My friend wants to get into racing now that hes done enough arrive and drive sessions and decided to delve into the Sws part, there is a race next week august 30th which I’ll be competing at, and he will be joining along however the ballast weight is 85Kg with gear, however my friend weighs solid 88, 90 with all the gear (helmet, suit etc.) will 5kg make a difference? from my knowledge every 10kg is about 1 tenth, however I’m not sure if 5kg will be a much difference or not, I’m not sure if there will be some disadvantages, the track I believe will be running Sodi Sr5’s GX390cc’s, so can the people of kart pulse help me confirm my suspicions?
The lower the HP, the more impact. But honestly, if he is a newer driver it is insignificant relative to skill gap.
2 Likes
edit: wizard ^
It matters, but probably not so much if your friend is new to driving.
when I started Sws I was slightly above the weight ballast by 2-3kgs however with more experience I was able to make up time on the corners, noticed I was slightly slower on the straights this was the Rx8 at a different track with about 12Hp but with more experience I was able to make up time in the corners and I noticed I could even take some corners flat or without the need of lifting off while the slightly lighter drivers had to brake, picked my battles and fighting at the top 5 now that I’m under the ballast I feel like it’ll go better, for my friend he hasn’t really raced yet in terms of putting in lap times they are similar to mine but 1-3 tenths difference he has a lot of race craft experience from sim racing so we’ll see how he can transition that into the race next week
Ive seen videos of people testing with more weight and every 10kg is about 1 tenth but lets hypothetically say he has the race craft and experience would he be able to adapt his driving to make up time, now obviously this isn’t going to happen unless he’s a born talent and an alien, obviously won’t be fighting for podiums, however I definitely want him to learn and see the experience as he will be placed in the novice class, in this race all the seniors, masters and novice are in the same race, seniors are always infront, novices
somewhat middle pack and masters in the back, Novice was easy, when I was placed in Novice I won all the races it was a full clean sweep but placed 5th, 6th and 4th overall
I don’t know anything about Sws but I race Retricted TaG X30 Heavy (180kg), and the best of us are consistently 1 second a lap slower than the best drivers in Restricted TaG X30 Light (160kg) on a 50 second/1km long track. Same can be said for the Open Light/Heavy categories with the same 20kg weight difference. That’s the consistent difference for my track and classes. It’s not going to be the same at other tracks, with different weights etc.
The video where you saw the test may have been done on a 30 second long track comparing 140kg to 150kg, for example.
Hypothetically if he was a top tier driver and was up against another top tier driver, karts, engines and all else equal, he will always be at a disadvantage carrying an extra 5kg (doesn’t mean he can’t win, though).
.05 per kg is a good rule of thumb in normal sprint karts.
In rentals, it depends. There’s variance in the karts, tyres and engines.
So yes it does, but no more than .25 per lap
@Abdulkarim depends which layout they use. Weight in rentals is more of a deficit if they use a layout with slow corners that need to be accelerated out of. Fast flowing layouts not so much.
Just fyi if he’s overweight for seniors he can opt to run in masters class which is 90kg, if I’m not mistaken (I’ll check the regs and let you know)
masters is 100kg i think but for the first race theyll put him as novice, I believe the layout is normal arrive and drive karting town it is somewhat fast but there are some slow corners if he does them right he can definitely make up time
Masters is 90. They do 100kg separately every once in a while but normally it’s 90.
1 Like
10kg is 0.6 in a KZ kart and even more in single speed categories at “pro” level.
If you are not an advanced driver in a not-competitive enviroment I assume the weight is not your problem.
In tracks with a lot of slow corners the weight will impact the performances more than a fast-open track with wide corners
5KG is unlikely to make as big difference in heavy rentals on hard tires etc. Rental karts can be as much as 250lbs\113KG by themselves. Tell them to suit up and send it.
got ya worst case scenario they place him in the masters section
ah now it makes sense
the track is pretty competitive but since hes placed in novice he shouldn’t worry much
Fleet dispersion makes weight a secondary concern with rentals. Karts themselves will vary widely.
20kg overweight in kz, about 0.5 -.8 tenths off the pace on a 3 year old chassis on my last outing. The wet evens it out a bit. Not investing in a new chassis until the weight is down closer
/em gives Tanguy a stink eye glare.
No matter how thin I got he was always .25-.50 faster than me. Damn aliens.
1 Like
20kg Is way more than that in KZ !
Throwback to me qualifying 1.2 seconds off second to last place and then winning the finals. rental kart disparity is insane
1 Like