If only we could begin this saga with these words:
… Rocketing down that narrow strip of Kentucky asphalt under a hot midsummer sun, Victor Yazbec suddenly found his mind wandering back to the day when he first started tinkering with the silent machine he was now piloting. "Who woulda ever thought?" he grinned as his little craft zipped past the small throng of onlookers twisting their necks and gaping in disbelief. "Faster than a speeding bullet? Well, almost!"
Alas, we can’t launch this tale as we’d like. Victor Yazbec can’t begin to recall what he was thinking during those moments on that August afternoon. It’s understandable and, in retrospect, just as well. At the time, the Ponte Vedra Beach resident had no time for such musings – not when the customized golf cart that he had designed, built by hand and now was driving had been literally sizzling along the sun-broiled pavement at … 89.9 miles-per-hour!
Yes, you read correctly: "89.9 miles-per-hour."
Yazbec, a short, fire-plug kind of a guy with a perpetual smile whose "bread and butter" business is his custom home-building company, Victory Homes, really did drive a golf cart that fast. Not for just an instant, either. For 13.4 seconds, over a quarter-mile drag strip near London, Ky.
You can see for yourself. Log on to www.krazykartsinc.com, and click
on "Portfolio." Then click on "1/4 Mile Run at London Dragway KY 08 08," and hit the "play"
triangle. It all unfolds in less than a minute, complete with a "Whoosh!" that might even remind some old-timers of the short era of turbine cars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway back in the late 1960s.
"We did it mostly just for fun," Yazbec explains cheerfully, "to see if, in fact, we could do it."
Can do indeed
His observation also aptly describes how the craft’s maker, Krazy Karts Inc., itself sprang to life some three years ago; i.e. just to see "if we could do it."
Yazbec and his partner, 20-year pal Chris Allen, could indeed do it, to the point that their little four-person company has all but outgrown its shop on Shetter Avenue in Jacksonville Beach, where between 12 and 14 "high performance golf karts" are born each year, each designed and built to order.
"One year, I think we built about 20 karts," Yazbec says. "And one September alone we rolled out five karts for guys who wanted to use them for hunting." Each one, of course, was customized to the buyer’s specified desires.
Hunting was instrumental in the company’s formation, too. Accompanied by his son, Blake, Yazbec, an avid hunter himself, once took an ordinary kart into the woods just for kicks. "We’re looking through the binoculars at the animals, and I realized they might be able to see us, but they couldn’t hear us," he recalls.
"That’s really what started me thinking about how we could customize golf karts," he adds. So did an episode with an ordinary golf cart Yazbec purchased, only to find it "wasn’t quite going in the direction I wanted to," he says. That, too, got him thinking, and tinkering.
He’s been thinking and tinkering ever since. The result has been more hunting karts, karts for farming, karts for pulling jet skis to a boat ramp, a kart used as a taxi along the streets of the Beaches communities, another kart equipped with three rows of seats that’s used as a limo, a kart with 22-inch Lexus wheels, a kart with 49-inch wheels and pneumatic lift system (so it can be raised and lowered to go through a garage door), and, to be sure, at least one kart bedecked in the blue and orange of the Florida Gators.
Krazy Karts has also created a cart for a handicapped gentleman named Bob. Because it’s given him mobility, he has a virtual new lease on life, Yazbec observes, "and we’re as proud of Bob’s kart as anyone’s."
Homes, not
hot-rods
That achievement, especially, reflects how Yazbec’s entrepreneurial enterprise might be customizing the notion of "high performance" as it customizes golf karts. It now means lots more than driving a krazy kart at insane speeds on a drag strip, sneaking up on animals in the wild, or bounding wildly over rough terrain, he stresses.
"Our market focus has really changed to karts that can be used in residential communities, and by
families. We call them LSVs – low-speed vehicles, and NEVs – neighborhood electric vehicles," he explains. "You see, the crazy stuff we do is not just for fun. It really shows us what’s possible."
Pushing karts to their limits delivers advice about materials, lights, brakes, durability, batteries and battery life, he continues. "And safety, too. That always comes first," Yazbec adds. For instance, every Krazy Kart comes with seat belts.
And rocketing down a drag strip offers tips about improving the performance of, say, 156-volt batteries that power many karts to the point that it can provide the "oomph" of 300-volt battery.
"All of this has us convinced that the sky’s the limit when it comes to electric karts," Yazbec continues, sounding just a bit like an evangelist. "In more and more communities, golf karts make all kinds of sense, especially with the price of gasoline being what it is now."
In a sense, he’s also acted like an evangelist. Yazbec donated two of his carts to the Ponte Vedra High School athletic department – both customized to reflect "Sharks," of course. The plan is to raffle off both carts at the end of the school year.
The company’s success to date hasn’t gone unnoticed. Krazy Karts has the ongoing financial and developmental support of two sponsors: Nivel, a major producer and distributor of golf cart parts and materials; and LogiSystems, a developer of golf cart electronics and related components.
Affordably priced, too
Krazy Kart prices start at between $3,500 and $3,900, but most karts sell for between $5,500 and $6,500. One once sold for some $14,000, but that was a special order in every respect.
Each and every finished model is customized, "to give it the Krazy Kart flair," Yazbec assures with another smile. "It has to be aesthetically different."
He and Allen, who serves as the company president, start with a standard cart, one most often produced by E-Z-Go – for durability’s sake, Yazbec notes. Next, they meet with the customer to understand needs, desires, expectations and related nuances. Then they get started on design and, in turn, fabrication. In three weeks or so, the customized kart is ready to roll.
"We listen carefully, and design and fabricate everything ourselves in our shop in Jax Beach," Yazbec says. "We also want to be aware of any applicable usage restrictions that might be in place in the community."
Once completed, the kart should run trouble-free. There’s minimal maintenance, he notes, and batteries will last four to five years on average. Even the subsequent $600 to $700 replacement cost "is pennies on the dollar" compared to maintaining larger, gasoline-fueled vehicles.
Bowing to safety, most of the karts Krazy Karts sells have top speeds of between 25 and 35 mph. Any faster can make for an unsafe vehicle, Yazbec adds.
They can build faster karts — as they’ve proven. A 100-m.p.h. kart is a no-brainer, he suggests confidently, "and I think we could do a 125-m.p.h. kart."
More than fun?
Yazbec also thinks his little company easily could turn out 30 to 40 karts a year if it wanted to. And, maybe it will, in time.
But that would require serious expansion, and while Krazy Karts is already exploring larger quarters to meet growing demand and seize the opportunity its founders see, really ramping up requires some really serious thinking. After all, Yazbec remains first and foremost a builder.
"Right now, this is still our part-time passion, and lots of fun," he says. "There’s just me and Chris, and Mike Collier, who’s invaluable helping us in the shop. We also have four or five part-time fabricators who work as needed. Our kids like to help us, too, so we’re still just having lots of crazy fun."
Then again, times being what they are, maybe it’s not crazy at all.
October 6th 2008 - 1:27PM