A First Step To The End of Class Weights?


by Mark Wicks 22 January 2016

Sodi Kart announced at the Offenbach Kart Show last weekend their new Equality Management System (EMS) that equalises kart performance.

Sure, it's aimed at the rental market, but why could it not be developed for race karts? Could this be the beginning of the end for multiple weight divisions of the same category?

Firstly, Sodi describe their EMS as a breakthrough for regulating performance of karts.

It is a small electronic box and digital display. While not explaining the technicalities behind the system, Sodi say it will be included on their new rental karts that are equipped with Honda 270cc or 390cc engines (see pic below).

sodi ems digital display
pic - Sodi

The EMS has two options:

  • Option 1 - allows a rapid calibration on a full fleet of machines so as to offer equivalent performance, accurate to one tenth of a second
  • Option 2 - is a virtual lead box to compensate for weight differences between drivers in the same race. The settings are controlled by track personnel and are protected by a security key. The virtual ballast can be set for each kart within seconds.

This second option is the one of interest, as drivers of all different weights could have their power-to-weight ratio equalised within seconds, and without anyone having to add or remove blocks of lead.

There would be no more need for Light, Medium, Heavy and Super Heavy divisons. Big classes could finally be split by driver ability, not mass!

There would also be no more need for small drivers to add ridiculous (and dangerous) amounts of ballast, no need to police maximum kart weights and no possibility of lead blocks flying off karts during a race.

 

Some Background

Eventhough I've not said much about it, the past few years I've been a fan of removing class weights from the AKA/KA rule book.

The rule book should have just the technical regulations for each class. I would leave it to the clubs and series organisers to promote whatever weight they think will get them the most number of karters participating in their events. The only KA-regulated weight would be for state and/or national championships.

Could this be a thing of the past for modern karting?
Above: Could this be a thing of the past for modern karting?

News of the Sodi EMS reminded me of a conversation I had last year with a KA person about class weights.

Their suggestion was that the clubs would own a range of exhaust restrictors for the various engines in use.

Each kart and driver would be weighed at scrutineering then issued with a restrictor of a particular size to bring their power-to-weight ratio in line with whatever class they were competing in on the day.

Further, it would allow karters to turn up at a small club race meeting and, regardless of what engine they ran or their weight, be 'equalised' to whatever was running on the day.

Initillay it would take some effort and testing to develop the restrictors, but once that was done, implementation on race day would not require too much effort.

However, this Sodi system potentially simplifies that idea a whole lot more.

 

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