13 replies to this topic

[wingsbgone]

Folks-

Just had my first taste of the true effect of horsepower to weight. Ran a day of 125cc shifter karts on a longish (.7 miles) and very smooth track. Instructors mentioned 0-60 in about 3.6sec, with 60-0 in 2 sec. Max cornering of 1.3G was also claimed. I've raced a bit (Star Mazda), but never had the sensation of performance felt in the kart.

Enough rambling: What are the forum's estimates of equivalent performance of the 125cc kart (40hp) in a race or street car. My rough guess would be an F Atlantic, or maybe Trans-Am, but those are true guesses.

wingsbgone

[pekarting]

Hei Wingsbgone!

I'm a kart racer from Spain. I race 125cc karts from 5 years ago. I've only raced this class, but with the numbers and the feelings it isn't hard to realise what level of performance this machines have.
Do you enjoyed?? It's a bit difficult to get the maximum of them but when you do it, it's magnific. I love the power of that machines, and also the braking!!
Oh, oh, too much talking, I need to drive it again!!

I've always thought an equivalent in street cars may be a Porsche 911 or some 400 bhp sport car.

Greetings!

[Ross Stonefeld]

A world championship winning kart, with a top line driver fully setup and on the best rubber in the back of the truck, can pull close to 3gs in the corners in perfect conditions. Every F3/Atlantic driver ive talked to says "its just a big gokart"

[DoS]

Actually in tight twisty circuits with lots of slow corners there aren't many machines that can beat a world championship winning kart on the best rubber...

[Scoots]

My Mazda MX-5 comes close to those numbers, but it's far from stock and I'm fairly sure the kart would beat it around the track

1994 MX-5 with custom turbo at 14psi making 340bhp on Hoosier DOT race tires.

[wingsbgone]

Hola pekarting! Did I enjoy it?!?! Is the pope Catholic? I'm already trying to decide whether I should buy/lease/rent one just to practice with (of course I'm smart enough to know that hanging on and racing are rather different!). Might even tempt me to look at racing a sprint kart.

Ross, have you even driven one of these little beasts? 3G's in a corner would hurt! Although the driving technique is quite different (push the wheel to steer instead of pull?!?), might be an interesting comparison to the Palmer Audi. At least simplistically.

Anyone on the board race in Northern CA?

Ciao.

[BRNDLL]

Scoots,
Im having a hard time seeing a Miata anywhere near a 0-60 under 5 seconds much less 3.6.
That is crazy fast accelleration.

bb

[Scoots]

It's true. Here's a website of a friend who's car is faster than mine (3.3 0-60) http://miata.cardoma.../id/minimonster this car is stupid fast. (But my car looks better http://www.miata.net...a/0039/0010.jpg ... the black one)

lightweight, rear wheel drive, a motor that started life as a turbo. You are not the first to be surprised by the speed of my car

BTW, I didn't say my car could match the kart, just come close

[schuy]

Hi Wingsbone,

In terms of street car, the best car would be the Caterham Super-Seven.
It is a true kart-for-the-road.

Having recently driven one I can confirm that.

Liran.

[Scoots]

Originally posted by schuy
Hi Wingsbone,

In terms of street car, the best car would be the Caterham Super-Seven.
It is a true kart-for-the-road.

Having recently driven one I can confirm that.

Liran.

Mmmmmm ... yes.

[wingsbgone]

Caterham Super Seven sounds like it has the same characteristics (and trade-offs). What engine configuration did you experience? I imagine up to about 90mph, not much would keep up with a well-tuned S7. Ever autocrossed one vs. a top "tin top" (944, RX-7, etc.)? Anyone here have experience building/buying/owning one in the US?
Thanks, gracias, merci, danke, grazie, ‚ ‚È‚½‚ÉŠ´ŽÓ‚µ‚È‚³‚¢ .....

[schuy]

Hi Wingsbone.

The car I drove belonged to Caterham, as I went out for a drive from their facilities in Caterham, Surrey.

The car was a Caterham SV(bigger dimensions) with a 1.8 engine with around 160hp.
The weight of that specific car was around 570kg.(The heaviest of the Caterhams)
I have not driven it in competition against any other car, but you can be certain that on a twisty or technical road and track, nothing road viable-and-legal can beat it.

There was a Road & Track article earlier on in 2002 about a Super-Seven in the States.

Caterham have an American website, it is at:
www.caterhamusa.com

If you have any further questions, I'd be happy to assist.

Best Wishes,

Liran.

[joachimvanwing]

About the 125cc
I've got a mpg file. It's an onboard with a lotus Super (charged) seven at the nordschleife. It must most certainly bring the same sensation in thermes of acceleration, but not in thermes of grip. That Super Seven had to be driven like a Fire Blade. Relatively slow through the turns with only full trottle on the traights. But once the pilot got it in a straight line, paw!, keeping it straight, lifting at every steering correction. Never driven it myself. But I do drive 125.

I participated at streettrack kartrace last year, where we did over 180km/h with our 125's, the downhill straight must have been about 400-500m. Crazy.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I heard the Yamaha's F250 drove at the Monaco GP weekend in 1999 or so. I've been said they were only 2 full seconds of the F1 pole time that year , got the story probably third hand.

[schuy]

Originally posted by joachimvanwing
About the 125cc
I've got a mpg file. It's an onboard with a lotus Super (charged) seven at the nordschleife. It must most certainly bring the same sensation in thermes of acceleration, but not in thermes of grip. That Super Seven had to be driven like a Fire Blade. Relatively slow through the turns with only full trottle on the traights. But once the pilot got it in a straight line, paw!, keeping it straight, lifting at every steering correction.

That sounds exactly unlike a Super-Seven.
The fact that it was supercharged must have led to it's bizarre characteristics.

Super-Sevens would usually produce incredibly fast speeds through corners, and when getting to the straights it would usually be passed since it has race-car like aerodynamics.

In the 2002 Nordschleife 24hr race, AUTOCAR magazine entered a Caterham Super-Seven.
300 cars started the race, and the Caterham powered with a 160bhp engine finished 11th.
It defeated cars such as BMW's M3, Chevy's Vette, Porsche's GT3 and many others.

Throughout the 24 hours the car didn't even need a brake pad change, and it only ate through 4 sets of tyres.

Absolutely sensational.