set of large nickel cadmium batteries (a cache of massive aircraft wet-cell NiCd batteries), discovered in a dusty back room, to something – anything……

……the logical progression from the insane electric vehicle project of yesteryear……an attempt to strap a massive brushless motor (a 15 horsepower brushless motor) to something – anything……

……a barrel of monkeys……

The Key Specs on LOLrioKart 1.0

Drivetrain: Midship-Rear 2WD

Hackermann steering geometry

Mechanical front brakes

Mechanical Welded steel tubing stock frame 6061, 2024 aluminum addenda

Motor: MARS Electric ME0201013001 (OEM brushless Etek) 15HP peak
Controller: 200 Amp Kelly BLDC KB72201 with regenerative braking
Battery: 54 volt giant nicads
Instrumentation: Dead Wreck-oning
Top Speed: 45MPH
Acceleration: ?!
Curb Weight: 350lb

Back to the folks at Gizmodo:

And you’ve got to assume that in Cambridge, seeing a motorized shopping cart with a nerd inside tooling around on the street isn’t all that shocking.

While we agree far too many us of spent way too much time with the tallboys, we are not so sure what the reaction might be when folks see this puppy coming at them. In fact, you just may want to make that judgment yourself.

For more on this wondrous little toy watch the YouTube video or explore the great fun these guys are having building and playing with the LOLrioKart at EqualsZero.