Biland SA250 to the USA

Chad Stapleton · Joined: 19 Jul 2001 Posts: 4403

Read today that the US agent (Margay ? ) for the Swiss Biland SA250 twin, kart engine, has a shipment of 1500 units on route !
Expect a "series" proposal similar to the RMC set-up to be organised to help market this nice-but-expensive new motor.
Any sightings of pre-launch versions of this motor yet ??.

Gemma · Joined: 03 Aug 2001 Posts: 70

Someone must have a big truckload of money to fund that.

Alex Gappmayer · Joined: 30 Jul 2001 Posts: 301

Look at the homepage of the Biland engine: http://www.kart-power.com/

Regards

Alex

Greg Keresi · Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2001 4:08 am Post subject: Biland SA250 to the USA

Margay is representing Biland and has one they've been testing on track. I believe they have had it at the Midwest sprint series races at Springfield and at Dousman this past weekend. I'm sure anyone who was there may have seen it. I'm not sure about the shipment of 1500 or a series for them yet.

quote:
Originally posted by Chad Stapleton:
Read today that the US agent (Margay ? ) for the Swiss Biland SA250 twin, kart engine, has a shipment of 1500 units on route !
Expect a "series" proposal similar to the RMC set-up to be organised to help market this nice-but-expensive new motor.
Any sightings of pre-launch versions of this motor yet ??.

[ August 06, 2001: Message edited by: Greg Keresi ]

Keith Freber · Joined: 27 Jul 2001 Posts: 88

Chad-

1500 en route? Jeez, I better get some more space in a hurry! Out of curiosity, where did you come across that 1500 number? That number is a bit, uh, ambitious.

We are very excited to be working with Biland to bring the SA 250 to the States. The price might be on the high end (about $2900US retail), but I do not feel it is _over_ priced. Included with the motor is the coolant, exhaust, electrical and dry sump oil systems. Additionally there is a 6 month warranty and a promise of 300 hours running time (in stock form) before any maintenance is required.

The first weekend out, we ran it at the Springfield, IL MWSS race and basically let anybody with a pulse drive it. We turned it to 13,600(!) rpm with no problem. Forget everything else, the sound is _unbelievable_! Not loud at all, just a sweet sounding rumble. I can't wait 'till we get a dozen or so on the track.

Performance-wise, it was about 1.5 secs faster than a pipe KT, with the Biland in out-of-the-box trim. We ran the harder YGK Bridgestones on the Biland while the KT was on YGC's.

Overall, the Biland SA250 is a very well thought out package developed _specifically_ for race karts.

If anyone has any questions on the engine or would like some photos of the kart we ran at Springfield, please email me and I will reply privately.

Best regards,

Keith Freber
Margay Products, Inc.

Gemma · Joined: 03 Aug 2001 Posts: 70

The price in the US is about $400 cheaper than here in Australia. Cost in Australia is about $6,000.

ALEX, please check your private messages.

Gemma · Joined: 03 Aug 2001 Posts: 70

Hi Keith,

How does it compare to a Rotax Max?

Greg Keresi · Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2001 12:51 pm Post subject: Biland SA250 to the USA

Keith..

That number is found in a proposal to establish a new class from International Karting Dist. to the Australia Karting Assoc. A portion of that proposal below..

"International Karting is presenting the following document to the AKA for their consideration in granting a new class of racing commencing 1st January, 2002 entitled “BILAND 250”.
The class is for the new BILAND SA250 4 Stroke engine which has been released onto the Worldwide market earlier this year by Swiss Auto of Switzerland. World wide demand for the engine is currently exceeding everybody’s expectations to the point where
we as a distributor are currently forced to provide forward orders that are being wait-listed. The CIK are presently encouraging the adoption of 4 stroke engines for Karting to the point where this class is currently the support class for the 2001 European Championships. The United States of America
ordered 1500 pieces as their first order, Germany is already fielding a series that is oversubscribed as is France, Portugal and Switzerland."

If you need space, I'm sure I could find some in the garage for a few of them..

quote:
Originally posted by Keith Freber:
[QB]Chad-

1500 en route? Jeez, I better get some more space in a hurry! Out of curiosity, where did you come across that 1500 number? That number is a bit, uh, ambitious.
QB]

[ August 06, 2001: Message edited by: Greg Keresi ]

Chad Stapleton · Joined: 19 Jul 2001 Posts: 4403

Ooh-eerr !!
looks a bit like i poked at a "sleeping tiger" here !!
Keith , you seem to have been keeping this a bit quiet but with a bit of promotion you should have no trouble shifting those 1500 motors.
Greg was right about the source - straight from Biland (agents) themselves - so it must be true , eehh ??
For those who have not checked out the Biland site yet,( [url=http://www.kart-power.com)]www.kart-power.com)[/url] There is a nice sound track of the motor in action.
Lets all hope the price comes down so more of us can buy one.

Chad Stapleton · Joined: 19 Jul 2001 Posts: 4403

Alex (Gappmayer),
a bit off subject, but can you tell us what the Biland and the Rotax Max cost in your home town ??
Thanks

Chad Stapleton · Joined: 19 Jul 2001 Posts: 4403

Yo, Alex, are you still out there/posting ??

Alex Gappmayer · Joined: 30 Jul 2001 Posts: 301

Sorry Chad!

As I´m driving a 2-stroke shifter I don´t check the 4-cycle forums so often.

The prices:

The Biland costs in Austria around 3.450 Euros which should be around 2970 US$ (including taxes and transport from switzerland to austria).

The Rotax costs 1900 Euros (around 1630 US$).

The prices are the offical prices takes from the importers or the factory. You can of course get better deals from some shops. I hope the prices in US$ are ok, because I had no actual exchange rate from today.

I hope this helps. If you have further questions I´ll help you.

Alex G.

PS: Sorry for the late answer, the next few days I´m looking into this forum also.

Charlie Tackett · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2001 3:21 am Post subject: Biland SA250 to the USA

Yo, Keith! going to try one of these beasts on a long track set-up?? what kind of clutch set-up and engagement they have? Chain size?

Alex Gappmayer · Joined: 30 Jul 2001 Posts: 301

Hi Charlie!

The clutch is a dry centrifugal clutch and the chain size is 219. Additional technical infos can you find at http://www.kart-power.com/english/Produkte/details.htm

Alex

valurgu · Joined: 18 Aug 2001 Posts: 4

Hi,
Has anyone seen the biland run with the rotax engine on the same track? Do you know what difference there is in lap times?

A few racers in Iceland are going to buy an biland engine and want to be able to race with the rotax class. Is that something we should allow?

Valur.