35LikesThe New Werks B7KE "Kortz Edition" .21 Racing Engine
03-31-2016, 03:50 PM
#1
The New Werks B7KE "Kortz Edition" .21 Racing Engine
Hi guys, I thought that I would take a second and start an official thread to discuss our new B7 Kortz Edition engine that we are getting ready to launch! This has been something that we have been testing and developing over the last 2 years and I believe is arguably the best engine that we have ever made!
Here is the official press release on it:
Introducing the .21 B7 Kortz Edition, Werks Racing’s newest addition to it’s “Team Line” of engines. A special engine to celebrate the 10+ years that RC Pro Jeremy Kortz has been competing with Werks Engines! Designed from the ground up to represent the ultimate .21 off-road racing engine incorporating all of the best features and machining possible!
The B7 Kortz Edition starts off with our proven case design that features additional stiffening ribs around the sleeve area to help better control expansion due to heat. We have significantly modified the top of the case to reduce mass and developed a new recessed cooling head design that completely envelopes the top section of the engine case. This new design not only greatly reduces the overall height and CG of the engine but also significantly improves cooling!
A new long stroke 7 port design offers tremendous torque with exceptional top end with what is to date the smoothest, most linear power band of any engine that we have ever made! This super linear power band allows easy modulation of throttle inputs, ideal for racing!
The B7 Kortz Edition also features a new lightened, epoxy filled and tungsten balanced crankshaft. These features reduce mass for quicker acceleration, improve fuel flow and reduced harmonics. A CNC from billet piston with knife edged connecting rod, ceramic rear bearing, new high quality double shielded “Swiss” front bearing, new o-ring sealed turbo head button and revised carburetor for better stability and idle performance have also been incorporated in the B7-Kortz Edition.
Designed from the ground up with Jeremy Kortz using input from his 10+ years racing with Werks Engines, this is the pinnacle of high end competition oriented engine design. The B7KE is a fuel efficient motor that provides tons of torque and overall HP with a super smooth and drivable power band allowing you to put down the power exiting corners without excessive wheel spin and able to compete at the highest levels. The new B7 Kortz Edition, an engine worthy of carrying the Kortz name, a driver that proudly represented Werks Racing in 3x 1/8 Off Road Worlds finals, multiple national buggy and truggy finals and win after win during the last decade!
B7 Kortz Edition Features:
• Revised Low CG Black Crankcase
• Lightweight Wrap Around Super Low CG Cooling Head
• Lightened, Epoxy Ramped & Tungsten Balanced Crankshaft
• “Swiss” Ceramic Rear Bearing
• “Swiss” High Speed Double Shielded Front Bearing
• CNC Machined Back Plate
• Revised Carburetor Design
• O-ring Sealed Head Button
Attached please find a picture of the B7KE engine,picture of the revised B7KE's case & new wrap around low CG cooling head and a picture of the B7KE's new domed piston, sleeve and balanced, lightened and epoxy filled crankshaft.
The first batch of production engines for team drivers around the world has just gone out and feedback on the engine has been exceptional! These should begin shipping out to dealers in the next few weeks!
Here is the official press release on it:
Introducing the .21 B7 Kortz Edition, Werks Racing’s newest addition to it’s “Team Line” of engines. A special engine to celebrate the 10+ years that RC Pro Jeremy Kortz has been competing with Werks Engines! Designed from the ground up to represent the ultimate .21 off-road racing engine incorporating all of the best features and machining possible!
The B7 Kortz Edition starts off with our proven case design that features additional stiffening ribs around the sleeve area to help better control expansion due to heat. We have significantly modified the top of the case to reduce mass and developed a new recessed cooling head design that completely envelopes the top section of the engine case. This new design not only greatly reduces the overall height and CG of the engine but also significantly improves cooling!
A new long stroke 7 port design offers tremendous torque with exceptional top end with what is to date the smoothest, most linear power band of any engine that we have ever made! This super linear power band allows easy modulation of throttle inputs, ideal for racing!
The B7 Kortz Edition also features a new lightened, epoxy filled and tungsten balanced crankshaft. These features reduce mass for quicker acceleration, improve fuel flow and reduced harmonics. A CNC from billet piston with knife edged connecting rod, ceramic rear bearing, new high quality double shielded “Swiss” front bearing, new o-ring sealed turbo head button and revised carburetor for better stability and idle performance have also been incorporated in the B7-Kortz Edition.
