Custom Carts
Golf Cart Parts
Accessories
& Upgrades
Custom
builders
cart
a new
course at
Daytona
Bike Week
18
WWW.GOLFCAROPTIONS.COM
Ballough Road shop owner Tony
Carrino popped the trunk of a
sleek reproduction of a 1937
Mercedes-Benz, flipped on the
stereo and blasted Pearl Jam
from two woofers in the back. At
just 13 feet long, the Benz looka-
like turns heads, especially in
The Villages, Carrino said of the
diminutive hotrod.
“That used to be a golf cart,”
Carrino said, shutting one of two
suicide doors. “And there’s only
one in the world like it.”
Carrino is part of a team of
custom bike builders at Midwest
Motorcycle, doing occasional
fabrication work for ground-up,
custom rides. But since custom
motorcycles fell off drastically in
the recession, the bike builders
who play a starring role at Day-
tona Bike Week have diversified.
Enter the custom golf-cart scene.
nificant income from the steadily
growing golf cart industry. “I’m
really starting to see it. I’m like,
‘Wow, there’s some money to be
made here.’ “
Electric golf carts are a nearly $1
billion industry and the market
for them was forecast to grow
globally by 6.4 percent between
2016 and 2026, Future Market
Insights reports. Analysts say
that’s because people use them
not just for golf courses, but also
for personal use in suburban
neighborhoods or large proper-
ties and industrial or business
transport, according to Lon-
don-based research firm Future
Market Insights. “Further, due to
heavy demand for eco-friendly
products and surging prices of
fuel, electric golf carts witness
the highest market share of the
global golf market,” according to
Research and Markets.
Carrino opened Classic Carts at
500 Ballough Rd. to create these
one-of-a-kind custom rides,
using his bike-wrenching expe-
rience to create a more wide-
spread draw, and he’s not the
only one. Locally, some shop owners say
the trend is made possible by
the aging biker population. They
see potential growth in golf carts
on the horizon here in communi-
ties like Latitude Margaritaville,
Coastal Woods, Mosaic and
Venetian Bay.
“You wouldn’t think golf carts
(could be so lucrative),” said Ron
Harris, of Chop Doc’s Choppers,
who pulls in what he says is sig- “A lot of my friends are getting
up in age and they’re asking
about golf carts,” Carrino said.