So does anyone know what the price of pre-paying for all six races would be?
I’m not surprised to be honest. We have so many karting engines nowadays, that it is really hard to get people to want to buy something new.
Personally, if I was IAME East, I’d give people the option to either pre-pay the races for the engine, and drop the mandatory attendance, or just let them pay retail price. Either way, you’re getting engines into the hands of people, which would most likely get them more motivated to race them, even if it’s not at your series.
But it’s not just a deal from IAME East. It’s a deal brokered between them and the WKA. The intention is not just to get the new motors into anyone’s hands, but specifically to get the motors into the hands of existing Man Cup participants. That’s why they don’t bother pricing comparison between a full season, a partial season, and the cost of the motor, because their intent is to focus on drivers who were already intending to run the full season to convert over to the new class. If you want to run the new motor and don’t want to run Man Cup, then maybe you still have time to get in on the introductory pricing. That is, if that is still going.
Since they already had this strategy with the USPKS, it seems like the thought is to have the new class trickle down from the national series into regional series and then clubs. So far, it seems like that might be working.
For the regional and club level, yes, I think that is a very definite risk. Now, I don’t run at the national level. However, I’ve been around long enough to see that a national program, if it offers a good schedule, interesting locations, and halfway decent customer service, the drivers will run just about whatever formula is given to them as long as it’s not junk.
As far as it pertains to the regional or club level, here are my two cents. Even when you have an incentive to move from an old class that may be on its way out to a new class that has strong potential, there is almost certainly a small number of karters that you might lose altogether from the sport. The hope is is that newcomers will fill in the gap. I know that some will say that you should simply offer the new class and the market will determine which class will survive and which one will fade into obscurity. That doesn’t happen too often and karting though. What usually happens is that you have two classes that have significantly smaller fields that one, singular class would have. The result then is the common complaint that there are too many classes, but no one wants to be the person to give up his or her class for the sake of the sport.
Hi all, new to the forums here. Can anyone comment on the durability of the reeds, as I have heard rumors from tag owners that they brake reeds every weekend. Potentially switching from a hpv, buying reeds every weekend seems a bit excessive for club racing.
Didn’t have any reed issues all year. Running X30 I know we had at least a few instances where we needed to replace reeds throughout the season. KA, no problems.
@BubbaRP
I have never had any reed problems in over 2 years of running the engine.
There should be no issue reaching the expected life for reed petals, I cant find the expected component life chart i used to have, but I have 35hrs on mine at the moment.
Performance tuning may shorten the life, but I would be more than surprised if they don’t outlast several pistons.
With the KA being new to us and wanting to gather as much data as possible, I’m considering using both an EGT and CHT sensor. Is that going to be over kill and would only one sensor suffice?
Overkill, we found the EGT to be plenty for us. Tuning for around 1050-1080 seemed to be our sweet spot, but I know some other guys ran slightly lower or higher. That should give you a decent range though.
TJ, thanks. We appreciate your input. I’m assuming that you are using the small straight EGT sensor rather than the larger probe with the 90 degree bend.
Oh man Adam Crepin is, imo, the unluckiest driver in the eastern US. He had so many prefinal incidents this year where he just got caught up in someone else’s crash and had to start last in the final. He’s a really good driver but I feel like luck has not been on his side for a while
Pitt is an awesome track for racing. Lots of passing places, fun high-speed parts, elevation change, usable curbs. Before the re-pave it was gnarly, turn 2 is where I popped my ribs the first time when it was rough.
SoCal is doing a lot of testing right now to make the KA100 equal to KPV/HPV and KT’s. For the folks out here on KP, you think this research would be beneficial for kart tracks throughout the US? Especially the local, club and possibly regional level racing?
It’s going to be hard to match a good reed with older tech piston ports in performance. Do you have more details on what their desired outcome is? ie do they hope to actually match them (I think that’s a very tall order and will also vary from track to track) or just get them “kinda, sorta” close so they can play together?
I think it has the potential to give folks options to bring their KPV or KT (would have to be a piped KT I suspect) to the track without getting absolutely slaughtered, but overall to be at the pointy end of the field, you’re likely going to need a KA. I think this is a reasonable expectation and overall progress if it gets folks to dust off their old stuff and come to play.
One thing to keep in mind is that differences in ballast and power delivery will mean that the relative performance of the packages will vary from track to track.
Overall, I think it’s worth trying and I’m interested to see how it goes.
It could definitely work at club level. Just as a rough reference, here’s the KA times from the USPKS event this year at New Castle compared to the last time Komet Heavy raced there with WKA:
USPKS 2017 KA100 Pole Time: 1:08.719 (McAndrews)
WKA 2012 Komet Heavy Pole Time: 1:09.240 (Brock)
USPKS 2017 KA100 Final Fast Lap: 1:09.282 (Koyen)
WKA 2012 Komet Heavy Final Fast Lap: 1:09.295 (Kotyk)
Keep in mind tires are different, but track configuration was the same, as well as class weight (360lbs).
One thing that’s always tough with multi-engine classes is the differing powerbands and keeping the karts similar speed while equalizing how they race as well. Komet has the disadvantage of the 5k stall-speed clutch, leaving it pretty gutless on the bottom end. The KA digs hard off the corner.
As of now, general consensus is to have the KA play nice with the older motors. We’re seeing weights being adjusted as of now, and probably more to be announced in a few weeks as we’re getting closer to racing season. I’ll keep you guys posted on the outcome!