Designed from the ground up with Jeremy Kortz using input from his 10+ years racing with Werks Engines, this is the pinnacle of high end competition oriented engine design. The B7KE is a fuel efficient motor that provides tons of torque and overall HP with a super smooth and drivable power band allowing you to put down the power exiting corners without excessive wheel spin and able to compete at the highest levels. The new B7 Kortz Edition, an engine worthy of carrying the Kortz name, a driver that proudly represented Werks Racing in 3x 1/8 Off Road Worlds finals, multiple national buggy and truggy finals and win after win during the last decade!
B7 Kortz Edition Features:
• Revised Low CG Black Crankcase
• Lightweight Wrap Around Super Low CG Cooling Head
• Lightened, Epoxy Ramped & Tungsten Balanced Crankshaft
• “Swiss” Ceramic Rear Bearing
• “Swiss” High Speed Double Shielded Front Bearing
• CNC Machined Back Plate
• Revised Carburetor Design
• O-ring Sealed Head Button
Attached please find a picture of the B7KE engine,picture of the revised B7KE's case & new wrap around low CG cooling head and a picture of the B7KE's new domed piston, sleeve and balanced, lightened and epoxy filled crankshaft.
The first batch of production engines for team drivers around the world has just gone out and feedback on the engine has been exceptional! These should begin shipping out to dealers in the next few weeks!
03-31-2016, 03:51 PM
#2
Reserved for break in instructions etc. etc.
Posted 07/25/16
2) The infamous break in question lol! We're a racing company and make engines for racers, what I have found is that talk to 4 different racers and you will get 4 different opinions on how to do it lol! You wanted a detailed answer though so let the book writing begin lol!
The way that I normal do it is to set the HS needle to flush with the end of the housing and then with the air filter off, fire it up and leave it on the box. Blip the throttle a couple of times and then let it come back down to idle. Then I start to screw in the idle stop screw until I see around a 2-2.5mm air gap (opening on the slide)
******* Update 5/27/10 I'm changing this a little as we are now all using the 2010 aluminum carb. The easiest way that I have found to set the air gap mentioned above rather than try to measure 2-2.5mm etc. is just to turn the idle stop screw in 1 1/2 complete turns in from flush. This I have found is a little less than the maximum that the slide can be opened with this screw and not bind*******
When you are doing this your idle speed will start to increase so you are basically going to have to start richening your low speed needle a couple of hours (until you get a smooth, steady idle) then do a couple of hours on the idle stop screw and back and forth until you see the 2-2.5mm+ air gap (***update from above, keep screwing in the idle stop screw 1-2 hours at a time and then richening your ls a bit to bring the idle back down, repeating this until you hit the 1.5 turns in from flush on the idle stop screw as indicated above****) that I mentioned. As this is a two stroke engine, performance is always dictated by air/fuel ratio and as we are now talking about the low speed needle (remember we set the HS needle flush with the end of the housing and there is no need to touch this again for a while) if you have too much fuel (rich setting) you will have a low idle, if you have too little fuel (lean setting) you will have a high idle). It basically is a no brainer if you are too rich or lean because your engine will tell you!
Once you get a steady idle going with the large air gap that I mentioned (large air gap means a lot of air flow, to get a steady idle means that to compensate you will have to dump a lot of fuel through the engine= guaranteed rich condition and you can not damage your engine right off the bat by being too lean) I idle it through the first tank on the box. This is done basically to pump a lot of oil through the engine to flush out any metal particles in the engine and remove the minute bit of metal particles that are always released initially during break in.
Now with the radio gear on, engine off and the slide closed look down the throat of the carb and slowly start to pull the trigger. Take note of the how much throttle you are giving at the point that the low speed needle (which is connected to the slide) comes out of the spray bar (the hollow tube) on the opposite side of the carb. We will use this as a referance for tuning later on but basically what is happening is that during the range of throttle movement that the low speed needle is embedded in the spray bar, the low speed needle will affect fuel delivery (for the purist we both know that this is a simplified explanation as the fuel first travels through the HS needle circuit before going to the LS but since we already set the HS to a rich setting and will not be touching this for a while it's pretty much a mute point). At the point that it is out of the spray bar the fuel delivery (or tune) is affected solely by the high speed needle.
Then I re-install the air filter, fire up the engine and toss it on the ground. Start slowly doing figure eights at say 3 to 4 mph until you run through the tank. Then for the next tank i fire the engine up again and back the idle screw out a couple of hours. You will immediately hear the idle speed start to reduce, to compensate for this I then lean the low speed needle a couple of hours until I again hear a smooth steady idle. Once I have this I then start doing figure eights again but now a little bit fasted until the tank is empty. Next tank fire up the engine, back idle screw out a couple of hours, lean LS needle a couple of hours, do figure eights a couple of mph faster.
