1968 Corvette Roadrunner
Our History
How would you like to WIN one of the
neat little blue Corvette styled go
carts you have seen around. Well, first lets step back a few years. Let me
take you back to the year 1967 when Lyndon Baines Johnson was President and
Leonard K. Wright, Jr. was Potentate. Top songs of the year included Ode To
Billy Joe, All You Need Is Love, Penny Lane, and Can't Take My Eyes Off Of
You. The Green Bay Packers beat The Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I, as
many United States Soldiers were in Vietnam.
General Motors Chevrolet Division was ready to unveil a new design for its
American sports car the Corvette. The Corvette had been a huge success
through the sixty's, and with this new sleeker, faster design it would be
even better. You may remember seeing this new Corvette either when out
shopping for a car yourself, or for many of you, out with our Dad. This car
had what every American male would want, and you just had to know that all of
the women would notice you in an automobile like this.
When you went to the Chevy Dealer during the year 1968, most likely in the
showroom would be one of the new Corvettes. In addition to that, each
Chevrolet Dealer in the United States was given one miniature go-cart styled
after the Corvette. If you were a kid during these years, and saw one of
these small blue Corvettes you had to just go nuts to get one. But, these
small Corvettes were in demand, for there was only one per dealer, and it had
to sit at the dealership for the entire year. At the end of the year it
would be given away. To qualify to be in the drawing you had to have bought
one of the new Corvettes during the year. Can you imagine the excitement if
you won one of these neat little cars?
Several Shrinners got together and decided that these neat little cars would
make an excellent Unit, and thus, the birth of the Roadrunners. The original
cars came with a small 3 horsepower motor. This of coarse was not enough
power for what these high-powered Nobles wanted to do. So the newly formed
Roadrunners replaced them with 8 horsepower Kohler engines. Now they had
something that would move, yep, they would go close to 50mph, riding only
three inches of the ground. These small blue Corvette go-carts quickly
became a hit at the Shrinners parades, and were unbeatable in competition.
To this day, 31 years later, they are a hit at all events they attend.
The next time you see the Roadrunners out, let your mind go back in time, and
just think how excited you would have been to win one of those little blue
cars back at the end of 1968 as you listened to one of the top songs of the
year, "Mrs. Robinson" from the film the "Graduate".
Specifications
This car is built on a metal
framed go cart frame. It has a Briggs and Stratton 5 horse power electric
start engine with chain drive. The body is of fiberglass, painted blue with
gold lettering and decals. This go cart is modeled after the 1968 Chevrolet
Corvette and will do close to 50 mph. These cars are used by Shriners as
parade vehicles in the Orlando Florida area.
