Italsistem or Leopard?

[Rob Hogenmiller]

I've driven the leopard and pretty much is my main choice motor right now.

I was wondering how does the Italsistem motor stack up and can it run without a battery/ and do you have to charge the battery or does it recharge on it's own?

Lucky me, a Tag kart landed in my hands and I tried to give it away for next to nothing, but no one bought it, so the owner said keep it and make into a kart. So now the painful decision of what motor. I'm just thinking after driving some of the engine choices out there, that the Italsistem has to be the motor of choice based on the weights if the HP #'s are accurate.

Also what's the normal retail price on a Leopard and what's the normal retail price on a Italsistem?


BIG THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANSWERS!!!!
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[scott bertken]

leopard is like 2295.00 or little higher depending on where you get it .cant say anything good or bad about the other motor ..my leopard is great fun .base your engine on what runs alot around where you run .and the ease of parts and track support just my 2 pennys
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scott bertken going fast is fun and winning is funner........next time you think your perfect try walking on water

[Rob Hogenmiller]

Scott,

When you live where I live, there is no track support and no one running around me so the engine choice is pretty wide open. Don't look much further than myself for support. Altough, going to bigger races and getting track support/family support definitely helps, for the most part that comment I think has been over used and overated in the USA when it comes to making a kart choice.

Track support has more or less become track sales, now I'm sure there are individuals and companies out there providing support, but from what I've seen across the USA from East to West and North and South it seems more like track sales than track support. Nothing wrong with that in my mind, but just seems that the words track support is over used when trying to convince people what to buy. It really doesn't matter what you buy unless your at the point when your consistently getting beating by a few tenths. Any margin greater than that probably should start looking outside the equipment.

[Randolph Ferguson]

In NorCal IKF and the Russell series at Infineon, the BM Jaguar is the dominate Tag engine, period. Check the stats. Randolph Ferguson and Garrett Petersen were consistantly faster with their ALPHA Kart/BM engine packages. The advantage is that the BM is a super square engine with a shorter stroke which provides a more efficient power band. The BM package complete, is $2395. through myself in San Diego. I am the San Diego dealer for ALPHA chassis, the BM 125 Jaguar and Puma 85 Tag engines.

RF

[Jeff DeMello]

RF Did you run against any Italsistems ????

[Jim Durrell]

Rob,

I believe that when the new TAG USA and SKUSA rules are released in a couple of weeks, that there will be a substantial weight penalty for the Italsistem engine package. I don't know what you weigh, but this could be an important part of your choice. Another thing that you might take a look at is the maintenance/rebuild schedule of each engine package. I can't remember the details, but I believe that there is a signifigant difference there too.

Where do you plan on racing?

Jim Durrell

[Rob Martin]

[Randolph Ferguson]

Rob,

The difference in stroke comes from the crank. Clutch engagement is simular. And actually, we have been testing with flex length, finding that by going longer, we actually lower rpm and gain more torque. We are also seeing longer engine life because of this. Performance of the BM is really quite impressive when set up correctly.

RF

[Jim Durrell]

Ya know, I'm sure that the BM engine is great and all, but I'm not sure if I could use an engine that everyone called a BM.


Jim

[Randolph Ferguson]

It does seem like there was a sense of humor involved in the name BM.
Bowel Movement, Bound for Mexico,etc. We like to call it the
"Badass Motor"

RF