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Introduction This is the 8th generation of the “Racer” chassis produced by Tony Kart, the largest and most successful manufacturer/team in karting. The name of the chassis does not follow the traditional naming structure over the last ten years which has seen at least two chassis produced with similar initials. Racer Racer EV Racer EVX Racer EVXX Racer EVR Racer EVRR Racer EVK You would expect the new chassis to be called the “Racer EVKK” But no, it's “Racer 401”. This could be the last time we see the Racer name, according to the internet rumour mill! The Racer EVK KZ chassis never really performed at the high level expected of Tony Kart, where as the KF and Rotax versions were dominant around the world. This chassis was designed to address this issue and put Tony Kart back on top in the KZ class. The first competitive outing for the chassis was at the KZ World Championships, at the hands of Marco Ardigo and Flavio Camponeschi. The chassis outperformed the rest of the field through the entire weekend. The pair finished 1-2 overall in the KZ class. Not bad then. This was back in October 2014 and since, Tony Kart have officially released the KF/Rotax chassis in November, followed by the KZ chassis in January 2015. We have finally got our hands on this chassis and hope to show you what your £3,900 buys you. First Impressions Is it any different to the EVK KZ chassis? YES, Yes it is. It's not just skin deep with the KZ chassis. The frame has undergone some significant changes in comparison with the EVK chassis. The main difference being the FRONT end geometry. We had initially been expecting to see some changes at the rear of the kart but in fact the biggest change has taken place at the front. The chassis has a much shorter waist. The angle from the waist to the yokes is therefore less acute than the EVK. You can see how much shorter the waist is by looking at the floor tray, which is clearly designed to follow the contours of the Rotax/KF frame. Here are the two chassis stood next to each other, sorry we could not get any comparison photos as we were in a hurry! Rotax/KF on top, KZ underneath. KZ shorter waist. Gap between floor tray and frame shows new profile of chassis. The rest of the frame seems to follow the EVK, with higher bearing carrier mounts and seat stays to clear the chain. The next biggest change in our eyes has to be the brakes. These are entirely new and have been the main focus of Tony Kart in the marketing of the chassis. The front brakes have bigger twin pot callipers and the rear calliper is of a similar design but with a single large pot. The last thing which is immediately obvious is the new bodywork to conform to the new regulations and for the new homologation period. The mouldings on the front nose cone which attach to the front bars are no longer part of the nose. They are now attached to the nose by 8 cap head bolts. This may enable you to repair a nose cone easier! The bodywork at the front looks a little.... Plump? I saw a photo of the front end with no stickers and nearly threw up. Horrible. But, in the flesh, it isn't as bad as it looks. I'm actually growing to like it. The Rotax/KF version of the 401 does not appear to be much different to the EVK. It is basically an EVK with the new homologated bodywork. What do you get? Sometimes, it's not entirely clear what you will receive from a manufacturer when buying a new chassis. All you have to go by in this case is the badly translated description on the Tony Kart website. Below, we have photographed every part which is included on the chassis, and inside the accompanying box. It's impossible to deny that this review took place in my living room. It was way too cold in the workshop and, if I'm honest, I wanted to sit and look at it while eating my dinner. I would like to take this moment to give my thanks to the wife for putting up with the constant noise of ratchet spanners and tools dropping onto the fibreglass seat. Thanks Laura! The chassis comes with a giant box containing all the parts which are not fitted to the chassis. Monty, as you can see, was impressed by the size of this box... This is exactly as the chassis arrives: The bodywork and large items such as the side pod bars come loose inside the large cardboard box. Smaller items come in jiffy bags. Not the most protective of packages it has to be said. The rear hubs were just plonked in a bag free to bang against each other. Nothing will get damaged enough to be useless, but it would be nice to have some of the more expensive parts packaged a little better.The steering wheel is a good example as they are easily damaged but come in a plastic bag. The kart comes with a few parts already attached to the frame and the brakes are complete and filled with DOT5.1 fluid. Some areas of the kart are protected with grease to protect against corrosion. What's missing? I was a little unsure of what I may need to buy to complete the build so here is a list of things you will need to complete the chassis. Minus an engine and ancillaries. Exhaust mounts (cradles +bars) Airbox mount Engine mount Rear sproket Chain Water pump Axle pump pulley Radiator+mounts Hose In-line temp sensor Clutch cable Throttle cable Data logger mount Seat spacers (large for under front of seat) Fuel line Chassis protectors Don't forget to add the price of these to the chassis if you