Just like a kart with a in-line 1000cc engine stuffed in it, the first Shadow never performed as expected. Also, the original design of the MK1 was a lot different from what is pictured above, because of a ton of compromises that needed to be made. Trying to wedge an oversized engine into a standard kart chassis would probably result in the same thing.
True about the performance of the first few Shadows, but at least they did better than Hiroshi Matsushita’s car with four-engines (two, 2-cylinder 2-strokes out front, and two out back)… good times!
That’s why I switched to CRG RR 2017 with TM KZ10 SRP with around little bit below 50hp.
This could be the single coolest thing I’ve seen in my entire life. Is there any footage of it?
I doubt there is any footage, but here is a bit more info.
It sounds like it only did one (unsuccessful) test day and then tried to qualify for the 1970 Laguna Seca Can-Am race.
My parents took 10-year old me and my sister out of school the Friday of that race and we were sitting in the grandstands across from the pits. Hiroshi would putt out of the pits (in a cloud of blue smoke), motor around and then down the hill from the corkscrew, and go straight back into the pits. Rinse and repeat many many times during the day until it finally happened… he went past pit-in and around the turn 9 hairpin (original track turn numbers) in front of the grandstands. The entire grandstand erupted in cheers… and then… he pitted the next lap. 
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Warren,
I am digging the bri-cleen slicked back hairdos and the Mac’s Automotive Chemicals outfits as much as the car.
See also: Kohler’s Two Stoke Racecar
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Another is Forumla 500, A snowmobile engined formula car.
My sister raced one of the first Formula 440s (a Sting) in the San Francisco region when they were first added as an SCCA class.
How about a predecessor to the Kohler powered cars… an Ocelot streamliner (D Sports Racer) with a modified 850cc Suzuki two-stroke motor out of a GP Bike. Won the SCCA National Championship in the mid 70s.
I first saw them race at the 2017 RunOffs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They were pitted in the garages a few doors down from us. Got to talk to them for a few as I lay in awe of the multiple tuned pipes braided around each other. It looked gnarly and was a rocket around the track.
These were pretty common when I was growing up. They were called Formula 440’s back then. Two stroke, Single tuned pipe and the drive line was a belt between two sets of converging cones. As the axle speed went up, the cones moved closer/further apart to change the gear ratio. Sort of like a modern CVT transmission only driven by internal counter weights. Pretty much an oversized Kart with suspension. I guess the stepped up to the 500cc version sometime in the 2000’s.