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Probably the most important piece of karting kit you will own. Now discontinued but replaced by the very similar Bell Sport 5, with a longer life Snell SA2010 rating compared to the Bell Sport 4's Snell SA 2005 rating. Let's see how this lid performs. First Impresions FIA 8858 & Snell SA2005 Approved The Bell Sport 4 comes in your standard helmet packaging with nothing particularly special going on. The box has padding on each side to prevent any damage to your £400, potentially life saving device. Take out the helmet and you get a small accessory kit. This contains a small tool with the two sizes of allen wrench needed to change the visor. You also get a helmet bag for transporting your head protector around. This is thick enough to take any small bumps and knocks, but it will not prevent damage if you drop it, for example. The first thing I noticed about this helmet once I had it placed firmly on my noggin was the comfort. It fits perfectly and does not wobble around. This is probably down to the correct sizing but the materials used inside are basic, comfortable and hold no surprises (Its also nomex lined). As always, you need to make sure you get the correct size, if you do get the wrong size, you want it too small rather than too big. The last thing you want is the helmet moving around on your swede during a race. This is not just to eliminate the possible increased rate of premature hair loss, but to avoid any potential serious injury or lack of vision if you ever get involved in a first lap, first corner armageddon like incident. General Use/Observations One thing I have noticed through time is the helmet outside shell size is very large. If you compare it to an Arai SK-6, it is noticeably larger. This is not really an issue for most people, as long as you don't mind looking a little bit like "Big Ed" from the British Superbike Championship. This helmet is available up to XXL which is the largest size that Bell manufacture, which could explain the larger outside size. When using the helmet, I have always left a small opening at the bottom of the visor. This helps with keeping the visor clear if you start breathing a little heavy but also means you can easily open the visor at the end of a race! I found the system to keep the visor closed was a little aggressive and was extremely difficult to open with racing gloves on. This is an annoyance, especially when you have something really important to discuss with a fellow racer concerning their development of a twitch while along side them. I took the plunge and dropped nearly £90 on a silver mirror effect visor for the summer months. Be careful what you clean these with as the coating is on the outside, I would advise just using clean water and keep any chemicals away. I had one incident where another kart from a different class was out practising with Senior Max and I got a face full of something exiting his exhaust. When I wiped it off after the race, it left splatter marks where the substance had removed the silver coating! Summary As this helmet is discontinued and superseded by the Bell sport 5, I can't say that this review will reflect entirely what the 5 will be like, but I have handled the 5 and it feels almost identical, apart from some changes to the visor. As you can see from the images above, the styling is very similar. The visor has a newly profiled shape at each end, which will hopefully be easier to open with gloves on, a downfall of the Sport 4. This helmet does its job. If the unfortunate happens, and I take a bit of a tumble, I have full confidence that this helmet will protect me against any nastiness. Bell is a top name in helmet manufacturing and has been around for years with a good heritage and proven track record. Pros Comfortable Simple design Quality Helmet Cons Hard to open Visor Large outer shell

After the poor experience I had with the Senzo 3 Wheel Trolley, I was eager to see what the Senzo 4 Wheeled Trolley had to offer. First Impressions When the trolley arrived, I spent a few minutes inspecting the construction and welds. Compared to the 3 wheel trolley, this trolley is much more robust! No flimsy tacks or half welded T sections. I was very happy with the overall quality of the trolley. The Senzo 4 Wheel Trolley. More attention to detail has gone into the welding of the trolley. The trolley does not fold away, but is assembled by slotting the two T sections into their respective slots on the chassis of the trolley. It has two small castors at the rear and two fixed steel wheels with pneumatic tyres on the front. The trolley fully erected. I decided to check out the two small castors as the main castor on the 3 wheel trolley collapsed on the first use. Much to my frustration, both castors were already bent