Oh you’d have to correct for weight for any test. There also may be a small handling change with removal of side pods and a little change in weight distribution. But for me pods off completely vs on is a worthwhile real world test. It gives us a baseline, a ‘proof of concept’ and doesn’t require theoretical simulations.
Would increased drag improve deacceleration performance? (I imagine the effect would be negligibly small, but worth the question)
I still go back to the Supernats in 2019 and watching Lemke come back up through the field with his driver panel hanging sideways. If they made a huge difference, I wouldn’t have expected him to make that run.
An amazing run, but to be fair thats the most sprinty a sprint track can get.
I don’t know the rules, but you might able to do something about the drag behind the wheels with the rear plastic, if it can be mounted close enough.
The straight is really long at SuperNats. Infield is fairly tight, but that year the back section leading into the final corners was pretty quick too.
ive thought about that, the rear bumper doesnt seem to be developed as much.
I watched on facebook live so I guess I dont have the best view of the track, thats just what I thought I could see. Im sure someone who has actually been to the track knows more than me. I wonder if anyone has access to his mychron data or any kind of laptime/top speed data. would be fairly useful
I’d suspect the manufacturers had the bodywork developed out of house and didn’t request the rear bumper be designed, probably because they don’t have an academic understanding of aerodynamics.
Maybe you could do something with the side pods to limit the drag created from the negative pressure behind the fronts too, but I suspect the pod has to be too far back to accommodate the steering for it to have a decent effect.
Kart rear bumps are CIK mandated purely for safety. Indy took note & uses a similar style, but with an obvious profile aft of the wheel that engulfs it from the rear view to leverage airfoil effects.
Perhaps the mandated horizontal aero plane surfaces above the fronts for 2021 F1 show the way for karts.
Front/rear wings would be minimally beneficial for sprint applications, but hey - they look cool. So, I guess could be down. My shifters already hover around 230# unloaded, so what’s a few extra #, amIright?
But let’s skip the halo.
OK… I wonder how much a revised 3D printed bumper will cost me. 
Is polypropylene 3D-printable?
Absolutely. Most plastics are, or at least something similar.
As it is, I could just design and print a small extension to close the roughly 2 inch gap between the bumper and the wheel that would smooth out the flow. Looks like our regulations don’t forbid it.
Speaking of aero. Here are some karts from France with bodywork.
“We have these in France, X30 175cc super shifter with a full carbone chassis”
Yep they use this in France (2s slower than a kz and small bit on carbon like the floor tray, everything else is fiberglass, 6inches tyres)
It’s a very very small class in France, maybe 20 drivers max because is slower than a kz, ugly AF and expensive
No luck… No replies from any manufacturer. Guess I better get ready to take a bunch of photos
As a huge aero guy coming from the time attack world I would like to suggest a book to anyone who truly cares called “competition car aerodynamics”. Lots of data, lots of cfd. I have been doing some aero consulting on 1/2 mile cars, road course cars, and drag cars. And aero can never be discounted. While in karting the gain will be negligible and change with every single driver. But to completely discount is crazy to me.
reduction of drag is going be the biggest factor. and I would agree that tires/driver are going to be the biggest contributors. I have a few tunnels locally and trying to find an engineering student that wants to use karts for his/her project. Unless I can convince work to let me borrow the 3D scanner in which ill do some CFD based on those models. However I only have dynamica body work. But I am insanely curious. And being impartial based on purely design characteristics I believe the Eurostar to be far superior to the OTK m6/7 stuff. Purely based on basic fluid dynamics.
Ultimately the biggest issue no matter the body work is the negative pressure area created by bodywork/driver. There is no way at all to keep air attached. But if you can get it to tumble outside of the kart/driver you are leaps and bounds ahead of no aero
If I can find my way to a tunnel I will buy all the current homologation bodyworks and test them as curiosity is killing me. And steel bumpers are the answer to minimizing drag. When I actually get some free time I am going to build a aero rear bumper with some custom tube. Think airfoil shape vs round.
That’d be about as safe as (somehow) strapping a katana lengthwise across the std bumper. The safety feature would go out the window. But it would cut air.
Y’all are seriously over-complicating things.
Use the front bumper that has the most give that won’t pop your PBB when you move someone out of your way.
I have never been beat by bodywork and I don’t know anyone who has been beat by bodywork.
Its just a curiosity thing. I would never race with it. I just want to see if it actually make any difference
In terms of outright pace, I agree. Bodywork isn’t going to make a significant difference on your laptime.
However from what I’ve heard/seen, the newer bodywork, or at least the Parolin equipment, helps in the draft more than the older styles. Even then, I think that comes more down to racecraft than anything. If a driver loses a race because their competitor has bodywork that has a slight advantage in the draft, they were probably losing that battle anyways.
As a counterpoint to my own statement there, I remember when the Dynamica first came out, and I saw a driver get passed at New Castle on the last lap at the last corner. He came from 2 or 3 karts back om the front straight and cleared the driver that had passed him before the start finish line.
So I really haven’t contributed anything to this conversation, sorry.