Basically what I'm doing with this system is slowly reducing the amount of lubricant being pumped through the engine while at the same time slowly increasing the amount of load that is being put on the engine. This I keep on repeating until I get to approximately the point that I'm pulling the trigger far enough that I know the low speed needle is being pulled out of the spray bar (remember we checked this initially while we had the air filter off) at which point your air gap (the amount the slide is help open by the idle stop screw) will have been reduced to aprox. 1-1.5mm.
****Edit 07/19/11. Once you have reached the point that you are going faster than roughly 1/2 throttle as mentioned above you are running on the HS needle which you will start tuning below. Before you do that make one final adjustment to you idle stop screw/LS needle by setting your air gap (amount that the slide is held open by the idle stop screw) to roughly 0.5mm with the reducer out. Once you have set the gap to 0.5mm, fire the engine up blipping the throttle on the box, your LS will now be rich which you will see by a low idle speed, lean the LS a few hours, blipp throttle and allow to come back to idle. Keep adjusting the LS (leaner (in) for a faster idle, richer (out) for a slower idle until you get a smooth, steady idle. By setting the air gap to 0.5mm reducer out you have now set this to the appropriate point for final tuning and you will not touch the idle gap anymore.*****
Once we get to this point we now need to be concerned about the HS needle. What I then do is re-fuel and fire the vehicle up, putt it around for a couple of minutes to heat saturate the case and the chassis and then do a quick high speed run around the track (do not hold it maxed out for a long time on the straight, this is bad). I pull it back in, temp the engine and adjust the HS needle so that I see right around 200 degrees. Then let the engine drop back down to idle and see how the idle performance looks. If the idle is now fast (it has now increased) this means that you need to richen your low speed needle (for the amount of air flowing into the engine, there is too little fuel flowing into it = lean condition) don't touch the idle screw just the LS needle. If the idle is low this means that you now need to lean your low speed needle (for the amount of air flowing into the engine there is too much fuel flowing into it = rich condition) again don't touch the idle screw.
Then I toss the car on the track for another 6-8 tanks with the engine running around 200 degrees as explained above running close to race speed but rolling off the throttle mid way down the straight. Once I'm done with the 6-8 tanks doing this we would have run around 12 to 15 tanks total through the engine in all of the steps above. I now consider the engine pretty much broken in and I'll get close to race tune on the HS setting the engine around 220 degrees. Again check to see what happens to the idle speed and adjust your low speed needle to compensate if it is high or low. Run a further 6 or so tanks through the engine driving it as you normally would and you are good to go to full race tune which will be in the 220 to say mid 240'ish range and I would consider the engine broken in and ready to be pounded on.
A long explanation but using this system helps avoid one of the most common mistakes faced by newer tuners which is setting their low speed needle too lean because they have too little air gap (the carb is hardly open help open by the idle stop screw so to compensate they set the LS needle super lean easily causing damage to the engine).
I also like to use this system because I often end up tuning and/or breaking in a lot of different types of engine with people. Using this system i never even worry about knowing what the factory needle settings are or anything along those lines. I just set the HS and LS flush with the end of the housing, set the air gap so that the slide is open 1-1.5mm (Please note as indicated above with ****Edit 07/19/11. in front, this measurement has been revised to +/- 0.5mm assuming a fully broken in engine) and fire the engine up. How it idles immediately tells me if the LS needle is too lean or rich so I set this, then check the temp after a high speed run, adjust the HS needle to be in the 220'ish range, check idle speed and set LS so that it is smooth and steady and the engine is ready to go. Takes about 4-5 minutes total on an engine that could be completely out of whack and I've never even seen or ran before lol!
Posted 07/25/16
2) The infamous break in question lol! We're a racing company and make engines for racers, what I have found is that talk to 4 different racers and you will get 4 different opinions on how to do it lol! You wanted a detailed answer though so let the book writing begin lol!
