New Rotax Tire package??

[Coldcanadian]

I have heard/read that Rotax will be switching to a new tire for the 2017 season. is this true?
What classes will be affected?
Will EDKRA and CKRC possibly grandfather the new tires in some how?
And I guess if this change is really going to happen, when do we think the new tires will be available for purchase from our local dealers?

[John Kwong]

The Rotax North American importer, MaxSpeed has announced a change to Vega tires branded as MaxOne tires for the U.S. marketplace. We will know more in about a week's time for what Canada will be doing for tires. In anticipation of changing to another lower cost brand of tires, Overdrive and CKRC Executive have already done some preliminary investigating and testing of a couple different compounds of tires in the recent post season.

John K

[Joey Guyon]

Hi Cold Canadian,

I am coordinating the research on my end this week and you can expect the following timelines:
-Nov 15-20 I will be meeting with Rotax executives for their decision and product offering for Canada in 2017
-Nov 26 I will be meeting with other Western Canadian Shops and major Western Club executives to share my findings
-At the December club meeting we will bring forward my findings as well as recommendations, based on what has been learned at discussed with the shops/execs. We will come up with a suggestion for the club to vote on

From there tires are available anytime, though normally our spring stock arrives in April.

Please let me know if you have any questions I can assist with.

Regards,

Joey Guyon
Overdrive Motorsports

[John Kwong]

http://www.srakarting.com/en/rotax-max- ... 7-preview/

Rotax MAX Challenge – 2017 preview

23 November 2016

2017 – NEW SEASON PREVIEW

The Rotax MAX Challenge program is based on stability. As usual, 2017 will bring some changes but it’s not a revolution.

1. Ages

AS CIK-FIA changed the ages for the junior and senior KF classes, Rotax will align the ages accordingly. This is the new age chart:
chart-agesNote: driver must turn the minimum age during the current calendar year.


2. Mini-MAX Chassis

For the first time, the cadet chassis (max 950 mm wheel base) will be used in Canada. The decision is based on the fact that there is a certain concensus in North America for this chassis to be used for this age category. Having the possibility for a tall driver to move up at an earlier age in the Junior MAX class in 2017 helped to make that decision.

3. Tires

For 2017 Canada is one of the 2 countries selected to test a different brand of slick tires in some classes. Also, the D1 tire is new discontinued by Mojo.
chart-tires


4. Junior Cylinder

Officially the junior cylinder hasn’t changed but the manufacturing process has been changed. This cylinder was used with great success at the last Grand Finals in Italy. This new casting procedure ensures much smaller tolerance variations from one cylinder to another directly from the production line. The cylinder has the same part number 223994 as the 2016 cylinder. The new manufacturing process is a big step forward. There is no need to change your cylinder if you like the one you have but Rotax will release a special price campaign to trade your cylinder if you want. Further details will be published soon.

As published at: http://www.srakarting.com/en/rotax-max- ... 7-preview/

John K

[Joey Guyon]

Here are more details based on my findings from my trip last week:

The Mojo D1 tire will no longer be produced and will not be available for distribution in Canada
The D2 tire is available in 4.5 and 7.1 sizes. If I place an order in January, mojo can build a 6.0 D2 tire for us
The W3 tire is the new rain tire offered by Mojo for 2017

The MaxOne by Vega tire is available in 3 compounds:
Green - Similar to Mojo D2, will be stocked in the USA (not in Canada) and would be available if I ordered in January
Blue - Slightly softer than D2, will be stocked in Canada and is available in 4.6, 6.5, 7.1
White - Similar to the MG tires we run in Shifter, will be stocked in Canada

I am meeting with other Western Canadian karting dealers this weekend and will ideally be able to give a recommendation to all Western Canadian clubs as to how we suggest to proceed in order to facilitate intra-club travel.

For the moment I can add the following information:
In the 4.5/7.1 configuration (4.6/7.1 for Max One) the retail price of the Max one blue will be roughly $40 per set less expensive than the 2016 Mojo D2 pricing

In the last 2 months I tested on the blue compound with the help of Mark Newson, Phil & Alan Haggerty and John Kwong.

With our various driving styles and different karts using a proper testing method we consistently found:
In Rotax SR the blue tire is roughly 0.4 seconds quicker than the D2 using identical setups
In Briggs LO206 SR the blue tire is roughly 0.8 seconds quicker than the D2 using identical setups
We tested a combined 220 laps on the same set of tires and had the same consistency at the end of 220 laps as we did at the start. We had not made it to the point where the tires had fallen off yet

I am pleased to answer any questions you may have, though I will likely have more answers after this weekend.

JG

[Mark]

Joey,

Those lap times...were they all done with 7.1 rears, including the 4-stroke ?

[John Kwong]

Mark,

Yes, I believe so. I don't think he brought in the 6.5's to test.

John K

[Joey Guyon]

John is correct. We tested only the 7.1 rear at the time.

More news to follow in the next 2 weeks

JG

[Jaro51]

Any chance the move to Vega tires for Rotax will prompt a change to the tires for shifter class? How similar are the Vega whites to the MG yellows?

[John Kwong]

The only spec on the shifter tires was that they were to be a CIK Medium. This was done to ensure the longevity of our asphalt paving as soft tires and heavy shifter karts are harder on the asphalt. The MG Yellows just happened to be the easiest to source in the recent past.

John K