are thinking of buying new but are not sure if you can afford it. Most of these items are obvious things that would not come with the chassis but it's still worth noting. The kart Now that's all out of the way, lets have a closer look at the chassis and some of the components. The build The kart went together without too much hassle. The sticker pack was difficult to apply, mainly because of the new contours on the bodywork which require a certain technique to successfully apply the stickers. Once you have done them once, it will be much easier the next time around. The instructions are basic, but give you an idea of what to do and how to overlap the nose cone stickers. For a first attempt I was reasonably happy with my efforts, but there are a few bubbles and ripples here and there. The radiator (New-Line RS) will not bolt directly onto the chassis as the two holes provided on the chassis are much larger than the M8 hole in the radiator mount. I need to find a rubber grommet to step down the hole size before I can attach the mount. All the rest of the kart went together as expected with no real issues. There was a small burr on the inside of the gear linkage lever which meant it would not push onto the gear lever easily. I had to clean these out with a file for it to fit smoothly. Observations The new bodywork will not fit the old side pod bars properly as far as i can tell. The new bars have a larger flat portion than the older bars. The new M6 bodywork is much heavier and much stiffer than the M4 bodywork from the previous generations of chassis. It will be interesting to see how this holds up when contact occurs. The old nose used to dent with the slightest tap and used plastic rivets to hold the mounting gear to the main molding of the nose. This new nose has separate mounting gear so there is more scope for rescuing the nose if it ever gets ripped off the kart. The front bars are the same as the old ones. The brakes use DOT 5.1 fluid as opposed to DOT 5 in the old EVK system (we are unsure of what fluid the EVK KZ chassis used..) You cannot buy an angled steering boss for the KZ chassis. An angled wedge must be used. There is still no standard fixing for an airbox. The included hole on the chassis is too far back to use an airbox cradle so you will end up making one up out of random parts. Even the chassis on the Tony Kart website has a home made bracket clamped to the side pod bar. If somebody could recommend us a good solution to using a NOX airbox then this would be appreciated. However, we still think Tony Kart should provide some mounting hardware at least. It's a similar story with exhaust silencer brackets. There is a mounting point affixed to the chassis but you will have to buy more parts to connect these to the cradles. General Use We will update this review once the kart has seen the track! Summary There is nothing revolutionary about Tony Kart's latest offering but there are changes which should have a direct impact on track. The new frame design is the biggest change and the new brake design looks to be a big improvement. The recent success at the World Championships seems to suggest that Tony Kart have sorted out the issues which plagued the EVK. The new look of the bodywork is certainly a talking point with mixed opinions. We get the feeling that designing a custom team sticker kit to make the most of the contours of the nose cone will be more challenging than the M4 bodywork. The nassau panel is very large and quite flat, again, we think its going to be difficult to design a suitable scheme to make the bodywork look desirable. Here is KR Sport's (Matt Hirst) effort with the new bodywork. A good effort but we don't think it looks as good as the M4 nassau panel. Pros Proven performance . Established spares availability. Quality components (design). Very good brakes. Easy to work on. Cons Slightly more expensive than competition. Items missing which are included with other brands . ***We will have more images and further review of the kart in the coming weeks. Please comment below if there is anything in particular you would like us to cover.***

Introduction This is the first in a series of UK circuit reviews here at Kart Review UK. The idea behind these reviews is to provide racers who have not visited a circuit before the best and most accurate knowledge of the circuits. We know how much work goes into a weekends racing and the more you know about the circuit the easier your life will be. This will give you more time to concentrate on the important aspects, such as getting that lap time down to somewhere near the quick locals, or faster! Location & Local Amenities First things first, how do we get there? This circuit is one of the most accessible circuits we have ever been to. The M74 is the main carriageway taking you from the M6 right through to Glasgow. Traveling southbound, very simple. Once you are on the M74, you simply turn off at J7, turn right at the T junction and travel around 400 meters on this road. Keep your eye out for the kart circuit sign on the right hand side of the road. This directs you to turn left, follow a small track up a hill and you are there. Using the postcode provided on the website directed us straight to the circuit (ML9 2UL) It's slightly more confusing when traveling from the south however. J7 is only accessible from the southbound side of the carriageway, if you are traveling