Oh my God!
What a weapon. It's been 24 hours since I was lucky enough to test one of these beasts and I think it will take a surgeon to remove the permanent silly grin from my face.
Kai Attwood was kind enough to bring his kart to Daytona Milton Keynes to allow me to try it. Track conditions were far from perfect and the layout doesn't suit the engine entirely, however the tight hairpins and long uphill straight demonstrated the incredible pull of this perfectly packaged powerplant.
The engine started with an external starter like the JICA or clutched TKM engines, mainly because Kai was too lazy to hook up the onboard battery. Once ticking over, you get this loud deep rumble not unlike a big 4 stroke single; nothing like the high pitched ringing 2 strokes that I'm used to. Trundle out of the pits with minimal throttle and squeeze the throttle open carefully...
With most racing engines, especially 2 strokes, it's customary for the engine to slowly build up revs until it hits it's prime power band or 'get on cam.' The XR50 is rather different. It doesn't matter what revs you are at, when you press the throttle pedal, flippin' great big wodges of torque attempt to push your sternum through your spine and remove your neck from your shoulders. It's insane, honestly.
It's like the throttle pedal movement is directly proportional to the road speed. Give it a little tickle and it moves ahead slowly, push it to the stop and BAM, you're instantly catapulted to about a million miles an hour, or more. Time ceases to have any meaning as armco and advertising hoardings blur by at the speed of light. I swear that if anyone should get anymore than about 30 of these things together in one place going the same direction, they could make the earth stop spinning.
Kai had managed to attract the attention of perrenial hanger on and well known ride mooch Ian Turner. He claimed he was the infamous ITPRO of this very website's fame, but I'm not sure as the man I met was very amiable and not cantankerous or argumentative in the slightest. Perhaps the tales were wrong and it wasn't music, but karting that soothes the savage beast.
Two more guys had their first taste of their own Aixro powered karts yesterday and they too left the venue with that ridiculous perma-smile that experiencing the XR50 leaves you with.
I can't thank Kai enough for the opportunity, trust me, if you get the chance to try it you will not be disappointed. Be afraid though because you'll want one. You'll want one more than you've wanted anything ever before and it will take weeks to come down again after driving it. It's the crack cocaine of karting, only more addictive.
These engines deserve a series of their own, they are exactly what a kart engine should be; light, compact, reliable and incredibly powerful. They must come with a warning though. "Driving the Aixro XR50 can induce spontaneous fits of uncontrolable giggling and a permanent silly grin."
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