Going back to chassis, you guys are spot on. I’m not involved with Factory Karts anymore, but I confirm the chassis is made in US with a level of precision and expertise that you can’t find anywhere else. Design, materials, manufacturing processes…not only it’s a great chassis, but it’s consistent and it lasts, I think it’s vastly superior to anything else, which is awesome to see from a US based manufacturer.
Having said that, success in races all over US and commercially involves many other variables and the engine situation you all pointed out didn’t help the shifter class in the last couple of years. In that sense I’m actually happy to see convergence towards the KZ platform and numbers growing, this will help with scale and availability. Instead of going with new platforms (tricky and expensive to launch), in Europe they’ve open local club and regional races to KZ engines with expired homologation and numbers boomed. You can find kz10b engines for dirt cheap and they aren’t slow at all…easy and it works for everybody. Maybe that will be a good direction for US too in a couple of years
Can you recall what country’s or series this happened in? Reason I ask is that I’ve never heard of local, regional or even some national series preventing engines from previous homologations from competing. I would have thought of this situation as being an outlier.
Italy. All sanctioned races at a national level enforce cik-fia rules with current homologation. Regional/amateur lever (aci-csai) require homologated equipment but allow expired homologations.
The interesting change that I was referring to is that many local clubs introduced a category specific for expired homologations only. This created a new hobby category that is cheap, yet still KZ. So you have a 3 tier system, uses same spare parts market (for the most part) so shops can move older stuff too and it’s a good entry level tier that you can buy into for very cheap. The system has its own cons, but seemed to have taken off compared to dedicated engine categories that flare up and die soon after
They tried something like that here in NZ for our gearbox championship (prokart) and it never took off unfortunately. I think because rotax is really still a big part of the market here and it doesn’t matter if you have cheap engines with expired homologations, expensive entry fees are just going to turn those people away.
This is how 100 National worked back in the day (previous homologation 100cc engines) in the UK. So am familiar here.
Really it works if you’ve got a large enough market in the first place for multi-manufacturer racing that second hand motors can sufficiently satisfy the amateur market, which has to be big enough itself. With all the factories in Italy it makes sense that there is this semi-symbiosis there.
That makes sense, the only countries I could thing of that would have limited to current homologation were Italy and France maybe.
Agreed, but wouldn’t it work somewhere else too? Meaning national-level racing is never done with old stuff anyways, the expiration rule simply forces hard depreciation into the used market and you can plan for it, it’s still several years of use. Top level teams spend the same but they have their own deals, mid tier is where you take a hard hit but you also open up the market on the bottom. In my opinion, it’s more a distribution issue than location of factories, for some reason they are all shy in going big overseas, having the same platform may help the process.
I’m with you on this @Alan_Dove. There’s no secret sauce to making karts. You need to make the jig, get a bender, get the right metal and a competent welder. Most as a starter just copy another frame (like a couple that have been mentioned already). And why wouldn’t you.
To start from scratch would require a lot of trial and error or simulation (and most people don’t have access to that level of specialist software or the where with all to use it). Even then you’d still need to model an existing frame and match the simulation to some real life testing.
I remember someone telling me that otk had a particular metal factory either contractually locked up to only supply them or they owned it. I can’t remember, and it was only the last maybe 5 years that it’s opened up. But that is rumor.
These days the karts are all very similar, there’s very little innovation at all and new manufacturers are forced to say their geometry/tubing is different to suit their markets tires/engine/tracks/weather (select as appropriate) to sell karts. The lack difference means for the most part that if you put a good driver in the kart it’ll be competitive. It’s more telling when a good driver changes and goes slower (Transvianutto is a good example I think).
I do appreciate that Factory Kart are trying things though, like the bearing hangers and the seat supports.
That stuff is straight from iKart.
Not quite, the ikart seat supports were bolted straight through the chassis rail while these have welded on mounts.
But a similar idea for sure.
I was under the impression it’s taken straight from the iKart John made Billy the year before last after he (Billy) parted with Croc before he (John) passed (RIP).
Add to the list bearing cassettes, Cs are machined from billet and the whole thing is tig welded by hand.
There’s more to it that you can’t see and it’s pretty unique to their process.
There’s a reason why several manufacturers have special chassis for the top guys/teams. They may have same metal same geometry but they don’t come out of the same assembly line used for us mortals, as several processes impact the final result, all else equal. Building a frame (that works) is not that easy, that’s why there are very few actual manufacturers and a lot of different colors/brands.
I’ve always wondered why no other brands ever tried to emulate this design aspect. Seems like a genuine improvement.
I just looked at the Factory Kart website. They certainly are not inexpensive.
They’re a little higher than almost every other chassis, huh? 
They’re a nice looking piece overall, tho.
Great discussions in here. Regarding the MRC Factory kart, I’m dying for one. A guy local here in KC bought one and it’s such a nice piece. Love that it’s American made. That said, I have an old CTS that is still very competitive at a club level and road racing. I have a ton of spares for it and probably not worth that much if I went to sell it. Realistically I’m probably not going to go that much faster with the Factory kart.
I am due for a replacement cadet chassis for my son and theirs look nice, but we have been very successful with the Nitro Kart and Nick Tucker has been FANTASTIC from the support end. I am having a very hard time switching given the level of support he has provided to us. Wish I had funds to buy both and test them independently.
I hope Factory Karts can thrive and take a piece of the market, it’s a huge step up in quality/fit/finish over most everything else.
So here’s a question, outside of the major players such as OTK or Birel, what kart manufacturers are getting bigger/ more popular compared so say just a few years ago?
I know in Lo206 MGM is a relatively new comer to the scene and gaining in popularity near me as their chassis and track support is suppose to be excellent.
Any others in 2021 as we move into 2022?
Any of the Kart Republic brands and their various offshoots have been popular in the past few years.
TBKart came out of nowhere when Farshad Baghieri got aggressive at moving the metal in 2020.
Breda went from 0 to the third or fourth most popular brand for sprint karting in the US since 2018.
Who’ll be next? How about EvoKart? They seem to do just as well as the rest of the CRGs and they’re a lot cheaper.
TB really got it’s first boost back in 2017 when AJ Myers walked the S1 field by a straightaway at the Summernats that year. He had continued success before eventually switching to the Croc.