underneath the trolley! You can see in the image what I’m talking about. Bent before it reached the circuit. Monty agreed that the castors were damaged. I can only think that the trolley is being abused somewhere down the line as the design is more than strong enough to withstand it's intended use. I straightened the castors as when they are not level, they will try and swivel the same way, making manoeuvring of the trolley hard work even on a nice flat surface. Which is the main job of a trolley! General Use/Observations The front T section of this trolley has no pegs or stops to prevent the kart from sliding sideways, and possibly falling off the trolley. The rear T section has V slots which the chassis rails sit in. This stops some sideways movement at the front but I still felt uncomfortable letting the kart move so much. I ended up tie wrapping some old OTK rear bumper rubbers to the T section either side of the chassis. This idea worked fine and I had no more issues with the kart moving. It is possible that Senzo have decided to not include anything on purpose for some reason, but I am struggling to come up with a good explanation. Modification to stop sideways movement of the kart The rear T bar has adjustable sleeves so you can match the width to your chassis rails. I did find that on an EVR chassis that there was no suitable placement for the V slots without having the kart too far forwards or too far backwards. I ended up having the V slots sitting behind the engine mount and on the left side the V sat inside the triangle area of the chassis. This actually resulted in the T section having a slight twist in it, however this didn't seem to be an issue. You can see the V cup style holders here. I have previously avoided this design of trolley due to the small castors. You would imagine that they would not handle the rough terrain of many UK circuits very well. Their small size also means the weight is not spread so would dig into grass etc. If you thought this, you would be CORRECT. The trolley is terrible at handling anything but the smoothest circuit paddock (PFI). We were testing the trolley at Clay Pigeon and the 15 meter walk from our awning across hardcore to the main path felt like I was trying to navigate a zimmer frame to the summit of Ben Nevis. I was left with bruises on my forearms at the end of the day, as you have to support the rear of the trolley using the handle provided. So essentially you are only using the two front wheels. This would not be so bad if the handle was long enough to protrude from the rear of the kart, but it's not. You end up pulling the handle upwards and have the rear bumper of the kart resting on your forearm taking somewhat of a pounding. The handle helped, but was too short to get hold of when the kart if on the trolley. Once I reached the path everything was fantastic, the noise of clattering castors and cursing ended. I would imagine Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) felt a similar kind of emotion/relief as he climbed out of the sewage pipe into freedom in the 1994 classic “Shawshank Redemption”. In all seriousness, the trolley is brilliant on flat surfaces. Small bumps and potholes can be dealt with thanks to the larger pneumatic tyres on the front which alert you to the obstacle. You can then take the weight of the small castors to allow them to skim across the top of said obstacle. The rear castors also make manoeuvring the trolley in tight spaces very easy. I found it much easier to place into our team awning without knocking everything off the table or ramming the side of a team mates kart. So, if you only have a small awning, this trolley is great! We had three karts in a 6x3m awning. My new found hatred of foam filled tyres, meant that I was very happy with the pneumatic tyres fitted to this trolley. They work perfectly. You put air in them, and they become round. They then carry on being round for the duration of their life. They do sometimes require a quick service which involves placing more air into the tyre. Simples. The wheel. No need to re-invent this. One negative in comparison to the 3 wheel trolley, is the exclusion of the four prongs to hang a set of tyres on. This came in handy for keeping your wets with the kart, you could also place them on the correct corner, which stopped any embarrassment of putting the wheel on the wrong side of the kart. I see no reason why these could not be included on the trolley. I will be fitting my own. Further Observations (and a bit of a review of the retailer) It appears as though the rear small castors are effected more than just being noisy and cumbersome on uneven ground. I just had a close look at the solid tyre material and there is chunks missing at various points around the tyre. Tyres chunking I don't see this as a fault