The way that I normal do it is to set the HS needle to flush with the end of the housing and then with the air filter off, fire it up and leave it on the box. Blip the throttle a couple of times and then let it come back down to idle. Then I start to screw in the idle stop screw until I see around a 2-2.5mm air gap (opening on the slide)
******* Update 5/27/10 I'm changing this a little as we are now all using the 2010 aluminum carb. The easiest way that I have found to set the air gap mentioned above rather than try to measure 2-2.5mm etc. is just to turn the idle stop screw in 1 1/2 complete turns in from flush. This I have found is a little less than the maximum that the slide can be opened with this screw and not bind*******
When you are doing this your idle speed will start to increase so you are basically going to have to start richening your low speed needle a couple of hours (until you get a smooth, steady idle) then do a couple of hours on the idle stop screw and back and forth until you see the 2-2.5mm+ air gap (***update from above, keep screwing in the idle stop screw 1-2 hours at a time and then richening your ls a bit to bring the idle back down, repeating this until you hit the 1.5 turns in from flush on the idle stop screw as indicated above****) that I mentioned. As this is a two stroke engine, performance is always dictated by air/fuel ratio and as we are now talking about the low speed needle (remember we set the HS needle flush with the end of the housing and there is no need to touch this again for a while) if you have too much fuel (rich setting) you will have a low idle, if you have too little fuel (lean setting) you will have a high idle). It basically is a no brainer if you are too rich or lean because your engine will tell you!
Once you get a steady idle going with the large air gap that I mentioned (large air gap means a lot of air flow, to get a steady idle means that to compensate you will have to dump a lot of fuel through the engine= guaranteed rich condition and you can not damage your engine right off the bat by being too lean) I idle it through the first tank on the box. This is done basically to pump a lot of oil through the engine to flush out any metal particles in the engine and remove the minute bit of metal particles that are always released initially during break in.
Now with the radio gear on, engine off and the slide closed look down the throat of the carb and slowly start to pull the trigger. Take note of the how much throttle you are giving at the point that the low speed needle (which is connected to the slide) comes out of the spray bar (the hollow tube) on the opposite side of the carb. We will use this as a referance for tuning later on but basically what is happening is that during the range of throttle movement that the low speed needle is embedded in the spray bar, the low speed needle will affect fuel delivery (for the purist we both know that this is a simplified explanation as the fuel first travels through the HS needle circuit before going to the LS but since we already set the HS to a rich setting and will not be touching this for a while it's pretty much a mute point). At the point that it is out of the spray bar the fuel delivery (or tune) is affected solely by the high speed needle.
Then I re-install the air filter, fire up the engine and toss it on the ground. Start slowly doing figure eights at say 3 to 4 mph until you run through the tank. Then for the next tank i fire the engine up again and back the idle screw out a couple of hours. You will immediately hear the idle speed start to reduce, to compensate for this I then lean the low speed needle a couple of hours until I again hear a smooth steady idle. Once I have this I then start doing figure eights again but now a little bit fasted until the tank is empty. Next tank fire up the engine, back idle screw out a couple of hours, lean LS needle a couple of hours, do figure eights a couple of mph faster.
Basically what I'm doing with this system is slowly reducing the amount of lubricant being pumped through the engine while at the same time slowly increasing the amount of load that is being put on the engine. This I keep on repeating until I get to approximately the point that I'm pulling the trigger far enough that I know the low speed needle is being pulled out of the spray bar (remember we checked this initially while we had the air filter off) at which point your air gap (the amount the slide is help open by the idle stop screw) will have been reduced to aprox. 1-1.5mm.
****Edit 07/19/11. Once you have reached the point that you are going faster than roughly 1/2 throttle as mentioned above you are running on the HS needle which you will start tuning below. Before you do that make one final adjustment to you idle stop screw/LS needle by setting your air gap (amount that the slide is held open by the idle stop screw) to roughly 0.5mm with the reducer out. Once you have set the gap to 0.5mm, fire the engine up blipping the throttle on the box, your LS will now be rich which you will see by a low idle speed, lean the LS a few hours, blipp throttle and allow to come back to idle. Keep adjusting the LS (leaner (in) for a faster idle, richer (out) for a slower idle until you get a smooth, steady idle. By setting the air gap to 0.5mm reducer out you have now set this to the appropriate point for final tuning and you will not touch the idle gap anymore.*****
Once we get to this point we now need to be concerned about the HS needle. What I then do is re-fuel and fire the vehicle up, putt it around for a couple of minutes to heat saturate the case and the chassis and then do a quick high speed run around the track (do not hold it maxed out for a long time on the straight, this is bad). I pull it back in, temp the engine and adjust the HS needle so that I see right around 200 degrees. Then let the engine drop back down to idle and see how the idle performance looks. If the idle is now fast (it has now increased) this means that you need to richen your low speed needle (for the amount of air flowing into the engine, there is too little fuel flowing into it = lean condition) don't touch the idle screw just the LS needle. If the idle is low this means that you now need to lean your low speed needle (for the amount of air flowing into the engine there is too much fuel flowing into it = rich condition) again don't touch the idle screw.
