The end of the LEGENDARY Yamaha KT100?!!

2

20K_RPM's

New member
Sadly, it seems like the end of the legendary first 2 stroker kart motor for many classic simple motor to work on Yamaha KT100 that everyone and their grandmas run have finally died out or starting to go the way of the dinosaurs in club racing with the introduction of the LO206......... sad sad sad.

Anyway, I do hope the legendary KT100 makes a revival again and local kart tracks are not being bought out by Briggs to run the LO206 as that is what's killed the KT100..... greedy hands of race organizers who gets a cut of the profit from Briggs for only allowing LO206 to run!! What is ya'll take on it?
 
History repeats itself as usually in karting. Here's a quote from another member on another post.

wto said:
Seems like the same type of thing that happened in the 70's! Some outfit named Yamaha came into take over the kart racing market that was dominated by a cheap motor called a Mac.

I bet the price of this IAME peice will be in the neighborhood of $2500.
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They we're discussing the KA100 vs the KT100. I think the same thing would apply here not to mention the flathead before it and the current clones and modern 2-cycles. Don't be surprised that in a few years there is a new engine to replace the LO206 or Clones.
 
Mark @ EC said:
History repeats itself as usually in karting. Here's a quote from another member on another post.



They we're discussing the KA100 vs the KT100. I think the same thing would apply here not to mention the flathead before it and the current clones and modern 2-cycles. Don't be surprised that in a few years there is a new engine to replace the LO206 or Clones.
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What was dealer cost of a mac 91b1 mac92 in the mid 70's? I remember working all winter and saving all my birthday/christmas money when i was 12 so I could have $99 to buy a new one.... from an auto parts store... that sold some kart stuff
 
We'll all be forced to race electric karts, electric micros and ride electric dirt bikes. Life goes as California does.:cool:

DK

PS, And wear a man bun........
 
LoL, man bun.......
I keep praying for the Big One to hit cali, and have the whole screwed up mess slide off into the ocean.
Frigging bunch of idiots.
Now they are crying about 'Global Warming' being the cause of all the dried brush, leading to wild fires.
I lived there in the mid-60s, and it was a tender box then, with the hills scattered with burned out subdivisions.
Used to run my first kart around the streets in burned out neighborhoods, as there was no traffic, just chimneys, and water pipes sticking up through foundations.
And there were probably wild fires there long before people were there.
 
I have a lot of customers that own bars and restaurants hear in Albuquerque near the states largest university. You get to see it all down there. What a bunch of fruit cakes. I'll tell you one thing right now; I am glad my boys grew up racing karts, riding dirt bikes and playing football. Bumps, bruises and a few broken bones became rights of passage and sometimes talked about in remembrance around the Thanksgiving table. Long live the KT100!

DK
 
KT100 is still very much alive at a club level in the Midwest...but I think the midwest is one of the last regions still holding out on the evolution and racing these things.

I'm not really a 4 stroke guy so that next evolution for me would probably be KA100 but it's been a slow adaption at the club level, I think it's still 3-5 years off from having large participation classes anywhere outside of the pro series.

206 has a lot of merits, but I'm not a 4 cycle guy at all so I'll be one of the holdouts that either goes KA100 when it finally filters down or may go TAG instead to stay in 2 cycle racing.

The sad indicator for me is that you're seeing quite a few national level KT100's pop up on the market for pretty reasonable money and they just simply aren't selling. It's really temping to buy low hour national level motors vs. rebuilds but I fear I'll be stock piling motors that I will only be able to use recreationally here in the very near term.
 
AudiOn19s said:
KT100 is still very much alive at a club level in the Midwest...but I think the midwest is one of the last regions still holding out on the evolution and racing these things.

I'm not really a 4 stroke guy so that next evolution for me would probably be KA100 but it's been a slow adaption at the club level, I think it's still 3-5 years off from having large participation classes anywhere outside of the pro series.

