London tour buses? So passé.
The days of sitting thigh-to-thigh with strangers as a crackly old audio guide rattles off facts you can’t hear over the screaming child behind you could be a thing of the past – if a pair of aspiring businessmen have their way.
Sachin Sikand and his father-in-law Rajan Kochhar have exported an idea from the streets of Tokyo – why not drive yourself around the streets in a go-kart as the star of your very own real-life computer game?
Karts of London is their attempt to replicate the Tokyo experience of street karting – itself inspired by, but legally distinct from, a certain series of video games starring an Italian plumber and his chums.
You might know the one, but we’re not naming it – possibly because gaming giant Nintendo retains an army of famously protective copyright lawyers.
But it’s not uncommon for the drivers in Shibuya to dress up in dungarees and moustaches, if you catch our drift.
‘The idea stemmed from taking a visit to Japan about two years ago and seeing people driving go-karts in the road,’ Sachin told us. ‘I thought: this looks good, let’s bring it to London.’
It turns out that was an idea fraught with difficulty – London is wet, congested and weighed down with classic British bureaucracy. Their solution? A largely unloved experiment from Renault – with supercar-style scissor doors.
So, as MailOnline was invited to test out their solution, we asked the question: Can you really turn driving around one of the most congested and inclement cities in the world into a tourist attraction, all while keeping to Sadiq Khan’s 20mph?
Reporter Jon Brady with one of the little Renault Twizy ‘karts’ snapped up by Sachin Sikand and Rajan Kochhar to reimagine touring London by road
The pair behind the firm were inspired to start the business after spotting tourists driving go-karts through the streets of Tokyo (file picture)
The ‘karts’ aren’t exactly the same here – but with a cutesy Johnny 5-esque face face and wheels at the corners, they might just be the next best thing
It’s not a completely new idea to let tourists loose at the wheel here: a train of Mini Coopers stuffed with tourists is a regular sight on Westminster Bridge.
Sachin and Rajan, though, don’t care for Blighty nostalgia. They wanted to bring the excitement of the buzzy karts of Tokyo to the Thames. But congested, cold and wet, the Big Smoke is not natural street karting territory at first glance.
London is, if you can believe it, more congested than Tokyo – taking an average of 33 minutes to travel 10km (6.2miles) at an agonising slow average of 11mph, according to satnav bods TomTom.
And traffic data firm Inrix reckons Londoners spent 101 hours in traffic last year – 16 minutes every single day.
The city’s congestion problems are so deep-set that Samuel Pepys noted a 90 minute traffic jam in his diary nearly 400 years ago in 1661.
And whereas Tokyo has a predictable rainy season in the summer around which to plan your go-kart excursion, the British climate is famously changeable. Nobody wants to sit in the rain soaked to the skin in a copyright-friendly fancy dress costume.
And this being Britain, there are reams of regulation stopping you just driving a kart on the road. The DVSA says roadgoing vehicles need to have things that go-karts don’t, like wing mirrors. And headlights. And indicators. And a horn.
The minimum ride-height for a car in Britain is also 13.5cm (5.3 inches) – higher than most go-karts, which practically kiss the tarmac. It’s also generally considered good practice not to seat people at face level with the exhaust pipe of the car in front.
Ticking all those boxes is, as Sachin found out, enormously expensive and fiddly.
So the Tokyo-style go-kart was out – but a solution came in the form of a bonkers French microcar resembling a fighter jet cockpit on four wheels.
The Renault Twizy doesn’t exactly look like a racing machine: more like Johnny Five, of 80s movie Short Circuit, on steroids. But it does possess a few kart-like qualities.
Its wheels are right at the corners – and that means sporty handling. It also has independent suspension on each wheel – but it has little give, so mind the potholes.
And at 474kg – about 0.4 Vauxhall Corsas – it’s lightweight and highly maneuverable.
A wrap-around roof sees off the worst of most weather, but Sachin and Rajan elected not to bolt optional windows onto the eye-catching Lamborghini-style scissor doors.
The Twizy doesn’t really resemble a go-kart (pictured: reporter Jon Brady with a Twizy) – but underneath its cutesy plastic shell beats the heart of a road-going racer
Its cutesy face resembles that of 80s movie robot Johnny 5, star of Short Circuit (above)
The microcar has wheels right at the corners for sporty handling – and independent suspension that nevertheless isn’t pothole-proof
There isn’t much to driving one of these: two buttons to select a gear, two pedals, and a steering wheel. No creature comforts here, so pack a coat in winter
The Twizy is capable of 50mph – a speed Londoners can only dream of within the M25. Expect to hit the central London limit of 20mph in a few seconds
The Twizy is also fully electric, hitting 20mph in just a few seconds, and is both ULEZ-compliant and Congestion Charge exempt (for now: MailOnline understands the Twizy will not escape the end of the electric vehicle exemption come December).
Its divisive looks and lack of creature comforts – no heater, no radio, not even a proper boot – meant it never took off as a daily driver in Britain.
But with its sporty handling, central driving position and rapid acceleration – hitting 30mph in six seconds – it is, to all intents and purposes, the closest thing the UK has to a road-ready kart.