of the trolley, but more misuse of the trolley. Now, as I mentioned earlier, anyone with half a brain cell would be thinking that this trolley will be unsuitable for rough ground, so you wouldn't buy it. You would buy the three wheel senzo with nice large "off-road" style tyres, which is exactly what I did. I received this trolley as a "free upgrade" as it's more expensive than the three wheel trolley. I should have asked for my money back and bought another brand of three wheel trolley. I am now left with a trolley which is not much use to me unless I got to a very flat circuit. I could send this one back too explaining that it's just not what I need. Honestly, I had that many issues replacing the first Senzo trolley that I just don't have the time or patience to be going down that route. Without going into details, and having a good old moan, let's just say that the retailer in question will be lucky If I continue to use their services. And that will be the end of that. Summary If you race at PFI, buy this trolley. If you race at a circuit which has vast areas of hardcore or grass, don’t. Stick with a standard three wheel scissor type trolley. For their price, they really are the best option. If you race at a circuit which is in the middle, then this trolley is usable. You will have to make sure you set up your awning as close to the main pathway as possible otherwise you will find yourself getting frustrated trying to rally this trolley around. The trolley is really well made (In comparison to the Senzo 3 Wheel trolley) and when in the correct environment, works like a charm. Pros Excellent build quality Stable Manoeuvrable Cons High Price Limited terrain suitability Lack of wheel pegs Link to Senzo 3 Wheel Trolley

First Impressions As soon as you get your hands on this chain, you know you are dealing with a premium product. The chain arrives in a tin, complete with Panther Kart Chain graphics. There is a small sticker on the end detailing the size (In this case, 104 links). Once you open the tin, there is a foam sandwich which contains the chain. The packaging is top notch, which is what you expect to some degree, given the price. Looking closer at the chain, the manufacturing is excellent. Each link looks like it has been machined, rather than punched, formed or some other faster, cheaper method. The chain is covered in a thin protective grease to prevent corrosion. General Use/Observations So, this chain seems to be ticking all the boxes, so it is time to hit the track to see how the chain holds up. We are testing the chain at the Clay Pigeon circuit, Dorset. We are running a Senior Rotax Tonykart, with OTK sprocket carrier, Talon 75T sprocket and a standard Rotax 12T engine sprocket. All parts are brand new. Once fitted to the kart, there are no tight spots, and the chain feels really smooth. This would be expected given all components are brand new, clean & lubed ready for a run. After the first session the chain is looking like it's barely done any work. Once it has been cleaned and flushed of any circuit debris there are no signs of any heavy wear on the Talon sprocket or the engine sprocket. By the end of the day the sprocket has a small amount of wear on the sides of the teeth but it's even on both sides. The tooth form has not worn at all! We ran a total of 8 x 8 minute sessions are we are really impressed with the chain. The chain only had to be tightened once after the third session and this was a VERY small amount which is expected with a new chain. And to be honest, was not enough to start worrying about the chain coming off. We were going to do a weekend long review of this chain, but unfortunately on in the third heat on the Sunday, the sprocket carrier moved (my fault for not tightening it enough!) and resulted in total annihilation of the chain, sprocket and carrier! £130 down the drain! Up to this point the chain had performed faultlessly and we have no doubt it would have carried on for many more sessions. Summary At the end of the day, it's a chain. There are many lesser priced chains on the market and one could argue that you can run two cheaper chains for the same amount of time as the panther for the same money, and this is probably true. However, if you want top performance & a piece of mind that the chain will not fail you, you can't get better than this. From the word go, this chain exceeds your normal expectations of a kart chain. If you can afford an extra £20 or so then go for it. You will not be disappointed by the performance nor the quality of this chain. Pros Unbeatable Quality Excellent Performance Excellent Durability Cons High Price The chain looses a few marks for the high price tag, but If this chain could be sold closer to the £30-£35 mark, It really would be an essential for the serious racers/teams.

