I’ll post pictures of my experiment. ABS plastic and zip ties will be my attachment method to ensure I don’t alter the chassis rigidity.
I was wondering if you could use rubber or plastic “P” clips to suspend the floor without being a very rigid attachment, especially around the seat and rear of the chasis where there are no attachment points. Wouldn’t take much to catch a ziptie and rip it off.
Honestly, I have a huge skepticism on front Nassau aero for karts.
If there was a significant difference, you’d see changes in the other body parts in the kart to take advantage of that airflow. Once the airflow goes over the front nose and bumper, there are so many gaps in the bodywork and seals that it’s just a giant mess. (Plus there is that annoying driver and other things that wind flows over.
Also, I honestly, think that if it really mattered you either see a huge convergence of aero philosophies on aero kits, or SOMEONE would have spent a huge amount of money to do some proper aero testing of a kart in a wind-tunnel for funizes.
Karts are largely mechanically gripped machines. I’d find way more time properly getting a good balance and powerful engine, rather than a nose piece that is typically poorly aligned.
Easy test would just be to either run without one on a test day, or just cover it all up in tape, or something silly to disrupt the airflow and see if you notice a big change in your data down the straights.
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You’re right. But multiple attachment points. And 070 abs is plenty rigid but still flexible
I will agree several kits are very poorly aligned. I spent a good amount of time ensuring alignment was solid and the panels sealed together as good as possible. The main reason I agree with the Nassau at least having some play is the dynamica and the m7 both focus on getting air around the driver.
The dynamica was supposedly developed in a wind tunnel. And from my limited learnings in CFD I still see where some improvements could be made. For me the aero stuff is just because I have such an interest in cfd development.
But being ‘developed in a wind tunnel’ and ‘actually working’ are two different things.
I could develop a sandwich in a windtunnel, if I wanted.
Like I said, want an easy answer? Take off the Nassau and run without it. If it did anything significant, you’d notice immediately
And we’re back. 
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slow claps 
(20 char)
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So is a kart still a kart if there’s any sort of downforce?
Every object moving through the air has downforce. Except things that have lift.
Yes. It would just be a kart.
Being a kart or not has nothing to do with aero profile…
Seriously tho, has there ever been a kart series that allows for significant aero?
I am guessing there are very few builder type series? The superkart twins that were shown here all appear to be custom one off vehicles. Outside of those, it seems most every race series is about using what the manufacturers have provided.
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Almost any series I can think of disallows crazy aero for the complexity, expense, and potential safety issues with crash structures and stuff. I’m not sure what the rules are for road racing, but pretty much every sprint karting series requires you to use the bodywork as intended by the manufacturer. I think full floors are explicitly banned in many sprint series. Plus in sprint karting, you’re likely to damage something on lap one if you’ve got some extravagant aero setup.
Aero can be played with in things like outlaw oval karting but speeds aren’t super high there anyway, so not sure how big of an effect it would have.
It would be a fun project to play with if you had a bunch of time on your hands, and just wanted to tinker and practice. I’m glad it isn’t allowed in actual racing. A huge part of Formula 1’s issues have to do with the constant aero war. The exorbitant money spent and the lack of wheel-to-wheel racing ability is all directly tied to chasing fractional aero gains. Would hate to see something like that in karting.
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I’d agree. The simplicity of all this is what’s appealing. I don’t want to compete with the next guy on development of my kart. That’s only a fun game if you have the brains or money for it, I’d imagine. (Or both).
Yep, certain classes in road racing are the place to play with aero. Practically any of the laydown and semi-laydown karts have full floortrays. Sometimes you’ll see a teardrop rear once in a while as well.
Generally the CIK classes in road racing still have to run unaltered CIK bodywork however.
I can’t say running podless (with nassau tho) made any noticeable difference at least (though was only racing against 90s pods) for me. It’s an experiment worth doing though. Pods on pods off, do that all day, see if any pattern emerges in the data. It’s not 100% scientific, but it isn’t hard to achieve something.
I live on a hill, so that should be easily verified using a camera and a couple of cones for timing. Good idea.
Remember, we watched Lemke drive through nearly the entire field at SuperNats last year with his fairing flopping everywhere and mostly in a sideways orientation… 
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