Just how powerful is your circular saw? Well, put six of them together and they can propel a go-kart and rider at more than 40 miles an hour. This important discovery was made this weekend at the UK’s national power tool drag racing championships in Somerset. The circular saw-powered Bolt Lightning kart — with 36 horsepower — handily disposed of the competition, which consisted only of vehicles propelled by ordinary power tools.

Designed by Barry Lee, 35, for the Somerset-based Toolstation, the three-wheeled Bolt Lightning is capable of hitting 75 mph. Lee says the kart employs “some of the newest and most powerful tools coming onto the world market,” and “combines an extraordinary mix of traditional ideas and cutting-edge sophisticated engineering.”

Cutting-edge indeed! But next year we’d like to see a race that limits entrants to rechargeable power tools.

Via Treehugger