north, continue to J6, turn off and head back down on the southbound carriageway and then turn off at J7. To achieve this, take this route... This day and age you will usually have satellite navigation or at the very least access to Google Maps, both do a great job and don't send you down the smallest road known to man. If you are travelling from the south, these methods will take you a slightly longer route away from the M74, so don't panic if it takes a while to get to the circuit when using these. Once you have been to the circuit, you will appreciate just how close to the main road the circuit is. Being so close to the main road has more benefits than easy access to the circuit. We like to have some decent food on the Saturday night and decided Pizza Hut would provide just the ticket. We entered Pizza Hut into our good friend Google Maps and was very happy to learn that the journey would take us just 4 minutes! It took us to Hamilton, which is the next junction along the M74. The choice of eateries on this particular retail outlet was brilliant. Palace Grounds Retail Park, contains McDonalds, KFC & Pizza Hut. Link: http://commercial.btwshiells.com/shopping-centres/specific/1623/other-uk Across the road we found Frankie & Benny's, a VUE Cinema and a 24 hour ASDA. There was many other food places available but we simply didn’t have time to note them all down. Needless to say, you should be able to keep even the fussiest of team members happy! Facilities As circuit facilities go, Larkhall does a solid job of providing all you need. These include; 24hr toilets & Showers Permanent Cafeteria with toilets Visitors car park The toilets are open 24hrs a day and are maintained throughout a race weekend. The showers are inside the toilet block so your shower may not be quite as refreshing if you happen to have “that” guy answering the call of nature in the cubicle next to you. We took a few pictures of the toilet block facilities half way through a weekend to give you an idea of what you can expect. The showers worked OK, but seemed to be held together by tie wraps, but as we all know, tie wraps enable the world to go round. The Cafeteria was open all day throughout the weekend (We think it shut around 5pm, sorry we can't give an exact time) It has plenty of tables and chairs available so you should not have a problem finding somewhere to enjoy the range of chips, pies, burgers and compliments such as curry sauce etc. Prices are very reasonable. I went for a Scotch Pie to satisfy my hunger. Initially, I commented on the texture of the pie which seemed to have quite a bit of tough gristle in it. I did however plough through, crunching away at the gristle. Later, it became apparent that the gristle was in fact, half of the plastic fork pictured below. I was slightly uneasy with the thought of when I may come across this plastic again, but can report that in this particular instance, there was no complications.. The toilets inside the cafeteria were exceptionally clean and well maintained. During the day these should take preference over the 24hr toilet block. Parking for visitors is also provided, it's not the biggest, but is ample space for a busy club meeting. We were very impressed with the overall standard of the facilities at Larkhall, there is definitely a thing or two that other circuits could take on board from Larkhall. It is clear from the outside that the club is trying its hardest through investment and time to make the race meeting be as comfortable as possible for competitors and spectators. Paddock Area image courtesy of WSKC 1: Track Entrance, Merryton Road 2: Clubhouse 3: Caravan & Car Parking Area 4: Scrutineering Bay 5: Parc Ferme 6: Track Exit 7: Spectator Area 8: Dummy Grid 9: Race Control 10: Track 11: Gearbox Section 12: Paddock Area – Tarmac & Hard Standing 13: Paddock Area – Grass 14: Toilets & Showers The paddock and surrounding areas of the Larkhall circuit are also top notch. There is hard standing which is relatively easy to peg into if you have a decent sized mallet and grassed areas once these are full or you don’t have the hardware to peg into the hard standing. The amount of space on hard standing appeared to be ample for most club meetings but we would be interested to see just how much room there is at a S1 round. All paths are tarmac so all trolleys should cope well with the conditions. One thing that can be frustrating at a circuit is the tannoy system. It really helps to know what’s going out on track without running to get a view of the dummy grid. It's also handy when you are trying to figure out when the drivers briefing will be held. The system was clear and from our observations was consistent around the paddock areas with no black spots. This is probably down to the fact that the circuit wraps around the paddock area so nowhere is miles away from the action. The dummy grid is well thought out and has a lane for karts wishing to drive straight back out onto the circuit. Viewing at Larkhall is once again excellent. If you view from the purpose built gantry you can pretty much see all of the circuit apart from a couple of corners which hide behind the race control building. We tried to get a panoramic view of this but it didn’t work out. The scrutineering bay is once again well thought out with two bays enabling two karts to be inspected simultaneously. Scales are flush with the ground but we got the