What do you do with old Bumper Cars

It's easy for a gear-head to be discouraged about the state of the world, especially in times of Carpocalypse and Cash for Clunkers. But occasionally a bright light of awesome renews the spirit. Road-legal bumper cars do just that.

Yes, you read that right, these little beasties are street legal. They run on either  Kawasaki  or Honda motorcycle engines and co-opt vintage bumper car bodies into the most awesome form of mini-car we've seen in too long.

There's seven of these little monsters floating around  California , and they're all the creation of one man, Tom Wright, a builder in the outskirts of  San Diego  who figured the leftovers of the Long Beach Pike amusement park in California needed a more dignified end than the trash heap. They were originally powered by Harley motors but they rattled like heck and Tom replaced them with Honda or  Kawasaki  750's and a couple have been measured as capable of 160 MPH, which is terrifyingly fast in machines with such a short wheelbase.

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