Does anyone know? It seems like a poor business decision to just let them sit in a warehouse somewhere or to destroy them. Any chance they will be sold ?
I heard theyâre selling them back in Europe. Rotax may be dead in NA but they still have a following across the pond, so the market is still there. OR theyâre using them for research Idk ÂŻ_(ă)_/ÂŻ
Iâve heard that theyâre planning to gut the engines and turn the blocks into a reef. Of all the things you could do, I guess if youâre going to go for the throat of another karting engine and do your best to kill it off, saying that all itâs worth is a boat anchor, might as well do thatâŚ#classy.
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Anyone know if they are going to do the trade program again?
I donât have an answer on whatâs being done with them, but I will say thisâŚ
I think itâs important to keep the numbers in perspective. The proponents of the trade in programs would have you think that every engine out there is being replaced by their product, beating their chests as they go. In reality itâs a very small percentage, especially if you are looking at Rotax.
Granted, âhow many are being racedâ is another question, but nonetheless, donât get too taken in by the hype.
I also think itâs interesting that Rotax have started a series of how to videos.
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I can give you a little insight on ROKâs plan, the bulk of them will be donated to schools around the US with small engine programs. We have found that there is a large need for this, most of the equipment they are currently working with is decades old and two cycle is pretty much non existent, they are very excited to be working with very current two cycle technology that are fully operable.
The rest will be used for rental kart fleets, in and out of the US market. Dropping these engines for the purpose of racing in any market is not really an option for us, the investment that Vortex has put into this will be close to a million and we donât want to buy them back again at some point down the road.
Being the first ones to initiate a trade program back in April or intent was never to try and kill the Rotax program, for us it was about trying to save what drivers we have left from leaving the sport we all love, and maybe bring a few back that deiced to bail on the EVO transition.
As James said the numbers are small based on a very strong 17 year program that Rotax put forward, I have no real number on the equipment Rotax dropped in the North American market over that period but its big, I estimate we will trade around 700-800 units by the end of the year, now if we can just get these people to show up to a track somewhere that would be a big win for the Industry not just ROK.
P.S The school donation idea was given to me by Jason at Swedetech thanks JB a big win for what we hope are future karters
Garett
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