impression that they were showing slightly under what they should have been. This is good if you are a heavy driver, but not so much if you already have a tonne of lead on your kart. Circuit Here is an on-board video of Larkhall. Formula Blue A-Final April 2012. Full credit goes to CAMERON LOW As you can see the circuit is very fast with some medium speed hairpins. Many of the corners are off-camber so getting to the apex can be quite a challenge! Below are a few shots of the start/finish Summary Overall, Larkhall is a fantastic facility. It is Scotland's no1 circuit and is not far behind the best circuits in the UK. The facilities are excellent & well maintained. The Cafe is very reasonably priced and the menu has everything you would expect. The location of the circuit is easily accessible with some brilliant amenities close by. This makes it as enjoyable off the track as it is on. Pros Excellent Accesibility Huge choice of amenities within a 5 minute drive Solid range of facilities available 24 hour showers Paddock area well maintained Cafe Cons No gravy available in Cafe.. Structural integrity of plastic cutlery in cafe needs addressing. In all seriousness, there were no cons that are worthy of comment. The meeting ran pretty smoothly as far as organisation goes and the only thing to slow it down was some rather dodgy starts which were more down to some sub standard driving practices than the nature of the circuit. Most Senior races required at least one re-start at this particular meeting. Facilities 9/10 Circuit 8/10 Paddock 8/10 Accessibility 10/10 Meeting Management 8/10 We would definitely recommend Larkhall as a circuit to visit.Please leave any comments if there is anything you would like to see in future circuit reviews.

We can keep a karts rolling resistance to a minimum by making sure all bearings are working properly. We can do this by making sure the front hub bearings are kept lubricated and by making sure the rear axle bearings are seated correctly so there is no unwanted load acting upon them. Once we have done all we can to minimise friction caused by the chassis itself, it's time to drive some power through it. We want to transfer as much of the precious (and sometimes very expensive) horsepower to the rear tyres as we can. There are only three components that we can control, these are;[*]Engine sprocket[*]Chain[*]Rear SprocketToday we are looking at Talon rear sprockets which are marketed as a premium sprocket for optimal performance and reliability. First Impressions I have been using Talon sprockets on and off for a few years now. If I’m visiting a circuit at which I am not sure of the correct gearing, I will buy a sprocket of the size recommended by the club, one sprocket a tooth larger and one sprocket with one less tooth than the recommended. This gives me a few options straight out of the box, just in case the circuit shop is closed on the Saturday or they have sold out. It also saves me running backwards and forwards using up precious spanner time. Price for three Talon Sprockets £38.34 Price for three Spellfame Sprockets £27.00 Now, for the super scrimpers out there you may be thinking “It's only a sprocket, I will save myself a tenner and get the cheaper sprockets.” And there’s nothing wrong with that, especially if you want to use the cheap sprockets to find your ideal gearing and then possibly drop a few extra quid on a higher quality sprocket. Personally, I like to build a collection of new sprockets. If you trash a sprocket in the first heat for some reason and then can't get hold of another high quality sprocket, you may spend the day running around on a sprocket that wears out faster than Homer Simpson on a treadmill. Now, on to the sprockets! When you get your hands on the sprocket you instantly know you have paid more of your hard earned cash for it. It has a laser etched logo with the model number and amount of teeth above it. It's very well finished throughout with no burrs or blemishes on it's surface. Throughout the rest of this review I will be comparing the Talon Sprocket to a cheaper, but still described as a high quality sprocket available from Spellfame UK. Note: In this review we used a smaller 74T Talon sprocket as opposed to an 85T Spellfame sprocket. The Talon sprocket is made of 7075 Aircraft Grade Aluminium, which I can confirm is in fact “Aircraft Grade” as I often use it when manufacturing components for the Tornado GR4. It's hard to find information on what grade of material is used in the Spellfame sprocket but from looking at it I can tell that it is certainly a grade which is rolled to a much larger tollerance than the Talon sprocket. The surface finish is much less consistent and when laid on a granite bed it rocked considerably more than the Talon sprocket which felt rock solid. This warping issue is probably caused by one of the machining/work holding processes used rather than the flatness of the material from the manufacturer. I would also be confident that the sprocket is not as hard as the 7075 aluminium used in the Talon sprockets as there are a few tell tale signs of burrs being thrown up in the machining process and then quickly ground back with sandpaper or similar abrasives (Softer materials tend to be harder to machine and achieve a good cut/surface finish than harder ones, within reason). The Talon sprocket manages to be burr free, without any “finishing off” or “de