This is a 1961 Fox Go-Boy go kart that benefits from a recent refurbishment. It’s powered by a pair of matching Clinton A490 Panther two-stroke singles factory-rated at 2.5 bhp each for a whopping 5 bhp total.
It was a Fox Go-Boy much like this one, with twin engines, that won the 1961 World Championships held in Nassau, in the Bahamas. Go karts built by Fox were among the best in the world at the time, and today they’re remembered as being crucial early designs in the burgeoning history of the go cart scene.
Perhaps the major highlight of the company’s history was the 1961 World Championship win in the Bahamas thanks to the driving efforts of Bobby Allen in his Fox Mak-Kart powered by twin McCulloch motors. Image courtesy of the Fox Body Company.
History Speedrun: The Fox Go-Boy Go Kart
The Fox Body Company of Janesville, Wisconsin, emerged during the height of America’s mid-1960s go kart and minibike boom. Like many small Midwestern manufacturers of the time, it operated as a regional builder rather than a national brand, supplying simple recreational machines through local dealers, magazine advertisements, and hardware stores.
Fox is most commonly associated with its Go Boy line of go karts, with their simple welded tubular steel frames with straightforward, single-seat layouts typical of recreational karts and minibikes of the time. Power generally came from small single-cylinder, air-cooled engines, most often 2.5 to 5 bhp Clinton, Briggs & Stratton, or Tecumseh units, driving a solid rear axle via centrifugal clutch and chain.
Suspension on these early karts was typically non-existent, with rigid steel frames and pneumatic tire sidewalls doing their best to absorb the bumps and jolts out on track.
The Go Boy name was used extensively on both minibike and go kart models, though production volumes remain completely undocumented it does seem likely that at least a few thousand of each were manufactured.
Fox is most commonly associated with its Go Boy line of go karts, with their simple welded tubular steel frames with straightforward, single-seat layouts typical of recreational karts and minibikes of the time. Images courtesy of the Fox Body Company.
Production ran in the mid-to-late 1960s before the kart market contracted sharply at the end of the decade, – this downturn eliminated many smaller regional manufacturers, and Fox Body Company seems to have been among them.
Perhaps the major highlight of the company’s history was the 1961 World Championship win in the Bahamas thanks to the driving efforts of Bobby Allen in his Fox Mak-Kart powered by twin McCulloch motors. Surviving Go Boy karts and minibikes only come up for sale rarely in enthusiast forums and on platforms like eBay and Bring a Trailer.
The Fox Go-Boy Go Kart Shown Here
The go kart you see here is an original Fox Go-Boy from 1961 that has now been restored back to similar-to-new condition. The refurbishment included repainting the frame in Emerald Green Metallic, with a color-matched rear bumper, seat frame, and steering column. A replacement stainless-steel floorpan has also now been fitted.
Power is provided by a pair of matching Clinton A490 Panther two-stroke, air-cooled, single-cylinder engines factory-rated at 2.5 bhp each, for 5 bhp total. These engines were reportedly rebuilt during the restoration, and pull starters, velocity stacks, and Bill Mathews exhausts are fitted.
This is a 1961 Fox Go-Boy go kart that benefits from a recent refurbishment, and it’s powered by a pair of matching Clinton A490 Panther two-stroke singles factory-rated at 2.5 bhp each.
The kart has a “Satelite Seat” which has been retrimmed in white and black vinyl over a fiberglass base, it sits in front of a three-spoke steering wheel and twin cross-drilled foot pedals.
It’s now being offered for sale out of Gilbert, Arizona at no reserve on a bill of sale. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
