What can I say...I am BEYOND proud of my 9-year-old nephew, Kaden, as he showed me yesterday that he definitely will carry the torch for KJ JONES Racing (and maybe even 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords Tech), when Uncle KJ calls it a career.

Check out the pictures, after the jump...

The future of hard-core 'Stangbanging is strong! My little buddy is all about Mustangs (digs Fox bodies and S197/Shelby GT500s) and "big steam (just like his uncle)," and now he's getting his feet wet in the game.

We finally got Kaden started on his go-kart restoration project (I bought the go-kart chassis about a year ago, and made the deal with Kaden that he has to fix it up--and then he also has to maintain GOOD GRADES in school, if he wants to ride it. Yeah, I drive a hard bargain).

Well, after a thorough inspection of his new ride and identifying areas that have to be repaired/welded, etc, all I did was showed Kaden what parts to remove (wheels, axle, brake caliper, pedal linkages, engine, seat, etc) and cut him loose with the tools, and he had his kart stripped to a skeleton in about 2 hours.

Unlike the completion goals and "finish dates" that we set for our project cars (OK...that I set for MY project cars), this deal does not have a timetable (thank goodness). Whenever the go-kart is done, I know it will be very cool...and very fast (oh, there are some "big-steam" tricks up my sleeve, for sure)...and hopefully it will be something that my nephew is going to be proud of, because he'll be able to tell his friends that HE built it himself.

The little dude's definitely got "good hands."