Another 4 Stroker Hits Canada: TKM K4S

Raced heavily in the UK the English Built TKM4s is a 200cc purpose built, water cooled 4 stroke race kart engine that makes 19HP in senior trim and 17hp in junior.

This motor provides similar performance to a highly tuned Yamaha KT100 but in a low maintenance, long life package.

Now available in (Western) Canada through Top Gear Race Management ( http://topgearracemanagement.com/tkm4s.html) , they are the official race kart of the Allen Berg Racing School Karting division (http://www.allenbergracingschools.com/karting-racing-schools.asp)

In the US, the Engine package is also available from Engines4racing.com
At a price of just under $3000.00 USD, they are worth considering as a lower maintenance, eco-friendly alternative to the TAG 2 strokers and a more powerful alternative to the built Honda utility motors common in Canada or the built Briggs utility motors common in the US.
For more on the TKM K4S, see http://www.tal-ko.com/FormulaTKM4.html

/FFJ

Karting's Environmental Future

With the increased focus on green motoring, all forms of motorsports are under pressure to clean up their image.
Formula 1 is introducing KERS and integrating Bio fuels; IndyCar is already running on ethanol; Le Mans and ALMS teams s.a. Audi have have introduce cleaner, quieter Diesel engines (and are winning championships).

The one main form of Motorsport which remains on the outside is karting. Karting continues to be increasingly dominated by 2 cycle motors. The largest and fastest growing sector, the TAG format uses 2-cycle 125cc engines renowned for the strong acrid blue/grey smoke that they produce. This is not only an environmental but also a health concern as many of the racers are children. Equally crucial for the future of the sport is its public image.

A few years ago the CIK realizing the problem, proposed a move to a 250cc 4-stroke formula, but the major manufacturers rejected this move. Although a number of manufacturers started building cleaner, lower maintenance, high performance 4 -strokes, these have largely not being adopted due to resistance from the establishment. Karting has since lost its eco-friendly vision.

A recent post by the Southern Interior Karting Association - B.C. Canada (SIKA) highlighted the importance of addressing this issue and soon. The SIKA currently race on a temporary track in a parking lot. They approached the city for approval to build a new kart track. One of the first question they were asked was predictably: “How environmentally friendly is the sport? Noise? Does it pollute the air?” For 2007 they proposed rule changes to allow adopting of the new 4 TAG strokes (See http://www.sikaracing.com/Rule_changes_2007.pdf)
If the sport is to grow, gain support from the government, the public and major sponsors the environmental question will have to be answered and soon!

There are now at least four 250cc 4 stroke TAG engines being produced by major manufacturers that are on par with the best 2 stroke TAG motors (including the new CIK KFs). These include the Vampire, Oral, SwissAuto (SA250, Biland) and the Tech F1. The problem is a lack of adoption by the major sanctioning bodies who are offering no leadership in this critical area.

So far the only body to have approved these engines in North America is TAGUSA (http://www.tagracing.net/). In Canada these engines seem virtually unknown .
The ASN in Canada needs to take a serious look at this issue and provide some leadership to take the sport into the future on a greener and more sustainable path.

For more on the new 4 strokes, see my earlier 250 4 stroke blog at http://tokarter.blogspot.com/

/FFJ