I chose my TonyKart purely because of the ease of getting spares; new and used, you can pretty much guarantee you'll be able to get what you need quickly. Definitely agree about the cost of new OTK stuff though... Mind you, that's probably because I don't race and just want to go testing for fun!
Racing in Australia on a National level, and we went from racing with Parolin to joining Tecno on their resurgence in Australia. We were going into a bit of an unknown, but wanted to try something new, and something that most other drivers weren't using. They only started back up here in Australia in mid 2021, and we joined them for the start of 2022 along with a relatively small group of drivers racing the kart. I'm one of the only drivers out of 50-60 karts using the chassis, but as you said, when you get those results, and build strong relationships with the team, and the people that know the chassis, it is generally a great experience that you get to share with these people, and there is alot of freedom in trying different things. I feel that when there are alot of drivers using the same chassis and they see that someone else with that same chassis is doing well with a different setup change to you, you almost feel scared to try something different, and instead you just conform to what the fast guys are using. When your in a smaller group, there is little fear in trying different things and just 'having a go'. Great video, and a great way of explaining things!!
Go with a small local make, you can gain a wealth of knowledge through telling them what you "feel" and them telling you how you can set up your kart. Knowledge in Karting rarely comes free, take it whenever you can.
I went through all this when looking for a newer chassis for my daughter. I really didn't want to get an OTK chassis but looking for a good used chassis there wasn't a huge choice of other makes. Having spoken to Tim Gillard a couple of times I really wanted to buy on of his chassis but none came up for sale in the sort of condition/price I was looking for. We ended up with a Tonykart. Parts are fairly expensive but are well proven and you can get them anywhere. Being a parent it is the sensible choice, being out on the track is the most important thing to youngsters. To make up for this I am building up an older Swiss Hutless chassis for myself, the main reason I have for using this is that it has a really nice brake system on it !
Older Swiss Hutless chassis are good, specialy the toxic! But getting parts from Swiss Hutless in switzerland can be difficult, and is not that cheap either.
A good view point. There is no "Perfect" chassis out there, I used to take 2 different models from the same brand to every meeting, to find the one that worked best that weekend on those tyres on that track in that weather. Glad my kart owning days are over, that's now my team owners job, I arrive, set it up, work on it, drive it, pack it up and go home till the next event or practice day.
Good topic and good insight. On the topic of “who you are” and whatnot in making the decision to go the safe route or not, I think another thing to keep in mind is experience level. For newer racers, I think it’s wise to take certain variables out and obviously chassis is one of those. You eluded to this but having a chassis that is proven at the front of the grid takes a whole variable out of things. That said, we can pretty much agree that most current chassis can perform at a similar level, but they may have different nuances. So on the flip side of the experience curve, someone more experienced that truly wants to win, especially against opponents that may have more resources, etc, the “safe” bet in my opinion is to not go with the herd. Doing what everyone else does means you are racing to optimize the same package as what they have and potentially they have more resources and testing to extract everything out of it. Of course being somewhat of a Maverick might bite you, but it also may provide certain advantages that the herd might not have because they’re committed to their chassis package. I am going through this now. I am all about going a different direction, and my son just started in cadets. We started off by putting him on a 15 year old chassis (Birel) just to get racing. It was fine and he started getting competitive with it, but we got about everything out of it that we could. At that point I wanted to take a variable out of it so I put him on a newer chassis, still used mind you, that was pretty much the dominant one at our track. And it elevated him to instant front running pace. This was last season. Now he’s moving up to junior age group so full size chassis, and now that I know where his driving level is, we are going a completely different direction than the herd. We’ll see…
For me if you're new grab what everyone else is running because they will know how to help with the kart setup and etc. But for the most part its like picking a dirt bike, Yamaha = blue, Honda = Red etc.... so basically what color do you want?
I’m choosing a chassis at the moment, and for me…the main factor is the story behind it. Dunno if that makes sense 😆. Basically I went with the most accessible karts (the ones that sell a lot here in my country), built relationships, gotten multiple opinions and taking it for a joyride. I believe I’m going to click with one of these chassis and right now it’s between a Kosmic and a Praga 🤷♂️
I think one off the most important things to consider are the people behind the brand. I raced with a Swiss Hutless kart in top end rotax championships from 2007 - 2012. From 2009 onwards i was the only swiss hutless driver, at the time everybody was racing tony kart, intrepid , energy. At some point we were stuck and didnt know how to develop any further with the brand. When i had a test with their factory team they show no interest in rotax at all. All i heard was that the chassis was not made for the hard mojo tires at the time, and that i had to drive in the kf class. No support at all. Definitly my most dissapointing experience from a chassis brand, who a few years prior were a big force in 100cc/formule A.
Compkarts are rebranded Birel Karts, so they're pretty good. Personally I would go for a BRM though since Birel's production chassis are machine welded but their team uses hand welded chassis... BRM on the other hand hand welds both factory and production chassis ( a production spec BRM was within 0.02 of a factory team Birel in a WSK KZ2 race)
Discussion very comprehensive, though, say I want to start racing for fun/testing but having the option to adapt the chassis for a future race, what should I get? (senior)
I chose my TonyKart purely because of the ease of getting spares; new and used, you can pretty much guarantee you'll be able to get what you need quickly. Definitely agree about the cost of new OTK stuff though...
Mind you, that's probably because I don't race and just want to go testing for fun!
