This vehicle only drives in reverse. If you turned it around to face the other direction, it would only go forward. That’s how things work when you use gravity as your only source of propulsion.

First set I ever bought for a piece. I wanted the all black visor to complete the all black minifig I had envisaged.

I like these sets, great way to collect good parts like tires and steering wheels to build larger space vehicles with multiple axles. I got a few copies of similar sets like 6400 and 2880 just for that purpose.

@Maxbricks14 said:
"must have a hard time seeing out of that visor."

'Use the Force. Trust your feelings...'

Watch out for the incoming blue shell!

People in the comment section have never heard of one-way tinted glass apparently, lol

I 'owned' this one as I bought it MISB to sell, thinking it was amazing that it was still sealed after all these years.

Turns out small boxed sets like this are hard to sell because nobody wants to pay full box shipping for a tiny set like this. I ended up opening it and shipping it with a flattened box on request.

Never again

@Miyakan said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"Aw, boo, the name got changed to Go-Kart after having once been called Hot Wheels.
Proof: 3rd comment in: https://brickset.com/article/90723
Well okay, it doesn't definitively prove anything, but trust me, it used to be called Hot Wheels."

Fun fact, Brickset doesn't always have the alternate names listed. Case and point, 5938 is Oasis Ambush, but when you search the instructions on Lego it calls it 'The Anubis Chamber' this fact isn't noted in the Brickset listing.

So you are quite possibly correct about it having been called Hot Wheels, Lego doesn't list instructions for this unfortunately."

What Brickset lists as 'alternate name' is almost always the set's UK name (if I'm not mistaken).
Nowadays Lego naming conventions are internationally standardized throughout TLG, to avoid possible confusion and whatsnot.

Back in the more chaotic days prior to 2004, many names of sets, minifigures and even themes were drastically different from country to country. This most likely happened because the local Lego sub-divisions acted much more independently from Denmark. Internet not being what it was today might have forced them to do so, to be able to react faster. There might be other reasons as well though (marketing preferences for example).

The alternate name for 5988 you mentioned, that is from the customer support site is what I believe to be the set's internal name. This name does line-up with an English translation of some continental European ones suspiciously often. So I guess it could also be the translated Danish name?
Unfortunately scans of Danish catalogues from 1980-2000 are almost impossible to find, so I can only rely on the few advertising tidbits I could find thus far (I'm considering buying some Danish catalogs myself...)

Anyways, last time I checked consumer service had the instruction file names changed to simple numbers, so the names were no longer displayed. Is there a trick to still display those names?

@Atuin:
The internet may have been what forced them to standardize the names worldwide. Not only did websites like this pop up and start cataloging stuff that nobody before may have looked at across all different regions, but they also started compiling digital instructions online for anyone in the world to download.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Atuin:
The internet may have been what forced them to standardize the names worldwide. Not only did websites like this pop up and start cataloging stuff that nobody before may have looked at across all different regions, but they also started compiling digital instructions online for anyone in the world to download."

Also the LEGO Media/Software department might have played a role in here. Although the storylines were sometimes still a bit contradicting, for story telling purposes it seems to make sense not to have everyone do their own thing (especially when story-driven themes like Rock Raiders and Bionicle were in development at that time).

This kart is 50% wheels, by part count!

For a set of a go kart that is one nice torso!