burring” by hand. This could either be better use of the machining processes, better quality tooling (less worn) or from the increased hardness of the material. It's more likely that all three of these things contribute to a much higher quality end product. On this subject I would like to mention that on some cheap sprockets I have found surprisingly large burrs in the sockets where the chain barrels seat. More on that later. The following images are direct comparisons between the Spellfame High Quality Sprocket and the Talon Sprocket. The sprockets in all their glory In the above shot, you can see that the lightening hole arrangement is different than on the Spellfame sprocket. The Spellfame sprocket goes for an equally spaced PCD (Pitch Circle Diameter) whereas the Talon has the holes in pairs along it's PCD. Initially I thought this may have been due to the size of the sprocket not leaving enough room for the drilled holes to mount the sprocket onto the carrier. I found that even on an 84T Talon sprocket, it still had the same arrangement. Also worth noting is that the lightening holes on the Spellfame sprocket appear to stay the same size no matter what size the sprocket is. For example, a 75T and an 85T both have equal size lightening holes. This means that on larger sprockets the holes look rather small and are not saving as much weight as they could. The Talon, on the other hand have different size lightening holes for each individual sprocket size. They increase in diameter with the size of the sprocket, therefore keeping the ratio more equal. This means that the larger sprockets save more weight than on the Spellfame sprocket. The Talon has a slightly different profile at the top of each tooth Talon has laser etched branding opposed to the stamped number of the Spellfame sprocket Close up of the inside profile You can hopefully get an idea of the difference in surface finish in this shot. In the following images you can clearly see that the lightening holes in the Spellfame sprocket have been punched out, whereas the Talon holes have been machined. This could also be a contributing factor to the overall flatness of the sprocket. Earlier on in the review I mentioned some burrs on the cheaper sprocket. In this image I have highlighted the issue. Now, these are not too bad but I have seen the odd sprocket with much worse burrs than this. The problem being these burrs break off during use and when combined with chain lube act as a metallic grinding paste. We are trying our hardest to keep our chain clean to prolong the life and maintain its efficiency, the last thing we want to do is introduce these metallic fillings before the kart even hits the track. General Use/Observations Late last year I was able to run the dream team of components for what should be the most durable set-up available. I ran a Talon sprocket, a brand new Rotax engine sprocket and the HAT Panther chain. I also ran a brand new OTK sprocket carrier to make sure I had everything as it should be. I ran all of Saturday, flushing out the chain with brake cleaner and then drying with blue roll between each run. I inspected the sprocket and chain wear and could not believe how well it was holding up. Usually I would consider replacing the sprocket for Sunday but I saw absolutely no point as there was minimal wear to the edges of the sprocket and the profile had shown no wear whatsoever! Unfortunately, before I was able to test a cheap sprocket with the set-up, my sprocket carrier shifted when hitting a curb particularly hard and snapped the chain. I would have been interested to see how a cheap sprocket held up compared to the Talon when paired with a HAT Panther chain. Never the less, I have since used a Talon sprocket with a standard Gold chain and found them to simply outlast the cheaper sprockets available. They still wear if you don't have all of the alignment correct and fail to clean it, but they definitely appear to cope with wear better than the cheaper sprockets when everything is as it should be. Summary So, on the durability front, the Talon definitely do a better job than the cheaper sprockets. They are of a much higher quality throughout and this can stop unwanted metallic fillings being introduced, which can increase wear rates. We would be interested to see if there was any difference in performance by use of a dyno, and to see if the positioning of the holes make any difference to the balance of the sprocket. If you are extra careful with your kit, and keep the drive train clean after each run, you can make any sprocket last a long time. But sometimes having a sprocket that is able to resist wear that little bit better, could mean the difference between crossing the line and pulling off to the side as your engine screams at the loss of it's beloved chain. There are sprockets available that are much worse than the Spellfame sprocket we compared the Talon against today, and we may re-visit this subject to compare the two opposite ends of the spectrum. With this in mind we are going to give a brief scoring of the Spellfame sprocket too. Spellfame Pros Price Resonable quality If maintained properly, has good durability. Spellfame Cons Poor machining quality Less durable material Lightening holes a fixed size Spellfame Kart Review Score 14 out of 20 Talon Pros Excellent quality Lighter larger sprockets Higher grade material Very durable Talon Cons Price