Wondering thoughts from a larger group on the current OTK chassis. Lots of the. Around here crack and many people say 2018 was a much better year.
Curious to thoughts and experiences with that statement.
The 2020 or the 2018 are the better ones from what I gather, in terms of tunability. Not that the ‘19s are bad, but everyone I talk to claims the ‘18 and ‘20s have better from end feel. I don’t really see too many kart cracking. Our team has a welder at the track and OTK karts aren’t usually the ones coming around to get welded, or at least no more than other brands.
My ‘18 is holding up fine and has been over a curb or two in its life.
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I can only imagine any differences will come from steel supply issues. Welding wise the only way to reduce crack risk is with brazing but that needs human hands. OTK use robots welders so not sure what difference there could be there year on year.
The problem is there’s no real way to know what goes on year from year because there are too many variables in the equation.
Do you think the 18s are quicker vs 2020? I know tons of variables but also hearing they are slower.
For the past 5 years everyone says “Oh the new OTK is soooo much better” when it comes out, but then once the hype settles down, they’re all about the same.
When the '19 came out, everyone said “You can’t win unless you have a '19, they have so much more front grip”, and one year later everyone I talked to has reversed that and said actually the '18s and the new '20s had more grip then the '19s.
Half of what you hear is just paddock BS. In reality not much has changed between the karts in the past few years.
If I thought the '20s were faster than the '18s, I wouldn’t be driving my '18. As I mention on every topic regarding discussion on “which chassis is better”, almost any modern kart is going to be capable of winning in the right hands.
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This thread is giving me pause to the idea of upgrading my '18 over the winter. It still seems plenty quick, has numerous wins this year across 3 different clubs.
My biggest concern is the amount of time on the chassis now. It was raced 3 times at the pro level in '18 before I bought it.
I ran it 16 race weekends last year and it’s already seen 11 race weekends plus some practice days this year. The thing is still DEAD ON when you throw the lasers on it, still feels good, no indications of bad wear “things” but my fear is that it’s just got enough time on it that it may be starting to fall off.
edit I talked to someone with a 19 that hates it, and I know someone on a '20 redspeed that loves theirs and was blisteringly quick out of the box with it. Just a couple more data points to add to the discussion.
Make that 20. 
I think quite a fair bit of this is basic psychological bias mixed with sales talk. There’s very little actual scientific analysis by drivers and teams. No one is doing double blind testing sessions. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve seen parents and drivers drop what they have to move to OTK, tell me how great it felt (bias towards novelty mixed with a kind of Hawthorn Effect), and then 6 months later I look at the actual results and average gaps to the front stay the same.
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I am curious to see how your homegrown chassis performs.
well, don’t get your hopes up 
I’ll be happy if Mark 1 circulates in a fashion that looks at least kart like
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It depends on the tires.Tony tend to adjust the new chassis to the tires that are homologated.With the green Vega’s the front is a little stronger because of the sidewalls of the tire(stiffer)this gives a more direct feeling.On top of that the tire has less radius.They are more square.
There are different chassis for different tires…sssht(secret)
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As I understand it, OTK uses Chromalloy Steel. If it is in fact and not just Mild Steel, then braising is bad. Brazing actually makes the metal brittle and more susceptible to cracking. Something that was discovered in the world of Drag Racing when roll cages were coming apart from the High Horse Power strains through the chassis.
Jump to the 9 minute mark for the begging of why failure happens.
Basically it comes down to why brazing requires the heating of both metals for extended periods for the filler to adequately adhere to them versus short burst with TIG to do the same thing. Granted karts do not generate the same forces as drag cars, but they do have minimal joints in comparison. The forces created are concentrated on those fewer joints. Humans can be inconsistent when it comes to repetitive tasks, which is why I think OTK uses robots to weld their frames up.
good vid, very interesting.
Question, is there a difference between a 2021 OTK EOS EMR and a 2022 OTK EOS Typhoon? Is it just a renamed EMR with 2022 OTK updates?