206 has a lot of merits, but I'm not a 4 cycle guy at all so I'll be one of the holdouts that either goes KA100 when it finally filters down or may go TAG instead to stay in 2 cycle racing.

The sad indicator for me is that you're seeing quite a few national level KT100's pop up on the market for pretty reasonable money and they just simply aren't selling. It's really temping to buy low hour national level motors vs. rebuilds but I fear I'll be stock piling motors that I will only be able to use recreationally here in the very near term.
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Even with running TAG you have to run the IAME X-30 these days or nothing! It's all a ploy by these engine manufacturers to get their motors selling..... race organizations gets a part of the profit if they exclusively run the motors, just like what Briggs have done throughout the US. All these good motors such as all those old TAG's which were in abundant are now obsolete including the Rotax class. You will be hardpressed to find any local clubs allowing you to run them or any of the many 100cc non-KT100 out there! Karting has now gone up in popularity again these days and engine manufacturers are trying to cash in on it by offering incentives to race organizers to run only their motors. And once enough of these motors are sold, Briggs or IAME or any other manufacturer with money to invest will come out with yet another new motor, leaving everyone out if they don't purchase the latest motor to compete in. Bastards they are, race organizers included.
 
20K_RPM's said:
Even with running TAG you have to run the IAME X-30 these days or nothing! It's all a ploy by these engine manufacturers to get their motors selling..... race organizations gets a part of the profit if they exclusively run the motors, just like what Briggs have done throughout the US. All these good motors such as all those old TAG's which were in abundant are now obsolete including the Rotax class. You will be hardpressed to find any local clubs allowing you to run them or any of the many 100cc non-KT100 out there! Karting has now gone up in popularity again these days and engine manufacturers are trying to cash in on it by offering incentives to race organizers to run only their motors. And once enough of these motors are sold, Briggs or IAME or any other manufacturer with money to invest will come out with yet another new motor, leaving everyone out if they don't purchase the latest motor to compete in. Bastards they are, race organizers included.
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Having moved to the US from the UK in 2016, many people have commented that to me the racing must seem so bare bones here (midwest) compared to the UK and Europe. And what I tell them is exactly what you noted above, the yes it might be at a higher level, but it's been over regulated to the point it is no longer a hobby sport and you must almost consider it professional, even at club level. I stopped racing a few years before emigrating for that reason (for example, the equivalent of the KT100 class is Formula TKM, which got to the point of re-homologating chassis every 4 years so once that happened you had to buy a new kart and anything over 4 yrs old couldn't be raced).

I've gotten back into the scene over here (Stock Honda 125 shifter and for 2019 Yamaha Can as well) and have found it a breath of fresh air, and really enjoying racing again. Ironically I'll be using one of my TKM chassis in Yamaha that I have shipped over. (I still have the TKM engines due to sentimental reasons, but nowhere to race them over here so I used them for fun now)

For what it's worth, I doubt KT100 will die. It may get very bare for a while, but if my experience in Europe is anything to go by, it will eventually bounce back.
 
In Europe unfortunately gas seems to have its day counted due to crazy environment regulation. In Spain for example not only they don't want you to use diesel cars anymore (funny because they pushed us to buy them not long ago), but they have already put a deadline to stop making any car that is not completely electrical (not even hybrids). Crazy. Where do they think people are gonna get the money to buy new cars? Even if electrical cars won't directly emit any gas do they really think producing electrical power for all the vehicles won't produce any pillution at all?
 
newton had 30, yes 30 yamahas, at the king of corn in oct. up to 12-14 on a Saturday show. looks good for next season as well, thanks to shorty for pulling them together.
 
Yamaha kt100 is a fun class to run. Kt100 is making a big comback in the midwest.Newton will have more next year it will have some big races for them.Long live kt100
 
Columbus speedway in Columbus Indiana has added a kt100 class this year with over 15 local guys already committed and some big paying races and a nice payout to the points champion.
 
Hunterstown speedway averages 7 on a reg sat night and i would say 13 for the maxxis series. Hoping to see more in them this year.
 
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