Then I toss the car on the track for another 6-8 tanks with the engine running around 200 degrees as explained above running close to race speed but rolling off the throttle mid way down the straight. Once I'm done with the 6-8 tanks doing this we would have run around 12 to 15 tanks total through the engine in all of the steps above. I now consider the engine pretty much broken in and I'll get close to race tune on the HS setting the engine around 220 degrees. Again check to see what happens to the idle speed and adjust your low speed needle to compensate if it is high or low. Run a further 6 or so tanks through the engine driving it as you normally would and you are good to go to full race tune which will be in the 220 to say mid 240'ish range and I would consider the engine broken in and ready to be pounded on.
A long explanation but using this system helps avoid one of the most common mistakes faced by newer tuners which is setting their low speed needle too lean because they have too little air gap (the carb is hardly open help open by the idle stop screw so to compensate they set the LS needle super lean easily causing damage to the engine).
I also like to use this system because I often end up tuning and/or breaking in a lot of different types of engine with people. Using this system i never even worry about knowing what the factory needle settings are or anything along those lines. I just set the HS and LS flush with the end of the housing, set the air gap so that the slide is open 1-1.5mm (Please note as indicated above with ****Edit 07/19/11. in front, this measurement has been revised to +/- 0.5mm assuming a fully broken in engine) and fire the engine up. How it idles immediately tells me if the LS needle is too lean or rich so I set this, then check the temp after a high speed run, adjust the HS needle to be in the 220'ish range, check idle speed and set LS so that it is smooth and steady and the engine is ready to go. Takes about 4-5 minutes total on an engine that could be completely out of whack and I've never even seen or ran before lol!
Last edited by Werks; 07-29-2016 at 08:28 PM.
03-31-2016, 05:45 PM
#3
Any info about MSRP?
04-01-2016, 05:41 AM
#5
Put me down for 1 or 2 or 3!!!!!!
04-01-2016, 05:58 AM
#6
To bad you engraved Kortz on the head. Not the best person to rep a company.
04-01-2016, 06:16 AM
#7
Tech Addict
04-01-2016, 07:01 AM
#9
Hmm. I wonder where this is gonna' go...
04-01-2016, 08:07 AM
#11
04-01-2016, 09:28 AM
#12
Yes, MSRP has been set on them but honestly what everyone should care about is what the engines will actaully street for! As most of you know I've always tried to offer users the most bang for the buck possible with our line and I think that we have allways been pretty sucessful with that. There is a lot of extra costs assocaited with the manufacturing of this engine because of all of the extra features but I'm happy to say that I think the new B7 KE will end up streeting within around $30 of the existing B6-Pro, so I'm guessing right about $309!
04-01-2016, 09:35 AM
#13
04-01-2016, 10:21 AM
#14
Things are different now but when this company was started back in 2004 you only had OS, Nova, Picco, Rossi and OPS as the mayor players in making racing engines. In addition you had 2 European companies (JP and RB) that these guys made engines for. That was it, there was not a single US company that these engine guys in Italy were willing to work with because they all thought that we Americans were unreliable, did not know the market and basically could not be trusted (those on the inside know specifically who we can thank for that lol). It took a lot of work and effort but we were the first US company that any of them ended up actually taking seriously and were willing to work with to make private lable product for. A lot of that had to do with the results that we were able to achieve in engine sales when we were just importing other companies products but a realy big part of that also had to do with the presence that we were able to have from a racing standpoint. At one point in the we arguably had the best US off-road team of drivers out of any engine company and a lot of that had to do with the help and contributions that Kortz made.
So while it's easy to make a comment like you just did, if you actually understood what has been involved in this whole endeavour you would not saying something like that. Together we've made a mark in the industry and he's imho more than earned the right or I guess you could say "honor" of having his name put on a product like this. Plus I think that you will be hard pressed to find a guy that has influenced RC racing globaly more than Kortz has.
If you want proof next time you go to a race just look around on the drivers stand and pits. Each and every person that you see running aroung with a T-shirt with their name printed on the back and their sponsors listed on it world wide like most of the top drivers now do i.e. Drake, Pavidas, Lutz, Mafield etc. etc. can trace that back directly to Kortz. He was the first person to start making custom shirts like that to represent his sponsors and to this day still is the one that makes them for most of the top US drives out there. So while you may not like him for some reason there is probaly a very, very good chance that you and a lot of others reading this have been influenced by him and did not even know it!
