125 sprint karts. Note the roll bar.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/sCsozv5ANKwwZEyj/?mibextid=qi2Omg
Could this be a possible future direction for sprint karts? So much for open wheel, if so.
These karts have been around for decades in France. https://www.facebook.com/tti.carbone
Roll bars without full harness seem insane to me. Imagine that landing on your neck
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Yeah, I would agree. They are obviously heavier. You can see the std GP KZ pulling distance on the dressed up KZ in the FB vid.
It was a sanctioned category that was added I believe in the '00, Italy and Germany is where you saw most of the races…with the latest evolutions produced around 2012/2014 and raced few years after that. Intention was to be a bridge between karting and open-wheel racing. The roll-bar was viable because of the way the chassis works, it functions completely differently than metal tube…it’s not a KZ with bodywork on, it’s an entirely different chassis that also runs on 6" wheels. Issue was weight (battery, electric start, electro/pneumatic paddle shifter etc all in old-tech form by today’s standards) and all that stuff that added quite a bit of tonnage. KZ engine (K7 or K8 I don’t remember) only difference was bigger carb and perhaps variable ignition…not enough to bring the package at the same level of a KZ package.
However, I think it can all be addressed by stepping out of the original regulations. When K1 opens in SOCAL, I think we can put my theory to the test 
Is K1 going to have a fleet of those things in an updated format or something?
This is an acceptable compromise between unnecessary weight and looking good. Vai Brazil!
They won’t have these, but I may 
bring one to the practice sessions.
The “Brazilian version” is a regular kart with bodywork on. The one from the original post has a full carbon fiber chassis, a sort of semi-flat tub with all accessories like cassettes, column support, spindle triangle arms, engine mounts etc all bolted or embedded into the carbon tub. Completely different, and more akin to a small formula car, yet with similar overall dimensions of a kart. A bit expensive, so you really want a smooth track to run it on, otherwise if the track is bumpy, you’ll lay down more carbon than rubber.
Crashes are not as bad as you’d think, there are clever solutions they built in to preserve the integrity of the main tub
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Yeah, that sounds like at least $5K USD more expensive. Hard pass.
I’ll have a build thread up when I finally get around this, will take a while. The biggest Company that made them is not in business anymore, CRG made a fascinating one but never went into mass production so it’s tricky…nevertheless, fascinating bit of karting history for sure.
Cost-wise, yes it’s always been prohibitive vs KZ, but at scale (which the program never reached), it could have been much closer