New CIK/FIA class, OK-N

But they don’t have the resources, because you don’t work for them yet. Send Simone a CV.

The changes I would want I don’t think the FIA would be brave enough to implement. It needs a big cultural shift. I think the FIA are not prepared to invest in real karting success. I would want to divorce from F1 quite dramatically. The CIK don’t have the balls to do this.

(I know there’s some good people within the CIK. Simone of course and Kees Van De Grint who was pretty on it when I used to communicate with him. The political pressures are just too strong for people like me to do what I’d need to do)

Does anyone believe that OK-N will eventually filter down to the club level? Does it need to in order to be a commercial success in the US? If OK-N is targeting the “pro” level only, it seems like a very limited market but whether club racing would forgo the convenience of the self starter and idling capability provided by the clutch.

The thing is, the majority of drivers has chosen the spec engine classes like it or not. And FIA dont have a clue what “hobby” driver wants.

I really doubt it will ever be popular at clue level, there are cheaper options with starter and clutch, and thats something FIA Can not compete with

Probably not. Though weirdly, the CIK engines do filter down to a uber-club level in open classes. They depreciate very quickly and thus bang for buck are actually real good value. It’s where a lot of KFs ended up.

Well, I don’t like it. You can’t take the position of giving up. It’s still worth making and producing good films and good music even if the ‘commercial’ side is bland cookie cutter nonsense.

Also, my experience of promoting 100cc tells me there is a market for this type of racing, bigger than people realise. KZ exists too despite single-spec products for shifters being out there. 100cc does have a stronger hold on people, for obvious reasons, but I think the FIA can make their latest batch of engines work if they were smarter in how they approaching their marketing.

Of course, it’s a long shot, I know that. Being seeing to quality drivers graveyarded to these ‘grand final’ events in single-spec classes is sad, to me anyway.

Modena OK-N appears to be now available as well.

https://mondokart.page.link/zAYPGWxwLnyPX4jd9

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Yeah, unlikely to see many run them I suspect. A couple ran therm in OK-J (none in senior I think) to no great success at the world champs this year. Obviously they know how to build engines, but the direct driver stuff really tightened up in the last generation of waters. not many ‘outsider’ manufacturers have had a look in since.

I would bet it’s going to be TMs for the most part, and a few decent Vortex and IAME runners.

First ones in the wild starting to pop up in Italy, as they begin preparations for the 2023 season :slight_smile:

I’ll be down in Franciacorta on Tuesday, as ACI is running a talent selection program where they will have three OK-N and three OK-NJ drivers, on equal tires and at the regulatory race weight for both classes, everything supplied by OTK. I’ll report back on the tests :hugs:

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OK-NJ, so they are planning on a junior format for the OK-N?

Everything supplied by OTK, so it’s all Vortex OK-N/NJ engines? Please keep us updated on how this goes.

From the picture that looks like a TM spec engine

Check out our latest press release on the matter for more

It’ll be a Tony Kart chassis, paired with the OK-N derived, newly homologated OK platform that Vortex is bringing out (still can’t disclose the official name, as they haven’t done their comm on it yet. Expect it at some point next week :slight_smile: )

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That’s correct, paired with its own TM Carb, manufactured by Vamec.

TM has homologated carbs for OK, OK-J and OK-N, for the 2023 - 2025 period.

Hi, I have not found the OKN carbs at sales yet. There are just OK and OKJ in mondokart.

Should be noted the FIA are allowing ASNs to choose between float and butterfly for their respective championships. Why? I can’t comprehend, but yet, it might be wise to wait to buy a carb until your ASN decides. There’s always the chance they choose the float style carbs for some weird reason.

I personally prefer bowl carbs myself, although the dellorto with a million jets isn’t the most user friendly. I would be curious to see a carb like the smartcarb that compensates for air density tried in a kart application. Diaphragm carbs work well enough, but boy they can be finicky sometimes and I’ve wanted to throw them. Curiosly many years ago I found out tillotsons work better upside down, this was on a 4cycle application, can’t say on a 2cycle. Mostly came down to more consistent operation, pop off didn’t stick, etc.

I belive they’ll be up there soon, as they have been purchased by retailers already, but not listed.

As a reminder, we’ll have two homologated butterfly ones (Tillotson and TM) and one float chamber (Manufactured by someone you 100% do not expect, but will not spoil as they haven’t communicated on it yet :stuck_out_tongue:)

All carbs with fixed prize bellow 200 EUR, excluding VAT, by homologation regulation.

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the question Simone is why? Why even have this option. This has never been explained to me. Why give ASNs the choice. All that will do is annoy competitors who invest ithe class but might be faced with having to buy different types of carbs for different regions. It’s a completely unnecessary added complication that has zero positives.

I can hear the Rotax/X30 drivers laughing when they see competitors have to buy two different carbs because they happened to want to race somewhere else.

The carb topic has been at the center of the genesis of the platform, since early 2021.

Many meetings were had, with all stakeholders, including the manufacturers, ASNs, private teams, technical experts and more. As it usually goes in motorsport (and more so in karting i’d say, there was no common consensus). Some were willing to die on the hill of the float chamber, while others were willing to do the same for butterfly.

Now it’s easy to say " A decision had to be made and that be that" but i think it’s critical to have all (or almost all) onboard when launching something like this, so a concession was made on the matter and both types of carbs allowed to be homologated. It is fundamentally our duty to help people race, as long as safety and governance standards are maintained.

I am not personally particularly worried about it tbh with you, as the market(s) will decide and we will, almost guaranteed, converge to a common ground pretty much everywhere.

I know this doens’t reallllllyy answer your question, but i hope i shed a tiny bit of light :sweat_smile:

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It answers my question - politics. :slight_smile: It’s not good to have this kind of thing so early on. It can sow the seeds of distrust. I really don’t think those who made this decision understand the deep scarring KF left on the scene.

BTW the FIA need to have you more front and centre with promotion. There’s no face to OK-N and it needs it.