Anyone know why there’s such a fundamental difference in the chassis layouts?
From a physics standpoint, there’s more loading of the chassis, but it seems like an “overgrown” sprint kart would do the job, possibly better?
I’d be curious to know if / when superkart chassis diverged from “standard” kart chassis. Are there any 70’s / 80’s superkart mags or books that show chassis in its’ infancy?
May have some bearing on a future project…
Thats a top shelf topic sir !!!
I,am listening
The entire design philosophy of a sprint kart revolves around unloading the inside rear wheel. A super kart has a totally different goal.
Are they using a diff?
Ya know what’s weird? Electric rentals have quasi-diffs. I don’t consciously drive them different than gas and they seem to rotate similarly.
Really? What do you see as the different goal? SPEED is the outright goal of each, I’d say…
I’ll post unique chassis from the 70’s as I run across them. Seems like RD350s/400s were the early engine of choice. From Argentina:
Kinda reminiscent of the guys in in Moto GP with their knees so low they have plastic kneecaps rubbing the ground in their turns.
I wouldn’t say the goal of sprint karting is maximum speed. A laydown enduro style kart (designed for speed) is going to be awful on a sprint track. And a sprint kart isn’t going to be as fast as a laydown on a big track.
Aero and power are more important in road racing. Handling and acceleration more important in sprint racing.
Plus an Superkart has what, 2-3x the power of a sprint kart? That’s going to require a rethink of the whole chassis in itself, just to handle that power without twisting the frame in half. Unloading the inside rear wheel to prevent scrubbing is not that important when you’ve got long sweeping corners where you aren’t getting any mechanical jacking and 90+ hp under your right foot to overcome the binding. Then you’ve got aerodynamic bodywork to deal with too.
Superkarts operate at totally different speeds and run on completely different types of corners, so it would only make sense that they are drastically different design-wise to a sprint kart.
This is sort of what raised the question in my mind…they grew as an evolution of “standard” sprint karts. I’m curious when and how that divergence started. But I do have a theory that an overgrown sprint kart frame would work well at Daytona. I’ve been watching the superkarts on the infield section, and the handling is atrocious. 125s can surpass them. And then they speed by everything else on the banking – power and aero as you say.
I’d love to develop a 34mm chassis in sprint style with superkart aero and see how it does…
Also, modern engines are water cooled now. I’m surprised we haven’t seen a return to “rear engine” karts to get that lump out of the airstream… I can’t be the only guy that wondered about that…
Luckily it doesn’t rain indoors 
I did see a video where some indoor track filled up with soap bubbles and water. It does happen from time to time:
@DIG78x what’s the effect of diff in wet as compared to solid axle?
You’ll need a much more aggressive turn-in without a diff to get the jacking effect to actually pick up the rear.
Ah, yes. Sometimes it’s so slick you actually have to flat slide the back around since you get no jacking. Rare, but happens.
I am definitely no expert on Superkarts, as I’ve never raced them. But a quick image search on “Superkart Chassis Frame”, will show that a modern superkart frame like Anderson, PVP, MS etc., has a substantial difference in width compared to your standard CIK homologated sprint kart frame. Particularly in the width between the two main frame rails going from front to back on the chassis.
T.J. already said it best, on the long road courses that superkarts race on, the corners are much longer and sweeping, and there are none of the tight turns you typically have with a kart track, that necessitate getting the rear inside jacked up and down quickly around the corners. It is in fact probably a detriment than a benefit, and so requires a different philosophy in chassis design.
However, that’s not to say a sprint chassis can’t work on a long road course, as the CIK 125 Shifters have proven all the time, here in the U.S. and abroad.
