I’m a little late to this discussion… and generally prefer to just read. I’ve been involved in karting for more than 25 years and seen dozens of engine formats come and go. I suspect one will never totally replace the other unless some government laws do it … just like some people like to race dirt, others asphalt; some sprint and others long-tracks. In the end, the success of new products will depend on who develops and markets it and whether or not karting sanctioning bodies screw it all up truign to make rules. Yes, cynicism comes with longevity in our sport. But the best thing that can ever happen for karting is for people to keep trying to come up with something better (and in many cases, more cost effective to maintain and race). Lots of interesting info here, thanks.
The is for jumping in, Roger. Your input is appreciated and you are hopefully correct. Not much point getting bent out of shape over innovation if it’s the way forwards. Fingers crossed.
Hi again Aaron, I feel it incumbent upon me after all of this discussion to establish my creds a bit since I was so declarative with my original post. Back in 65/66 I raced a Bug Scorpion with twin McCulloch 100’s aboard. To say that that rig was the most exciting vehicle I have ever raced would be an understatement. “A Blast” only partly characterizes it well. Particularly given the state of tire size and technology at that time, keeping that Sprint Kart on the track was a considerable difficulty. It was the approach of my first child that took me out of any racing pursuits for many years back then and I didn’t start again until about 1978. By then I had graduated to full sized automobiles. I would love to be able to race a Kart again but being 78 years of age pretty much cools my jets these days. Now I have a Supercharged 72 Chevelle. That’s the extent of high horsepower for me now. Anyway I had some time on my hands and just thought I’d drop in and say “Hi”.
Bill
As a former Nuclear Power Plant Operator in California I am mightily amused by the closure of one nuclear power plant (San Onofre, where I worked) there and the imminent closure of California’s remaining nuke (Diablo Canyon) wherein California now buys power from neighboring states that is produced by coal due to the loss of very sizable generation in California. I am very glad that I now live in Oklahoma.
CA seems hell-bent on testing the extreme boundaries of failure. The state already experiences rolling blackouts (PG&E even has a webpage for customers to check on the scheduled outage of their grid block). Predictably, “climate change” & the power companies are to blame, not agenda-driven policies that fight against strategies that would practically resolve the problem. One thing for sure: while the constituents sit in the dark, the lights will remain on in govt, because priorities.
Raced my electric kart this year in four Prokart championships against retro karts.
In last race our best lap time was 36,116 seconds and only junior dd2 drivers 6 of them drove better lap times. Everybody else drove slower lap times. And I have pushed now my kart to 15 laps (in this final there was 12 laps because of the accident in younger group and they shortened all next races by 4 laps)
Here is on board video of that race:
And here official video of the Prokart:
I hope that next year I have build a larger battery to be able to run 16 laps in longer track also.
That is very cool! It’s so odd hearing the engines of the other karts but not yours.