Racing in Australia on a National level, and we went from racing with Parolin to joining Tecno on their resurgence in Australia. We were going into a bit of an unknown, but wanted to try something new, and something that most other drivers weren't using. They only started back up here in Australia in mid 2021, and we joined them for the start of 2022 along with a relatively small group of drivers racing the kart. I'm one of the only drivers out of 50-60 karts using the chassis, but as you said, when you get those results, and build strong relationships with the team, and the people that know the chassis, it is generally a great experience that you get to share with these people, and there is alot of freedom in trying different things. I feel that when there are alot of drivers using the same chassis and they see that someone else with that same chassis is doing well with a different setup change to you, you almost feel scared to try something different, and instead you just conform to what the fast guys are using. When your in a smaller group, there is little fear in trying different things and just 'having a go'. Great video, and a great way of explaining things!!
Go with a small local make, you can gain a wealth of knowledge through telling them what you "feel" and them telling you how you can set up your kart. Knowledge in Karting rarely comes free, take it whenever you can.
I went through all this when looking for a newer chassis for my daughter. I really didn't want to get an OTK chassis but looking for a good used chassis there wasn't a huge choice of other makes. Having spoken to Tim Gillard a couple of times I really wanted to buy on of his chassis but none came up for sale in the sort of condition/price I was looking for. We ended up with a Tonykart. Parts are fairly expensive but are well proven and you can get them anywhere. Being a parent it is the sensible choice, being out on the track is the most important thing to youngsters. To make up for this I am building up an older Swiss Hutless chassis for myself, the main reason I have for using this is that it has a really nice brake system on it !
Older Swiss Hutless chassis are good, specialy the toxic! But getting parts from Swiss Hutless in switzerland can be difficult, and is not that cheap either.
A good view point. There is no "Perfect" chassis out there, I used to take 2 different models from the same brand to every meeting, to find the one that worked best that weekend on those tyres on that track in that weather. Glad my kart owning days are over, that's now my team owners job, I arrive, set it up, work on it, drive it, pack it up and go home till the next event or practice day.
Good topic and good insight. On the topic of “who you are” and whatnot in making the decision to go the safe route or not, I think another thing to keep in mind is experience level. For newer racers, I think it’s wise to take certain variables out and obviously chassis is one of those. You eluded to this but having a chassis that is proven at the front of the grid takes a whole variable out of things.
That said, we can pretty much agree that most current chassis can perform at a similar level, but they may have different nuances. So on the flip side of the experience curve, someone more experienced that truly wants to win, especially against opponents that may have more resources, etc, the “safe” bet in my opinion is to not go with the herd. Doing what everyone else does means you are racing to optimize the same package as what they have and potentially they have more resources and testing to extract everything out of it. Of course being somewhat of a Maverick might bite you, but it also may provide certain advantages that the herd might not have because they’re committed to their chassis package.
I am going through this now. I am all about going a different direction, and my son just started in cadets. We started off by putting him on a 15 year old chassis (Birel) just to get racing. It was fine and he started getting competitive with it, but we got about everything out of it that we could. At that point I wanted to take a variable out of it so I put him on a newer chassis, still used mind you, that was pretty much the dominant one at our track. And it elevated him to instant front running pace.
This was last season. Now he’s moving up to junior age group so full size chassis, and now that I know where his driving level is, we are going a completely different direction than the herd. We’ll see…
For me if you're new grab what everyone else is running because they will know how to help with the kart setup and etc. But for the most part its like picking a dirt bike, Yamaha = blue, Honda = Red etc.... so basically what color do you want?
I’m choosing a chassis at the moment, and for me…the main factor is the story behind it. Dunno if that makes sense 😆. Basically I went with the most accessible karts (the ones that sell a lot here in my country), built relationships, gotten multiple opinions and taking it for a joyride. I believe I’m going to click with one of these chassis and right now it’s between a Kosmic and a Praga 🤷♂️
Thanks for sharing this video. I run a custom engineered chassis made from a top kart 2014. and won a championship against the new stuff.
That's epic. Some gyu near me modded a Mitox and finished 2nd on it recently. It really does make you wonder.
I think one off the most important things to consider are the people behind the brand. I raced with a Swiss Hutless kart in top end rotax championships from 2007 - 2012. From 2009 onwards i was the only swiss hutless driver, at the time everybody was racing tony kart, intrepid , energy. At some point we were stuck and didnt know how to develop any further with the brand. When i had a test with their factory team they show no interest in rotax at all. All i heard was that the chassis was not made for the hard mojo tires at the time, and that i had to drive in the kf class.
No support at all. Definitly my most dissapointing experience from a chassis brand, who a few years prior were a big force in 100cc/formule A.
Great Amp love the marshall combo amps
Another key difference is what feels good isn’t always fast
Intrepid vs CRG?? (2022 chassis)
Compkart vs tony kart???
Compkarts are rebranded Birel Karts, so they're pretty good. Personally I would go for a BRM though since Birel's production chassis are machine welded but their team uses hand welded chassis... BRM on the other hand hand welds both factory and production chassis ( a production spec BRM was within 0.02 of a factory team Birel in a WSK KZ2 race)
Discussion very comprehensive, though, say I want to start racing for fun/testing but having the option to adapt the chassis for a future race, what should I get? (senior)
If I were buying new I'd go with the person who I preferred doing business with.
@@AlanDoveKarting what you mean? Picking up any brand we want?