Originally Posted by Team96:
Last I was there.....spikerracingproducts had zx600, zx10r and zx14 engine kits available. Not what they recommend....but they still have them.
IMO, you will have more repair costs in the Kawasaki's.....ran one last season.
Team
I run 1 of them Kaw things from 2005>2008 then one from 2008>2012. Both started their race life off with less than 500 miles on the clock, after 2010 low miles seems to means 5000 miles or less
if they aren't lying about the miles? You can look at the exhaust ports in a 500 mile motor and they are clean. The ports in a 3000 mile motor and a 23000 mile motor look the same. Then you look at the drive sprocket to see if it tells you something. Then you look at the gaskets and case bolts to see if they have been off and on.
In these good times we are living in the import quota for 1000cc motorcycles is 1/3 of the 2010 numbers (help me out here Mark). What we need is a few more kids with extra cash in their jeans to go out and buy and crash these things the next week after they have become expert riders so we could flood the market again. Then we need a few less other small racing car groups wanting to buy the same motor for their cars.
People selling these motors to us are also selling them to the other groups as well, trying to expand their market share. So maybe it's time we change our name from Mini-Lightning Sprints to Division II Midgets and find a more suitable motor for our cars.
The cars we run today are a lot different than the cars we ran back in the 90's and I hope the cars we run in the 20's are much different than the cars we run today. Life evolves and so should race cars. Race cars used to be on the cutting edge of technology now it seems they have gotten hung up in the 70's. Mini sprints - Lightning Sprints-Division II Midgets have never held to the Status quo but developed as new power plants evolved. We have lead the way because we have always bought new motors as opposed to rebuilding the old worn out ones and the manufactures have always obligized us with new, lighter and more powerful motors every couple of years or so. That has kept us on the cutting edge as far as race cars go and that is why even in spite of the low cost of racing one of our cars we have been able to run almost as fast as race cars costing TEN TIMES the cost of one of ours.
The auto makers are where the cycle guys were 15 years ago. They are building smaller, lighter and more powerful motors every year. Unlike the cycle makers the car makers build in much larger numbers, they are not yet in demand by other racing groups, and they show up in "WRECKING YARDS" in large numbers. It is a buyers market right now for these motors. and unlike the other racing groups we already have the drive line worked out in the form of Midget components.
Instead of buying a motor off of Ebay or one of the dozen or so motorcycle race car motor dealers, why not expand and and go to one of 20,000 or more auto dismantlers for our engines. The larger the numbers of vendors and product the more competitive the market will be.
If a group is sincere about increasing their car counts these small 2000-2400cc motor is the place to look.
A couple of years ago Bill May the co-founder of MMSA made the midget type drive components legal to race with the 1000cc mini sprints of the MMSA, thus paying lip service to a few racers, who thought that would be neat to run a quick change. You Know kinda of like running an "Engler Injections SYSTEM". They thought that the quick changes would make their cars look more like, I really hate to say this>>> but a "Full Midget", >>>not a "Sprint Car" for whom we took our name.
Well, the newer motors do not lend them selves to adapting to a drive shafts because of the sprocket placement, this unfortunately is also going to hold true for chain drives in the near future.
We should at least consider changing our rules to include the race cars that are already out there with these small auto engines, and allow them to race with us. The only problem I can see is we might be just a little too fast for them.
Honest Dad himself
