Well, I believe costs can be restricted if you put emphasis on
learning to drive instead of emphasizing
learning to engineer.
As it has been said many times in this forum, I think, race cars are NOT there for engineers to learn to create good street cars.
It's like breeding racing horses: it's not related in any manner with breeding cows.
Karts themselves are a prime example of cost reduction.
Thanks, Art! You saved the world a lot of money
Although the WKC has become a different thing, as very intelligently explained in previous posts, most racers in this world (and by a large margin) race in karts.
There are more kart racers than racers in any other series.
They also take home all the chicks (at least I'm doing my part!)
It's (and, hopefully, will be, notwithstanding the cynics of this world) the most economic form of racing, bar none.
I really, really love to teach karting to kids. It's always rewarding when you see when they understand.
It's important to teach them things people say they shouldn't learn.
Socrates was condemned for corrupting the youth: the best of the "five dangerous things you should teach to kids" is DRIVE
And that's the true power and reason d'etre of karts. They are there to corrupt the youth, if you follow my drift.
I don't like adults racing in karts: they end asking for things like mo'money and fuel injection, believing that you race to win.
You don't race for the win. You race for the wind.
At least that was what I understood from my new best friend (SidSidney) posts... =D>
Now,
the question is why karts use carburetors. I said that it was because they were fixed in its current form when engines had carburetors, and that may be true.
However, those who believe that newer is better could ponder this:
1. Carburetors are unbeatable pound per pound and, for racing cars, they are more green.
It's very hard to find a better system that is cheaper. Industry has predicted the demise of carburetors for the last 20 years. Simple: a fuel injection kit for a racing car, mod at home, can cost you around 3.500 dollars.
This ad is only for the ECU: 2200 big bucks
You can get a comparable carburetor for the same HP rating, let's say 400 hp, for 500 dollars.
And it's called Super Demon, fvck yeah!
Moreover, you're spending perhaps 3000 dollars for an increase of what? 10 to 20 HP? Seriously?
An EFI makes sense on a car used for transportation. If you don't plan to race 15.000 km per year on your car, then it makes little sense to invest in an EFI. If you race a few races per year you will harm more mother nature by using a system, like an EFI, that uses more natural resources, when you take in account the metal, electronics, sensors and lines you need, made of rare metals, even if you consider that the "greenery" of racing cars is debatable in any racing form, to say the least.
Helping with Global Warming (at least half a degree, I would say)
2. Carburetors are infinitely easier to adjust to tracks.
A re-jetting kit for a carburetor costs around 50 dollars. A preprogrammed (and fixed) EFI chips will set you back around 200 bucks. This amount buys you
"a fuel map calibrated to exactly the specs that you gave the manufacturer without any margin for error".
Changing the EFI chip program needs a software that costs around 500 dollars or you have to send the chip back to the manufacturer. To modify a carburetor you just need a few needles and jets from your kit. So, in many tracks, carbs will beat EFIs, because EFIs cannot be adapted.
It's not rocket science: it's jet science
Now, I've tuned a few carburetors in my life. I have to add that you don't have to change jets:
a carburetor works because of pressure differential, not based on absolute pressure. I can use the same jets in Bogotá (2.600 m) and in Cali (700 m). So, let's this be a lesson if you tune a carb: change air bleeds or squirters, not jets. A carburetor is an amazing piece of equipment, it self adjust, believe it or not.
3. EFI systems are better for cheaters
It's infinitely easier to disguise a traction control system in an EMS for an EFI (what you call an ECU) than in a carburetor. Period.
I believe that's the main reason why NASCAR resists EFIs. Just look all the troubles F1 had with ECUs and the sorry solution they arrived to: outsource to McLaren.
I'm not in the mood to interrupt the party, but
how many of you are suspicious of McLaren and Mercedes delivering such a good engine and having the monopoly on the ECUs?
Designed by NSA?
Yeah, I know. Nag me. Today I feel like Snowden, anyway. Let's truth kill me!
4. EFIs are for noobs
Frankly, a person that can tune a carburetor is a much better engineer than a EFI tuner. EFI tuning is for novices, for people that rely on machines to do their work.
Frankly, I know not many of you would appreciate this kind of art, but, hey, if you print it in a printer, is still a marketable paint? No, it's a photography. It's an entirely different animal and it has its space, but painting still exists. So carburetors.
Anyone can learn to tune an EFI but I believe there must be two or three persons that are able to tune a carb in ProStock racing. Yeah, I know, some people will think this is a disadvantage for carbs. Cowards!
David Reher, artist. Technique: carburetor
5. Carbs produce as much power
Power is a matter of flow and distribution. Even if you can tune individual cylinders with an EFI I see no disadvantage beyond fuel economy in EFIs. And fuel economy and racing go together at LeMans and (nowadays, forced) in F1.
A carb’s difference in pressure throught the throat is the
undisputed king of the world for atomizing a gas. There is NO WAY you can achieve the same atomizing power from spraying fuel through a hole.
However, EFI is better at individual cylinder distribution. Thus, carbs have a narrow power band (1500 rpm vs 2000 or more for EFIs).
Both systems, when optimized, will carry you at the same speed, to be frank, and if someone disagrees I would like to see his credentials...
6. EFIs will never go down in price.
Yes, the main cost of an EFI is the ECU. It should go down in price, as is an electronic device. Moore Law, right?
Yeah, right. More functions are added! The price is the same. Keynes beats Moore any day.
7. EFIs are for small d1cks, erm, I mean, small engines.
Yes, I know Americans. They all think that European cars have the engine of an electric pencil sharpener and are able to accommodate two or three midgets and a Chihuahua and that's the family car.
Formula One grid,according to people racing in Pocono
Of course, that's not true. As an Spaniard that lives in South America I'm an amphibian in terms of racing, so I can say Americans are mistaken when they say engines in Europe and Japan are minuscule. They are not, they're simply diminutive.
Now, if you go over 2000 HP, the learning curve in EFIs is horrible. No Top Fuel car uses an EFI, AFAIK.
Let's replace the carburetor with an EFI! What could go wrong?
8. Safety fuel lines
In some racing circles an engine driven fuel pump is preferable over an electric fuel pump that can keep running after the accident has happened.
Well, that's about it.
I couldn't imagine or invent any more arguments, thanks heaven
Yes, I know many arguments do not apply to karts, but if you've reached this point without fainting or throwing away your computer, perhaps you understand why a plate and a tube with a reduction has moved a world for one hundred years and counting.
However, I have to concede that EFIs are unbeatable in terms of fuel eficiency, ability to deliver an economy car that delivers hundreds of HPs and they are better for the guy who want to learn new things in this century number 21.
But make no mistake, they're not an easy beast to tame when you're starting to race.
Ergo, karts will have carbs for a couple decades more, I guess, until kids learn to program the ECU in kindergarten. That day, let's be frank, hasn't happened yet and perhaps will never happen.
For example, raise your hands those of you able to tune an ECU.
"It's leviOsa, not leviosA"
Yeah, I imagined.
P.S. This is a lengthy, perhaps boring, using too many unrelated images, irreverent, contrariwise, probably riddled with errors (according to Xpensive, of course, who is always wrong
), old school and "thread killer" of a post. So, please, mods, (and I'm not naming any names, turbof1) feel free to edit it or erase it, I won't lift a finger. As if I would anyway...
