Alan and the KZ2 – It tried to kill me but I love it – with video!
By Karting1 ~ April 18th, 2010. Filed under: Kart Racing News.
Since Formula A’s end is KZ now the purest form of karting raced today?
What a relief! I turn up for Karting1.co.uk kart test and no one is worrying about whether a battery is fully charged or whether the starter motor and electrics are wired properly. How convenient, easy, relaxing and crucially simple! What a great way to go karting!
KZ2 Video :-
There is something special about turning up to a kart circuit feeling you’re actually doing something special and unique. That weird tingling feeling you get in your hands where your body is preparing for the onslaught of speed and sheer joy! Only a few types of karts can bring this feeling to a man and the fact I was going to test a KZ2 round the super-fast Shenington meant there was an element of fear for my own life added in there too, but that’s all part of the fun!
So why KZ? What’s so special about these machines?
We recently proclaimed KZ is the ‘Savior Of World Karting’ so we thought we better actually check one out on track. R&S Motorsport are the importers for Tecno Kart and they supplied us with their fabulous kart. R&S Motorsport is a father and son outfit, a true proper oldskool karting team! A father who isn’t afraid of the inside of an engine and a son eager to go fast and have fun. Brian Rush who runs the team said something about KZ that pretty much sums up why it’s status is ever-growing – “KZ is raw”. Last year they had raced KF but you could see in Brian’s and his son, Jamie Rush’s eyes that KZ is somewhere they very much enjoy being!
Brian and Jamie Rush – A proper oldskool karting set-up!
KZ/ICC/125 Gearbox karting has been around for years. It isn’t really anything new as such but in recent years it has become the refuge of the purist. The only place where kart engine tuners can really get their hands dirty. It’s evolved quietly without too much regulatory interference and is now a very tidy little outfit. It has something no other class has that currently races on the world-wide market – sparkle.
What is the thing like to drive?
The best and simplest way to describe a KZ is that it’s fast everywhere. Out of the corner – fast! Middle of the straight – fast! End of the straight – fast! It’s a constant barrage of speed and power. In the first session of driving the kart my brain was a bit frazzled. You have so much to think about. I got caught out when dawdling about on my first lap on cold tyres in 3rd gear I hit the rev band on a left hander, and on cold tyres I span round like a bandit! Doh!
You have to keep 100% focus. These beasts can bite!
The great thing about a KZ kart is you can’t just jump in as an experienced karter and go fast. You will get drivers who can jump into a Rotax from a KF or a TKM from a Rotax and be on the pace pretty quickly. But in a KZ? It will make a mockery of anybody the first few laps! It’s that level of savageness that makes them so great and so special. Karts aren’t supposed to be easy.
I had a brief experience of a KZ many years ago so I didn’t have too much trouble with understanding how to change gear. It’s a simple process. You lift off the throttle momentarily as you shift up by pulling the gear lever and on the way down you just push the lever forward. Some drivers will blip the throttle on the way down but it’s not necessary most of the time. You have a hand clutch to get off the line.
But even so actually getting the correct gear for a corner is a challenge in itself because it’s happening all so fast. The force of the front brakes and the speed at which you approach a corner means you have to be fully in tune with your down-shifts. Your body gets propelled forward as you nail the brake pedal and then bam bam bam bam down 4 gears, it’s quite a challenge, especially if you’re not in tip top condition like me.
Jamie going through the awesomely quick Hangar Corner at Shenington!
There is this weird phenomena that happens in a KZ once you select the right gear and exit a tight corner that you don’t experience with most modern karts. You actually have power under your foot coming out of a tight corner – hurrah! It feels so good selecting second gear and feeling the kart load as you exit a corner under power. Even now I can feel the sensation of the kart feeling so alive!
As soon as you exit you’re desperately trying to tame the rear end before you change up. It’s especially tough in tight chicanes where you change up a gear as the kart’s accelerating and changing direction. Usually you have both hands on the wheel keeping your body stable. But with one hand on the wheel and one changing it can get quite hairy in a KZ.
Bit too much throttle and you’re going sideways!
Shenington is a particularly fast track and you only have to watch a KZ2 through the super quick right hander called Hanger to see how immense it is. But driving it was even more so. I had one moment where I went into Hanger at about 70mph and the tyres were still a bit too cold. The kart went sideways and I thought “That’s it Al…. this is it! Your going out just like you thought you would – backwards into a tyre wall” Thankfully I survived the ordeal and it was a stark reminder these karts need your up-most respect!