04-01-2016, 03:30 PM
#15
It's unfortunate to hear you say something like that. Kortz has been running for us continually since roughly 2005. He may have the repuation of being the "bad boy of RC" but one thing that he has certainly shown more than any other driver out there is loyalty! Look at any other Pro out there and you are going to be hard pressed to find any single one that has stuck with a sponsor for more than a few years, let alone over a decade! The reason, because most are motivated predominately by income potential, not actually building something. Kortz has been commited to this program from the start and I'm happy to say that over the years our working relationship has grown from just a traditional sponsorship type thing to a true friendship. Over those years we have worked hand in hand together to develop each and every one of our engines, we have been the underdogs at numerous races and have managed to make 3 out of the last 5 Worlds finals something that at best maybe 4 or 5 others can claim. And against all odd's we have managed to carve out a market presence globally fighting agains all of the major engine manufacturers out there.
Things are different now but when this company was started back in 2004 you only had OS, Nova, Picco, Rossi and OPS as the mayor players in making racing engines. In addition you had 2 European companies (JP and RB) that these guys made engines for. That was it, there was not a single US company that these engine guys in Italy were willing to work with because they all thought that we Americans were unreliable, did not know the market and basically could not be trusted (those on the inside know specifically who we can thank for that lol). It took a lot of work and effort but we were the first US company that any of them ended up actually taking seriously and were willing to work with to make private lable product for. A lot of that had to do with the results that we were able to achieve in engine sales when we were just importing other companies products but a realy big part of that also had to do with the presence that we were able to have from a racing standpoint. At one point in the we arguably had the best US off-road team of drivers out of any engine company and a lot of that had to do with the help and contributions that Kortz made.
So while it's easy to make a comment like you just did, if you actually understood what has been involved in this whole endeavour you would not saying something like that. Together we've made a mark in the industry and he's imho more than earned the right or I guess you could say "honor" of having his name put on a product like this. Plus I think that you will be hard pressed to find a guy that has influenced RC racing globaly more than Kortz has.
If you want proof next time you go to a race just look around on the drivers stand and pits. Each and every person that you see running aroung with a T-shirt with their name printed on the back and their sponsors listed on it world wide like most of the top drivers now do i.e. Drake, Pavidas, Lutz, Mafield etc. etc. can trace that back directly to Kortz. He was the first person to start making custom shirts like that to represent his sponsors and to this day still is the one that makes them for most of the top US drives out there. So while you may not like him for some reason there is probaly a very, very good chance that you and a lot of others reading this have been influenced by him and did not even know it!
Things are different now but when this company was started back in 2004 you only had OS, Nova, Picco, Rossi and OPS as the mayor players in making racing engines. In addition you had 2 European companies (JP and RB) that these guys made engines for. That was it, there was not a single US company that these engine guys in Italy were willing to work with because they all thought that we Americans were unreliable, did not know the market and basically could not be trusted (those on the inside know specifically who we can thank for that lol). It took a lot of work and effort but we were the first US company that any of them ended up actually taking seriously and were willing to work with to make private lable product for. A lot of that had to do with the results that we were able to achieve in engine sales when we were just importing other companies products but a realy big part of that also had to do with the presence that we were able to have from a racing standpoint. At one point in the we arguably had the best US off-road team of drivers out of any engine company and a lot of that had to do with the help and contributions that Kortz made.
So while it's easy to make a comment like you just did, if you actually understood what has been involved in this whole endeavour you would not saying something like that. Together we've made a mark in the industry and he's imho more than earned the right or I guess you could say "honor" of having his name put on a product like this. Plus I think that you will be hard pressed to find a guy that has influenced RC racing globaly more than Kortz has.
If you want proof next time you go to a race just look around on the drivers stand and pits. Each and every person that you see running aroung with a T-shirt with their name printed on the back and their sponsors listed on it world wide like most of the top drivers now do i.e. Drake, Pavidas, Lutz, Mafield etc. etc. can trace that back directly to Kortz. He was the first person to start making custom shirts like that to represent his sponsors and to this day still is the one that makes them for most of the top US drives out there. So while you may not like him for some reason there is probaly a very, very good chance that you and a lot of others reading this have been influenced by him and did not even know it!