4-cycle chassis setup

[Larry Hayashigawa]

What is the best chassis set up for a 4-cycle gasoline class kart?
Because of it's limited power/torque? I would think that it's best to have the kart on three wheels most of the time while cornering, resulting in an oversteer condition. Whether this oversteer can be controlled and consistant thru sharp and high speed turns is a question. Too much oversteer will result in the kart going sideways instead of forward resulting in lost time.

Any help or comments or interesting theories?


Any comments?

[Paul Kish]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Larry Hayashigawa:
[QB]What is the best chassis set up for a 4-cycle gasoline class kart?
Because of it's limited power/torque? I would think that it's best to have the kart on three wheels most of the time while cornering, resulting in an oversteer condition. Whether this oversteer can be controlled and consistant thru sharp and high speed turns is a question. Too much oversteer will result in the kart going sideways instead of forward resulting in lost time."

On any kart or any race vehicle you there is a limit as to how much power you have. The power from the engine can do just two things for you. It can either propell the kart down the track or it can be used to operate the karts chassis. Anything you do in operating the chassis be it lifting the inside rear or sliding a tire on the track is going to reduce the power available to go forward. The best setup for any kart especially a lower powered kart is to not do anything more than absolutly necessary to make the kart turn. I think especially starting out if you make that your objective you cannot go wrong. Example: When you think of the kart going around a turn on three wheels think about what you will have to do to only lift the inside rear wheel as much as necessary. Infact if were to make it lift in a perfect fashion you would not even see it lift, it would just be unloaded. As far as do you want the outside front tire to slightly push. Yes you may and maby you would not want it to slide. If it used more energy sliding than it used not sliding then you would want it to not slide. Sometimes allowing it to slide will cause waisted energy elsewhere in the kart. Sometimes preventing it from sliding will put different parts of the kart in conflict with each other and waist energy. It all depends and it ain't easy. But it sure is fun.