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  • Heyhoe
    Heyhoe

    New Line RS Radiator

       (0 reviews)
      Brand: New-Line
      Price: £406 Inc VAT
      Retailer: Eurokart Ltd
      Value: 7
      Quality: 8
      Performance: 10
      Kart Review Score: 8.3

    Price breakdown
    Radiator & Mounts: £342.00 Inc VAT
    Blind: £64.80 Inc VAT
    Total: £406.80 Inc VAT

    New-Line is the brand to go for if you are looking for a top quality radiator. They cater for all classes with radiators of varying styles and sizes.

    Today we are looking at the RS model which will be used on a KZ2 kart. The radiator is marketed as an all year round radiator so should hopefully cope with the ever changing British weather.

    I'm eager to see what the quality of the radiator is like as it looks as though they are now pressing (forming) some of the components which used to be more substantial.

    First Impressions
    My fears over the strength of the pressed parts were put to rest straight away as they are made of a substantial thickness aluminium sheet. The radiator feels sturdy and well built.

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    The radiator mounts are really nice and have lots of scope for adjustability.

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    We ordered a radiator blind as we think these are a great invention and allow infinite adjustment of the airflow going through the radiator. The blind is made out of two laser cut stainless steel profiles with a aluminium bar at the top and bottom connecting the two. The actual blind runs on pulleys and is clamped to the rubber O ring rail.

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    I was a little dissapointed with the stainless steel side profiles as they had sharp edges and one even had the protective plastic still attached. A little more attention to detail on this kind of stuff could go a long way.

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    I also noticed that the handle on the blind had a really large burr (sharp edge caused by cutting method) on it. This was sharp, and given its the part you actually touch is not really acceptable to neglect this area.

    General Use/Observations

    The quality of the welding and polishing are more function over form. You can tell the radiator is hand made, in Italy.. I see a fair amount of aluminium TIG welding at work so know how much effort has to be put in to achieve a decent looking weld.

    In my opinion, given that these radiators are made on a jig and are the same parts welded all day long, a neater weld should be being produced here. There is nothing wrong with the weld but you get the feeling there is not a great deal of effort goes into it. Many of the components have been welded together and the weld polished away, these look a little untidy also.

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    I have no doubt that the construction will be strong enough for its application, more than enough, but when you are paying a premium for a product you expect you see this in the workmanship.

    The radiator mounts on the other hand are excellent quality. It is all CNC machined and finished nicely. There are no sharp edges or defects from what I could see.

    The mounts allow sideways movement by loosening the cap head bolts. This is much quicker than the previous method of changing a hole to move the radiator, but does open up the possibility of the radiator moving whist in use.
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    The inlet and outlet bores seem rather large. Standard 16mm internal diameter water hose (standard black water hose) is very difficult to get on and off. This makes it difficult to drain the radiator at the end of the day.

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    The kit comes complete with all mounting hardware to build the radiator and attach the blind. This part is used to hold the mounts to the radiator and is typical of the finish (or lack of) of some parts.

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    You don't however get any parts to attach the radiator to the chassis. I assume this is because of the number of various chassis mounting methods.

    You get a really nice machined radiator cap with built in seal and pressure release valve. Again, the actual machining is a little rough but the marks have been polished out and buffed to a mirror finish. This kind of treatment does suggest they are covering up some poor finishing or machining methods but the item is definitely up to the task.

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    New-Line also include a catch tank with a proper mount. A nice little extra which many manufacturers would omit. They could have given us a few inches of fuel hose though... Cheap skates.

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    Summary

    With New-Line products, you are paying a premium for these as they are hand made. They are solidly built, but with a little more care could be a stunning product.

    Ironically, the best part of the package is the mounting hardware, which are totally CNC machined.

    At the end of the day, if you look past some of the workmanship (which is actually nitpicking), this is a really good product which performs as expected and will not let you down. It does what it is designed to do extremely well and for that, we can't really mark it down too much.

    I think I could actually drop this radiator and it would survive, which is something you would not try with many radiators.

    There are some negative comments in this review, but these are small issues which really do not impact on the performance of this item at all. It really is a fantastic piece of hardware.


    Pros

    • Excellent performance.
    • Solid reliability.
    • Extremely adjustable.


    Cons

    • Expensive.
    • Poor finish on some parts.
    • Limited availability in UK.


    If the finish on some parts was just a little better we would have scored it higher.

    Edited by Heyhoe

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