Looks like OTK now produces the Gillard brand as they add another product to their line-up.
Not a bad looking kit.
https://www.facebook.com/101597665705023/posts/103520172179439/?d=n
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That is a NICE looking kart but it needs a frame that isn’t black.
Black frames hide cracks. I wonder if you could order a Redspeed frame and Gillard sticker kit.
NGL this makes me kinda sad to see a historic Indy brand move onto the OTK group.
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Tim Gillard and his employees wanted to retire and close the factory, so they jumped at the chance to sell out.
The real tragedy is Drew Price Engineering mainly being a TonyKart importer when they build the Arrow karts that are the nicest to work on and most durable ones I’ve had.
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DPE (Drew Price Engineering) are still building and developing Arrow Karts, I’m guessing mainly for just the Australian market not sure if you are getting them in the US. Current Arrow X5 id just as good as anything around, and the prototype X5 seems to be very decent in deed.
Sorry to Hijack the Gillard thread
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I’m with James, sad to see such a cool brand consolidate into the cookie cutter OTK line. I raced a Gillard Charlotte in 2008 and really loved the chassis. It was quite different than the new OTK formula in that the frame utilized a single-bend waist, 30/32 tubing, and a couple of other nuanced designs. One of my favorite karts I’ve had over the years!
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Nice looking componentry. The adjustable width rear bumper is a unique feature.
This is going to be standard on almost all 2022 chassis.
Is it now CIK mandated?
I don’t know about mandated, per se, but it’s the newest homologated bumper from KG.
Already for sure coming on Croc, OTK, and BirelART at least.
If it has helped pay for Tim Gillard’s retirement can’t complain really. The 2005 World CHampionship Cchampionship win with Oakes was really a monumental achievement when you consider what he was up against from a manufacturing point of view and the fact OTK have bought the brand is testament to the respect they had (yeah sure it’s commercial but hey ho)
But alas it does feel like a full stop on a generation of proper badass karters who dared to build their own karts and that kind of thing and race at that level.
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I get it. But I can be bummed at the same time
I like this perspective.
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Without sitting and working it out it does seem like there’s less than 10 manufacturers of homologated chassis.
It’s seem near impossible in Europe to get a new chassis built as most classes require homologation to even race it. The US is a bit more relaxed but even then there’s maybe 5 building any sort of volume (I think…). That’s not counting the ones using Italian factories to build there karts.
I was sad to see Gillard go but understood his decision and hope he got something decent out of it. I do wonder what happened to all his manufacturing kit though.
206 gets a bit wild. VLR (made by CRG), Coyote, Ionic Edge, Comet Eagle, there’s a ton of 206 specific stuff that’s huge but never heard about for guys like you and me. Then there’s Ignite that’s all spec Margay.
I think the problem with 2 stroke is it works the tires so much more and the karts need to work so specifically that the Americans can’t get the development time that Europe has had for the last however many years. Plus, everyone sees the European karts winning overseas and thinks that has to be what’ll work for us as well, so not a lot of people willing to take a shot with “unproven” American karts
Digging around the full list of homologated equipment from the FIA for 2022-2023:
- AMV makes a kart apparently, BestKart. (ITA)
- BirelART has CompKart, plus Swiss Hutless now. No Ricciardo, Leclerc, or Kubica listed though. (ITA)
- Breda with KR. WPK and FA all carry a KR tag. (ITA)
- CM Industries makes Kart Mini. (BRA)
- CRG with all their brands, nothing surprising though. CRG, DR, Kali, GP/ALU Group (Aluminos?), Maranello, and Evo Kart. (Listed under either CRG Spa or CRG Srl, don’t think there’s a difference) (ITA)
- Italcorse. (ITA)
- DFM Racing. (ITA)
- Emme making Drago Corse, Lion Kart, EKS, Croc Promotion, and PCR (they’re back again?). (ITA)
- G3 Kart makes the ONS, never heard of it. (BRA)
- Gpat Srls makes a brand called Pantano. (ITA)
- Haase manufacturing Haase-Corsa, I believe those get sold as Haase or Corsa Racing Karts. (ITA)
- Mach 1 is made by its own brand. (DEU)
- IPK only has a chassis listed under IPK now, so possibly Praga, OK1, and Formula K share the chassis tags. (ITA)
- Intrepid making itself and the Benik cadet chassis. (ITA)
- Lenzokart. (ITA)
- Mega. (BRA)
- Jesolo. (ITA)
- MS Kart listed on its own, I thought it was made by IPK for some reason. (CZE)
- OMAPS manufactures CKR, which I thought was a CRG for some season, BRM, and HRK. (ITA)
- The OTK family: Redspeed, Tony Kart, EOS, Exprit, Gillard, Kosmic, LN, Tony Kart, and they have one homologated under the brand name OTK as well as manufacturer. (ITA)
- Parolin’s family contains Parolin, Energy, Oberon, Falcon, and Top Kart. I think most other Parolin brands are just an LM30 with different powdercoat. (ITA)
- Righetti Ridolfi only makes itself. (ITA)
- Simon Wright still has a homologation under Wright, so some hope for the British still remains. (GBR)
- Sodikart with Sodi and Alpha. (FRA)
- TBKart only has itself listed, but I believe they make GFC as a US only model possibly? (ITA)
- Tecno, with their funky caster adjustment system stand alone. (ITA)
- Wildkart are the last ones on the list. I’ve heard of them but never seen one. (ITA)
So in all, 27 manufacturers. However, to your point, how many of those do we see?
On a European stage, it’s dominated by OTK and KR.
There were 5 BirelART chassis and 1 Parolin out of 36 in the OK World Championship, 14 KR and 16 OTK.
In KZ we see a lot more variety with 6 BirelART of 26, 6 KR, 4 OTK, 4 CRG, 3 Sodi, 2 Parolin, and a lone TB Kart.
OK Junior had a huge OTK bias, with 24 OTK products of 36, followed by 6 Parolin, 5 KR, and a lone BirelART.
That’s 7 manufacturers represented at the World Championships.
Outside of that, there are 14 manufacturers I’ve seen in person from that list, in my life, with 4 of them being probably 95% of the karts I saw at USPKS this year (BirelART, Breda, OTK, Parolin). SKUSA had a bit more variety with shifters in the crowd, but that only adds 4 more (CRG, Emme, IPK, TB Kart). I know the guys from Tecno USA, so that makes 9. 9 homologated manufacturers that I saw in 2021. It definitely seems like there aren’t that many brands. If I hadn’t already had the Homologation form on my phone, I wouldn’t have questioned it at all.
Yeah i think some of the lesser known brands are built by some of the bigger names. The “Manufacturer” title doesn’t necessarily give it away.
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Hm, I always figured one of the stipulations for having someone make a kart for you, if it’s homologated, was that you had to let them be listed as the manufacturer. I suppose really the “manufacturer” is just whoever is paying for the Homologation, so it could be that a few of them are listed as their own while being made by one of the bigger brands.
Dartford Karting bought it as I understand it.
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