It’s very clear why F1 drivers love KZs so much for training. The challenge and speed is absolutely huge both physically and mentally. You really feel that to be quick in a KZ you have to be skillful. You have to work hard and improve step by step. One of the main difficulties is staying within the power-band. It’s pretty slim. Somewhere between 10-14,000 revs. You’re only in gear for a moment before you’re into the next.
The TM KZ10 is a very tidy unit! It was reliable for us too!
The constant acceleration in each gear is great. But you drop out of the power-band and it’s dead zone, now power, no nothing! There is nothing worse than coming out of the corner in the wrong gear and having to change down to accelerate away. This is why you need to be 100% focused 100% of the time. That’s what KZ is all about. You lose concentration and the consequences are not pretty. I got nowhere near the pace, and would need days and days in one to get even close, but that’s what it’s about. Nothing is worth doing that’s easy!
How tricky are they to work on?
In terms of running one of these beasts I can’t say they are any more tricky to run than a Rotax or any other water cooled kart out there. The fuel pipe and fuel pump arrangement around the carb looks a bit complex, and the gearbox is a bit fiddly if you need to work on that, but other than that it’s simple stuff. You do have to make sure everything is bolted on properly though. These karts are a little bit quicker than normal.
We were using the TM KZ10 engine and it ran perfectly all day not giving us any trouble at all. Ironically a Rotax driver next to where our team was based missed a couple of sessions due to a mysterious electrical fault blamed on the battery. Fortunately for us we didn’t have this battery inconvenience because we didn’t need one. It is so odd to look at a 125 gearbox kart and think “wow that’s simple” but it is compared to everything else now.
Not a starter motor in sight!
Certainly I did slightly miss the finesse that you have with a 100cc type kart. For me that still remains the purest driving experience. Sometimes the KZ’s front brakes are a little intrusive when you’re trying to delicately balance the kart through a mid speed set of corners. However the way KZ has developed it’s also maintained that special feeling you seek in karting.
It makes you smile and reminds us of the reason you fell in love with karting in the first place. There’s not much on it that shouldn’t actually be there. Everything on it is designed to go fast, it isn’t as polluted with the idea of being something it’s not. It’s a racing machine – No gimmicks! And for that KZ has jumped from being the weird kid in the corner 20 odd years ago to being the best class raced in the world today. If you consider yourself a proper kart racer you really have take a serious look getting at least a drive in one of these great machines!
Chassis: Tecno SS32
Engine: TM KZ10
If you want to find out more about Tecno Kart head over to Tecnokart.co.uk
Tecno SS32/TM KZ10 Track Test Gallery
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April 22nd, 2010 at 2:36 pm
These are known as shifters in the US and they are very popular. I’m not sure the exact reason but I think it may have something to do with people wanting to get into the fastest kart they can and these sure fit the bill. Unfortunately I think a lot of people here step up to them so quick and don’t learn how to properly drivve a kart. Which becomes evident when they are seconds off the pace with a kart that should be battling in the front.
Aaron
Proud owner of a Maranello/YZ125 shifter
May 8th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Good article Alan.
There is a serious lack of proper info on 125 gearbox karts on the net so this article and video is a nice treat.
I totally agree with you on them being pure racing machines As a former 100cc kart racer who enjoyed rebuilding my own engines, I know exactly what you mean. I did 10 laps in a badly set up one once but would love to spend a weekend getting to know one of these karts properly.
July 3rd, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Great article, good to view the class in such better detail. I think this is probably the best sprint kart class in the world! We race them in Far North Queensland (Australia) There isn’t many of us, possibly over a dozen if they whole got together. Though we really enjoy them. For us Aussies is good that our karting association has brought back KZ racing and now they are racing for an Australian Championship.
They are great training tools for circuit racing as you really need to speed up your brain when you drive them. I don’t get in them often enough, and for example when I jump out of a single seater and into a KZ2 I am driving around swearing in my head because it really is such a buzz! Even happens so much faster! Yes 100% focus every single gear change, every single braking point. So it’s still a huge challenge even though I’ve driven them for almost 10 years! The engines are a lot more reliable then you think. Pistons and rings are the most consumable only if you really chasing performance. If you toke care of your engine, (as a hobby driver) it would do a whole season easily. The gearbox is bullet proof, I’ve only broken three gears in my old TM K8, and that was about five years ago.