IAME KA100 coming to America

I find it interesting that WKA replaced 206 Sr with the KA and they kept Yamaha in place, unlike USPKS dropping the KT for the KA. I like this move and agree with it.

206 had 2 entries at the Man Cup in Dousman. USPKS was the same situation in Yamaha, so the decision makes sense for both groups

9 posts were split to a new topic: Briggs 206: Bodywork, Tires & Chassis Disparity

I split the topic up a little here since this one is long enough for KA100…
I’m not 100% happy with the split but there you go.

7 posts were split to a new topic: IAME KA100 Maintenance and Rebuild Time

4 posts were split to a new topic: IAME KA100 Tuning

The split makes sense though. Cool beans.

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Oh I’ve made like theee more since :laughing:
Great topic though.

Thumbing through the many iterations of this thread it would appear that our Australian friends have a rather adversarial relationship with the folks who run their karting series. There’s just straight up hatred in some of the posts regarding an engine. What the hell is going on down there to cause this level of passion?

That’s not just Australia. That’s a karting problem in general. #kartingpolitics

Order of magnitude worse down there it seemed. Fisticuffs and all sorts of not good stuff.

Got pics? lol…

You should split the topic again for why some karters here hate Karting Australia.
I can admit some of the changes KA have made have been questionable, although on a whole they have been mostly positive. At least they are trying something!
But I think I can probably sum it up by saying that;
“The appearance of impropriety, while it may not actually be impropriety, should be avoided at all costs.”
The National contracts for the supply of Karting equipment appear to have been give to friends of board members, and in one instance the supplier then sponsored a board members child to race.
While these things may or may not be illegal, the appearance of illegality has caused most of the issues.

My personal view is that someone is always going to make money out of the sport and I am not overly fazed who it is as long as the sport as a whole is not harmed. AND that is about where the arguments start.

If even 50% of what is written online is true I would be surprised, there are too many exkarters that love stirring the pot to cause trouble. In my own club we went through a tough time in the last few years that had nothing to do with KA and everything to do with the economy at the time, and as a club we are now rebuilding and things are looking really positive.
I have never witnessed any “fistycuffs” at any of the events I’ve been at, but then there is also a huge divide between the East and West, and a bigger proportion of the negativity against KA (in my opinion) is coming from the Eastern states.
Not to say that those in the West have no issues, we just tend to be isolated from the National scene due to the huge distance between us.

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Liked hearing the insight you bring. Nice to know #kartpolitics exist everywhere. As long as it doesn’t fold on itself, then we’ll still be able to drive, have fun, and compete.

competition between engine manufacturers is always good, if the price is the same or even cheaper, It will be interesting to see if Karting Australia the mob that helped create the KA motor will let the 100cc vortex into australia, some how i don’t think so

Why would they?
We have finally got to a level playing field in the KA Classes that can’t be affected by how big your wallet is.
It is now “mostly” about the driver and their Chassis tuning ability.

I have been getting the feeling lately, that most of the people that are negative about the KA100, either don’t race it themselves or have left the KA classes BECAUSE it is so even and they cant get an advantage through spending.
Now that’s just my opinion with no real evidence apart from seeing who has gone where, but the racing is so close why would you want to leave it?

Karting Australia for all there faults have actually done something great for the sport with this engine. They would be mad to introduce something else now, and we, the karters here, would be stupid to try and push for it.
Sure the entry price is probably artificially inflated, but the alternative is worse. Especially considering that there is now second hand KA’s entering the market at what I consider to be fair prices.
Being able to buy “off the Shelf” something that is close to what top racers are using is awesome for the sport, something that would have cost in the tens of thousands in the previous eras.

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I couldn’t agree with this more … my son just turned 12 years old and started karting in KA4 Juniors four months ago in Victoria Australia. He’s 9/10ths off the kid who holds the lap record on an 835 metre track, and none of it is down to engine power simply his need to get more laps into him and learn how to drive technical corners etc. As for reliability it was my fault but we went 23 hours before a rebuild, and then only top end needed. Did it improve lap times, yes by 3/4 second but for banging around it was fine, and has not missed a beat. The only other thing we’ve done is put a carby kit through it.

The only downside I see are tyres … I’ll live with the cost but they have that much grip kids can get away with being untidy in their driving.

The people who are engaged are great … from track organisers/volunteers to fathers/mothers/ to competitors to retailers. They don’t whinge, they help us and each other and I’ve never seen a 12 year old smile so much.

s for the future, the classes below him have plenty more than his class in them and will swell the ranks further in the future.

Why would you want to dilute the fields???

Would I or quite a few of the newer fathers/mothers have got involved without TAG and the reliability of the engine/carby? My thoughts are no … there’s a lot for kids/parents to do in this world today.
Whilst it’s no more time commitment than say athletics competition day here in Australia, the upsides are:

a) not having to spend what’s left of your time either constantly rebuilding stuff or getting to a track and constantly repairing/tuning and/or knowing that,
b) your son/daughter (of which there are quite a few) can be competitive with an engine out of the box - not the case in the past unless you would hire/buy a “special” engine.
c) depending on his commitment/skill levels in either 1 or 3 years time he can pull the restrictor out and go again in other classes.

This makes ALL the difference.
Cheers Julian

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So I’m reviving this for a bit, but how good are the KA100 doing in the club level? I see the KA100 doing really well in national level, drivers like Arias Deukmedjian, Brandon Lemke, and others competing, but I haven’t really seen it kick off in the local level, at least not in Florida. I have seen in the regional level though that the KA100 junior class that 13 drivers will be racing, so it’s seems like in a few years it’ll be bigger in the senior level. Hoping that in a few years I’ll be able to hop into the KA100

In the Midwest its huge. 20+ karts in Senior at club races.

dang thats awesome, I’m hoping in a few years it gets better, problem is most of big classes for 2 strokes here in Florida at the local level have 10 drivers, sometimes a little more. LO206 is the most popular class here