In the 1960s, George Carter III designed a series of go-karts for a company called Coot Industries, collectively known as “funmobiles“. Fiberglass bodies powered by motorcycle engines are a recipe for fun all right, and these little guys reportedly zip along at 50 mph. The most famous funmobile of all, a Snoopy, was covered in this 2013 Barn Finds article, explaining that Charles Schultz granted use of the Snoopy logo in return for a Coot of his own. Other models included the Searcher (blue), and the Red Baron (red, of course). Here on facebook Marketplace is a Red Baron with an asking price of $2900; take your pickup to Somerset, Wisconsin to retrieve it. T.J. found this snappy tip for us – thanks T.J.!
Unfortunately, the ad doesn’t tell us much about the Red Baron’s history or mechanicals, except that it now has a modern Honda motor installed and it does run and drive. We found the same Coot over here at Houghton’s HiBid, with no indication of its sales price, and barely more information than supplied by the facebook listing. The Coot funmobile was originally equipped with an automatic transmission and rack and pinion steering – pretty sophisticated for a go-kart. Coot also made amphibious, articulated ATVs for off-road antics – check out the illustrations in this Coot owner’s manual.
The bare-bones interior is tidy – the bench seat needs only a good cleaning. The grab bars should be chrome. The Coot came with a host of accessories geared to your intended use – racing, hunting, camping. Four-wheel drive Coots could carry a crowd but the funmobiles were two-seaters.
Surviving Coots are no doubt a fraction of total production. But once in a while, some ambitious owner makes a video chronicling adventures in Coot restoration. Resources for Coot owners can be found at Cootworld here, at route6x6 here, and at Mudd-Ox here. Meanwhile, values are difficult to pin down. Articulated versions seem to sell in the mid-four figures; here’s a rough Snoopy that found a new home for a few hundred dollars. I can think of about a hundred ways to use this little guy – how about you?
I, for one, can’t wait to hear from all of those old Coot owners.
Fantastic article, Michelle!
At the risk of disturbing the writer’s imagery…that engine, while a Honda, is NOT a motorcycle engine. Motorcycle engines do not have recoil hand-starters, nor shrouds to channel air-cooling off a finned flywheel.
Air-cooled motorcycle engines have the cylinders open to the breeze from forward motion. It’s actually a bit of a problem, as, in traffic in hot weather, there’s the risk of overheating. Since most new motorcycles are water-cooled now, it’s not a big issue, but it’s a fundamental design difference.
Honda is relatively new to the portable-power/lawn-mower-engine market. Almost certainly, the original engine was a flathead Briggs & Stratton engine…the staple of minibikes for the 15 years that fad ran.
The Honda unit is almost-certainly an upgrade, and speaks of a quality restoration.
Not to be too much of a Karen, but Rokons and early Honda three wheelers had recoil starters, not to mention about a gazillion Briggs powered minibikes from 1960s on.
With all fairness to the author, when posts like this come up, I almost expect to see Scottys name, but Ms. Rand proves, Scotty isn’t the only one thinking outside the box here. This is unusual, in that, it’s not quite an ATV, not a go kart in the traditional sense, and a poor golf cart. Just for fun, but I just can’t get over how someone spent a lot of time and money making this, only to be a dud. Guess that’s how it’s done, some catch, some don’t.
Very close family friends had one of the articulated ATVs, but it was a 6-wheel drive Coot. This was at least 50 years ago, but if I recall, it was yellow and would get you absolutely anywhere in their 170-acre canyon property on the Feather River, Paradise, CA. This might be reaching for an old guy to recall, but I think it might have been steered by a joy-stick-like mechanism.
Fun put a roll cage on it and take it off road
These were fun back in the day. This one REALLY needs a new belt put on it. That would help the low end and top speed a bunch!
The listing is now gone.
Trying to figure out how the pedals work, as since the steering shaft splits them, need to be 2 foot driving if they are separate Gas and Brake.
I think there is a bellcrank on end of the rod, with cable connected to both Brake and throttle, so then either pedal can be used for Gas (on top) and brake on the bottom, then you could drive from either seat if needed.
Truth is, sitting with legs flat and bolt upright, (and no rubber belts suspending he seats) this is going to get uncomfortable pretty quickly.
And no belts, as liability litigation had not yet kicked into gear! (none of the Accident Attorney billboards that we see so often nowadays)
When I was a kid I had a mini-bike. All of us kids had either a go-kart or a mini-bike. We had an old abandoned grocery store with a huge parking lot where we would meet up and ride our stuff. We were always trading around and riding each others stuff. Never saw a Coot. If an 18 HP one had shown up it would have been the envy of every kid there. You can almost count the broken bones there would have been. They would certainly benefit from a safety device or two. Not that we would have cared either way.
No frontal crash protection, apparently no seat belts of any kind, and a top speed of 50 MPH…. what could possibly go wrong? With all the suicide toys like this that we grew up with back in the 60s and 70’s, it’s a miracle more of us weren’t killed.
That said, I’d still buy this thing in a heartbeat if I could get away with it. This Coot would be a hoot!
We had a yellow snoopy when I was a kid. My cousin and I would rip around on that thing all day long. We would only come back if we needed more gas.