Throw in some fancy dress onesies and you’ve got yourself a London-friendly interpretation of Tokyo’s star attraction.
Sachin said: ‘Initially I did a lot of research – I tried to bring an actual go-kart. But because of the regulations… it was a no-go.
‘When you’re sitting in it, the power… they might look small but they’re very powerful.
‘The speed, the pick-up, the doors as well – the Lamborghini doors – that’s what makes it different.’
But how does that translate to the road? To find out, we headed over to Karts of London, based out of a Safestore five minutes from Marble Arch, to see for ourselves.
We picked out our costumes and hit the roads of the city that TomTom once branded ‘the world’s slowest’ in our very own London-friendly go-kart.
Karts of London demands little of its drivers: just a full driving licence and £100 for an hour-long day tour, bumped up to £120 at night. (Those all-important costumes are an extra £10 and go over your clothes.)
Squeezing into the back of the Twizy is a unique experience. Adults can forget sitting with their legs behind the driver’s seat: instead, they’ll have to stretch one leg on either side, almost like sitting pillion on a motorbike.
Driving along, the lack of power steering means it feels decidedly kart-like, rewarding your grunt with enthusiastic, agile weaving through the streets of Westminster.
Key for London, the ‘karts’ are all-electric and have roofs – as well as eye-catching Lamborghini-style scissor doors (pictured: reporter Jon Brady inside a kart)
The little Twizy has got pace in London – reaching 20mph in a satisfying handful of seconds without ever feeling out of control
Karts of London is run by Sachin Sikand (left) and his father-in-law Rajan Kochhar (right). Rajan can be seen modelling the walkie talkie given to guests for the tour
Driving in costume is an extra £10 on top of the £100 daytime fee – and arguably worth every penny
Stamping your foot down doesn’t produce Tesla-esque instant acceleration – rather, a pleasant whine and a satisfying rush up to 20mph.
As it turns out, 17 horsepower is more than enough to get up to 20mph in seconds before stamping on the spongy brakes at the next inevitable red light.
Selecting a gear is easy enough with two buttons to select forward and reverse, or both at once for neutral. We even had a go at parallel parking – a doddle since you can just open the door and lean out to look for the kerb.
Karts of London’s route takes in most of the City of Westminster, as well as a cruise south of the river to see the London Eye.
There’s no pre-recorded celebrity audio guide here: we’re given a bright yellow walkie-talkie on a branded lanyard through which Sachin gives us a live tour.
He doled out anecdotes ranging from the historical to the newsy, talking up the glitz and glamour of Park Lane’s venues to Just Stop Oil giving the full Tango treatment on the Wellington Arch – ironic, given they’d probably approve of the little electric Twizy.
It’s hard not to feel like a celebrity driving around, especially in costume. The Twizy itself is a star here given its rarity on British roads, with just 464 in the country.
Tourists at the Household Cavalry Museum on Whitehall were less interested in the horses than they were in us – snapping away as we sat in traffic.
And a trip down New Bond Street, weaving between Ferraris and Rolls-Royces, earned us the glances of some of the city’s richest and a few fist-bumps from passers-by.
It’s impossible not to giggle as Sachin and Rajan soar past us, electric motors squealing as they weave around and squeeze their Twizys into a single lane to keep the group together.
Inevitably, around Trafalgar Square, we hit traffic, spending about 10 minutes crawling up Whitehall. It’s a piece of cake in the Twizy, with no gears or clutch to worry about.
But it might be a little too authentic a London experience for some – not least if the weather turns. And with no heater in the Twizy and no windows, you’d do well to wrap up warm as we did on a chilly February morning for our test.
MailOnline’s Amogh George and Jon Brady in full regalia for the Karts of London tour
The little Twizy has charm, and with room for two – just – is perfect for a whistle-stop tour of London by road
Karts of London has expansion plans: first Windsor, with a fleet of three more Twizys ready to roll in April, then further afield
It might not be a go-kart in Tokyo (pictured) but as an alternative to the tour bus, the Twizy is a fun and novel way of getting about, with added star power courtesy of the fancy dress
Nor is the whole setup particularly streamlined: Sachin’s commentary was occasionally inaudible through the walkie-talkies, which would also crackle with cross-talk from others using the same publicly usable channels.
But the business is young, and these things can be ironed out with time and experience.
And you can’t help but admire Sachin and Rajan’s entrepreneurial spirit: the former working on the business while managing a number of care homes, the latter investing as an adventure following a fulfilling career as a musician.
They say they’ve had 800 customers over the last year or so, and they boast a five-star Google review rating from 200 of their happy drivers.
An expansion into Windsor with three more Twizys is planned for April – and more destinations are in the pipeline.
So as we wave goodbye to Sachin and Rajan and leave them to prepare for their next tour – a whiz as the little Twizy charges up from empty in three hours via an ordinary wall socket – does the humble tour bus have anything to fear from Karts of London?
For those who prefer to let someone else do the driving, perhaps not – but those seeking low-speed thrills and a unique way to see the capital could do much worse. Just watch for banana peels as you go.