First Impressions These racing boots appear to have adopted the current fashion in football boots in which they make them as shiny as possible! They are very glossy all over with just a few of the "wear patches" given a matt treatment. The boots are available in three colours, Metallic Gold, Super Cyan & White and the ones we are reviewing today, White & Intense Green. All three are pretty loud and in your face. With the White ones being the most sensible, If you could call a white race boot sensible.. General Use/Observations When I first put these boots on, I was very concerned about how tight these were in width. The image of the boots give the impression that the lace sides will be somewhere close together once on your foot. However, by the time I got my feet into these, the laces had splayed quite a lot. I would suggest there is an issue with the manufacture of the boot in this area, as where the laces loop through on the sides, the loops are MUCH further down the sides than that shown on the boot in the marketing images. Here is the image you see when buying the boot, Marketing Image And now here is the actual boot you get, The boots that are being distributed in the UK. It appears as if the loops are being placed too far down the side of the boot. The result of this, is when you tighten the boot, instead of pulling the edges together, it pulls the loops together and you end up with the sides all over the place. I have relatively narrow feet, so if you have feet more like that of a duck then you might want to see if you can squeeze into them before purchasing. This issue aside the boots are reasonably good. They are surprisingly easy to clean thanks to the glossy nature of the boot, although the wear pads require a little more elbow grease to remove rubber and other track debris. One of the reasons I got this boot over the Alpine Stars boot is the performance in the wet. I was sick to death of standing in a small puddle and having cold water seep straight into the boots. These boots handle water in the paddock much better. They also are much better suited to the usually gravely abrasive nature of circuit paddocks in the UK. The lack of fabric on the boot is a plus point as fabric is nearly impossible to get clean, especially when it's white. Summary Although these boots appear to be loud and lairy, they are actually quite a sensible boot for UK kart tracks. They handle water and muddy/dirty paddock areas much better than some other top name boots thanks to the glossy material. Adidas have let the quality slip in one area of the boot, and its this alone that stops the boot being brilliant, and instead only good. Pros Look great Easy to clean Sturdy (resistant to abrasive paddock areas) Cons Quality control issues Too narrow, therefore tight around the foot Lacing system poor NOTE: If Adidas resolve the laces issue, these boots would score much higher.

First Impressions The Bengio Bumper is a really simple piece of kit so it's rather underwhelming to look at. There is a choice of White, Chrome & Black available, but it's still essentially some high density foam with a fibreglass shell. It appears to be of a quality you would expect for something at the top end of the rib protector price range. Bengio Bumper, available in White, Chrome & Black The fibreglass seems to peel away from the foam. But has not gotten any worse in over a year of use. General Use/Observations I bought the Bengio as my OMP "Carbon" rib protector had given up and was not providing enough protection on rough tracks. It was initially hard to say how good the Bengio was, as I already had ribs that were still healing. However, since my ribs have repaired, I have not had a single problem in over a year! It comes in 7 sizes, which is pretty comprehensive. I went for a Medium as I am not the largest guy in the paddock and could have probably gone down a couple of sizes. The contours/radius of the fibreglass tighten as you go down in size as there is not much movement/flex in it. I would 100% recommend trying this on before you buy it, even if you can get hold of a fellow racers at the track. Simple double loop fastener to tighten the protector. If the protector is too large, the fibreglass panels will pull together at the front, but it also means that when you sit back in the kart the whole rib protector moves forward, leaving a gap between the chest and the front of the protector. This is because the fibreglass panels radius is too large. I made the mistake of buying one that is too big and it does leave a slight gap at the front. It has to be said though, that this does not effect the efficiency of the rib protector. It still feels comfortable to wear, but I do find myself slackening the double ring fastening when I get out the kart at the end of a race. Back protection When wearing the protector under your race suit, be sure to check that any seat bolts are not rubbing excessively against the rib protector. As the fibreglass is so hard it can tend to wear your suit if you have some awkwardly places seat/ballast bolts. I personally have had no issues with this, but have heard stories of other racers who have. My suit is an AlpineStars K-MX1. Summary Besides sounding like a kids fair ground ride, this is a great product which puts function over form. It takes the concept down to basics without any strange ergonomic enhancements and still feels comfortable to wear. If you get the right size you will be very happy with the purchase. Just be sure to try this on the get the best fit. I would also recommend trying on each of the sizes which feel comfortable when sat in a kart. With no injuries in over a year, and that being the number one goal for this product, I have to recommend it highly. Pros Excellent protection Simple Good quality Hard wearing Cons Sizing correctly is essential if you want to be 100% comfortable (Not so much of a con, than a point to consider when buying)