Euro v. US type questions

So I watched this video -

… and the interview-ee mentioned a couple of things that made me curious.

He mentioned getting a Euro kart manufacturer to make mods so the their karts would work better here in the US. I’m assuming that that would be because of the higher weight mins, and harder tires? Do the Euro manufacturers sell different karts to the US market than the Euro?

He also mentioned that the SKUSA SSE motor wouldn’t work with a particular Euro chassis, but that a KZ would. Why would that be?

Thanks,
Dave

I am not an expert on this topic, but I believe it has more to do with the asphalt and the amount of rubber they get on the tracks in Euro v. here

It will be interesting to see what others say.

Mostly comes down to tires and rubber build-up. European racing typically is using a softer tire, and the tracks take a lot of rubber build-up.

Most karts can be tuned to work on a wide range of grip levels and different tires, but sometimes for tight club racing tracks or low grip situations you see here on a local level, a different chassis construction might benefit more.

First of all you got to take these things with a pinch of salt. People are trying to run a business and this is a marketing avenue. It helps sell product if your product is designed for the market.

On tires, it depends which tires you are running. But if your championship runs Le Conts, then you are running the same tires as the OK World Championship. Now there will of course be a difference in the amount of rubber going down, just based on the number of people on track. But a lot of regional and national championships in the states have more entries then the CIK championships so its probably not that.

The difference, if there is anyway, is more likely to do with power output and deliver. If we are assuming that the Euro manufacturers only make chassis that work for the class they race (rather then the classes they sell the most chassis in) then the chassis would likely have a very “stuck” rear end because OK engines are just way more powerful then X30 etc.

However, the US is by far the euro manufacturers biggest single market so I would contend that most euro manufacturers are making chassis for a rubbered in track with an x30 or equivalent power plant. And that’s why most karts, when tested brand new on a clean track, have a very loose rear. You could argue that LO206 is not a market they might be bothered to design for (as it doesn’t exist most anywhere else), but in some cases they have.

The IAME SSE comment, just sounds like a sales pitch to me.

The big disclaimer with watching Euro racing though is that you don’t know 100% if the chassis winning those races is the same as the chassis you will buy. The manufacturers can changes the tubing as much as they want for the races they are doing and often do. A careful eye will show that some chassis didn’t even have time to get painted before being packed to go the race and that’s because they are trying something. Then even when they painted they might be different. When I race Formula A, I turned up at one race and one of the chassis to test was a CRG road rebel copy.

Are the euro fields just bigger, too? More tires on track.

Not the European championships and World championships. As an example the Euros in KZ & KZ2 had 260 entries and the OK Worlds had about 200. So similar to some regional’s in the US.

The IAME worlds limits the entry to I think 140ish.

Isn’t supernats typically 400+ and USPKS and SKUSA typically 200+ entries?

Europe is as varied in tarmac, tires, engines and amount of drivers at events as the states. I don’t think America is particular unique when we are talking sprint karts. The real high-grip stuff is relatively rare now too. Everything Nik says there is bob-on

SuperNats is over 500 now iirc. I don’t know about outright numbers for SKUSA but USPKS is starting to push 300, I wouldn’t be surprised if SKUSA last year already hit over 300 entries.

This year, well, a lot of people don’t want to run 6 consecutive races at New Castle over 2 consecutive weekends so I don’t know what the numbers are going to be there.

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