There’s less room for the CVT on a kart so that presents some challenges. I’m finding it hard to understand how a CVT can be less work in either maintenance, or parity (Since this looks primarily rental oriented) compared to a clutch.
Are they testing a fleet of them at Speesportz on an ongoing basis @Mike_Clark?
A good point well made. but that’s also a problem that can be solved without a new kart, transmission and (supposedly) patents. A simple arrive and drive solution would do for 90% of cases.
Examples:
Margay Ignite Arrive and Drive
Calgary Kart Club’s “Try a Kart Day”
I believe @Eric_Gunderson1 is working on something in CO
@KartingConcepts has a “Try a Kart” program as well.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just take what we already have and package it in a way that makes sense for consumers.
Where I think the LEVO might come in is for those who really insist on more umph. But considering there’s over 2,500 people running a 206 across the nation, I’m not sure that’s as big issue with newcomers as some of us seasoned racers seem to think.
No Clue
I live in NOLA and Greg is in the metro area. So I am going to drive it here.
I probably won’t get out of “real race” karts no matter what though.
Arrive & drive seems killer expensive. Housing & transporting yourself allows some cost saving. Then you can amortize without having to turn a profit or the burden of overhead. As long as you ignore the cost of your trailer, garage and all of those cost . . . . .
Maintaining parity is one problem. Putting newbs into karts with full bumpers has its problem. Karts without full bumpers has problems too. Electric seems like it could have a place in the mix somewhere. Potentially Electric is more promising in ways.
Any track that doesn’t tech is going to have issues in any class. I think its not as much about reinventing the wheel as making the wheel a bit dummy proof. One aspect of rental league is I don’t like is kart differences due to abuse/hours/lack of maintenance etc.
James, Irony is some say we didn’t need LO206 or even 4 strokes in karting.
I don’t know what the cost is or if they are for sale yet. I do think Greg is up to speed on what the capabilities are. Some long term problems are potentially there, but that is with anything. On paper, It seems great for one of those days i just want to go run around in circles and not do much else.
Really I’m talking about “try a kart” days as a response to the problem of it being hard to dabble in karting. $100 (ish) or so for a day in a racing kart. Ignite wasn’t a good example to be fair.
Everything has it’s problems and challenges of course, it’s a balance and I value progress over perfection any day. What people say doesnt matter to me, I’m much more interested to hear their rationale behind what they are saying and their basis for it.
Cheap karting days have been not existent here. I do know some of what seems expensive is not, once you realize the cost. Even the rental league here with all the down sides are still a deal. $100 is cheap if you just take out the TnT fee.
By dabbling I mean owning but only karting about 1/4 to 1//2 a season per year. So much learning curve for the amount of seat time and be running around trying not to get lapped. Then physically it is hard to dabble. You need to keep in shape by doing it or replicate doing it.
Everything does have it’s problems. As much as I love formula cars and want to do Club Ford I just don’t want to deal with an older car where parts need to be sough out or made. Same with vintage karts for me, neat but I am not willing to go through it.
Something always breaks. Isn’t limited to just changing sprockets. I can start an extremely long list of failure points common to both my 206 and this LEVO spec.
From the PR announcement How and Why, the same limitations can be placed on any local option class. these are self imposed, but not without issues.
Bit rattle and shake all the time. Seat posts break. Crashes happen causes things to bend, etc etc.
I love the concept of CVT and improved acceleration for a 206. I’d be on board for trying that; however, my personal thoughts on this as a whole isn’t exactly ecstatic. I want to see karting grow, specifically the 206 series. This feels more likely to dilute that effort.
Oh well, can’t eat your cake and have it too. I’ll be interested in trying the C-V system when it’s ready on a second kart.
You could use one for the clone. Same bolt pattern and shaft size.
I’m not particularly interested in having another engine besides the 206 right now. I meant try it on another 206, but that’s neither here not there. Just a personal thought.
Electric… some day. Batteries are getting cheaper and for lower powered karts, say less than 20Kw, motors are not too unreasonable. However, you’ll really need at least three sets of batteries to be competitive on a sprint track. One for test and qualy. One for the heat. And one for the main.
Electric is already here in high performance form. Heat dissipation is the biggest problem believe it or not. Batteries are figureoutable.
The biggest problem with batteries is charging infrastructure (same problem for the road), a lot of tracks don’t have power and those that do don’t have a large enough power supply to charge everyone fast enough.
I remember we talked about that and figured out the size of generator it would take for a grid of karts.
I was under the impression that the limiting bit of tech is the size and weight of the batteries?
I participate in the Margay Ignite class. Not because I don’t want more speed, but because it’s a simple way to get into the sport. I’d like more speed but don’t have the time or knowledge to run a 2 stroke. So - the cvt is intriguing.
It makes them a bit more needy with either changing battery packs or charging them. But performance wise the faster options are a little under shifter and just under TaG and enough power for 15mins.
But the motors are cooking.
Its always a problem with batteries, whenever you try to get a high flow rate of power they overheat. The series trying to organise a tesla model s series only managed an outlap recently before the car put itself in get it home mode.
But even assuming the batteries work great, with current technology, we’ll reach a limitation in charging capability fairly quickly. So if you look at buying a diesel generator for example, who is going to buy that, because lots of circuits can’t afford it. Will it be able to handle the inrush load of 30 karts plugging in at the same time.
I am driving it on the 25th IIRC
A friend just posted this after driving it.
" I rode it at Moore Park this past weekend. It stays in the power band constantly for extremely fast start speeds and pickup through the corners, which is where a standard four stroke lacks. When I drive my normal LO206 I basically am all or none on the throttle, where with this you have to feather it because its power is extreme."
I talked to Greg recently and the torque converter on it sounds like it is overspec’d for durability. I didn’t ask what tire it uses but I know it is probably a bit harder for mileage.
I can see why it is a “need to see it to believe it” type of deal. If i have it correct Greg is 33 and been karting since 4 yrs old. He is also a mechanic by trade. I am really looking forward to trying it. I drive a CVT on the street and it took a bit of getting used to. Every time someone tells me those transmissions go out I can swear I hear mine making bad noises for about a week.
I am not really concerned about it hurting karting. If it works it should help with a better entry level point.
My biggest concern would be that a one size fits all doesn’t work. Say the spec’d setup favor tall driver or short driver. If no weight is added then the lighter guy has to have an advantage all other things being equal.
That’s interesting because what I’ve seen with CVT in karting application is that it acts as a crude traction control with its constantly increasing ratio.
I would assume that is due to the quality or adjustability of the Torque converter - how it is tuned. I don’t know how the CVT determines which way to go on the ratio. I am sure my car has computers sensors and all that, Kart has to be way simpler. Seems like one way would do as you say and act as traction control, the other way would tend to give more wheel spin. It should be interesting. It is my overall feeling that the more the tuning is limited the more critical everything becomes.