UK Karting - Notice Board (General Karting) : The big debate about lead....

Notice Board (General Karting)

The big debate about lead....
Posted by 'Iwan' on 01 Apr 2009 @ 09:02

| View Message Thread | Reply to this message |

IwanJoined: October 2001
Total Posts: 5
[ View User Profile ]

Right I know i'm going to start a debate here because there are people like me who are ultra light and think some of the weight limits in classes are excessive, and the others who are over the limits and feel that they are about right or should even be raised. I mean no offence to anyone but just want to raise some points and start a (hopefully interesting) debate.

When I was in Junior TKM I weighed about 7.5 stone and carried I think about 5kg of lead. I moved up to Senior TKM in 1999 when the limit was raised from 145kg to 148kg and at the time I had to carry 24kg of lead on my kart to meet the weight limit. The problem we always had with this was purely space to fit it! It was all over the floor, under the seat etc and made setting up the balance of the kart a nightmare.

From a safety point of view a few things annoy me and seem irrational. Firstly, a few times we have been told that having lead underneath the seat is unacceptable because 1. It acts as a chassis brace between the two lower seat mounts (!!!) and 2. I was once told 'If a driver comes out of their kart and you run over them, the sharp bits of lead may hurt them' to which my shocked response was 'Well what about all the bolts sticking out underneath?!' to which the scrutineer had no answer.
Also, it says in the MSA rule book that no more than 5kg of lead may be held by two bolts, but at the same time it seems perfectly acceptable to mount hideous amounts on the back of a fibreglass seat that is held in by four bolts. This is something my father would NEVER do because can you imagine if the kart hit a tyre wall head on, with excess lead on the back of the seat there is serious potential for the seat to break away and crush the driver against the steering wheel. Finally, why, in light of the above, are driver (mainly in endurance) now alowed to have 'lead seat inserts; in the kart that from most (but not all) i've seen are held in simply by the force of gravity? What would happen if that kart flipped and threw a great chunk of this lead out into a pack of karts? The consequences don't bear thinking about.

I suppose my final point is really why the MSA stipulate weight limits but then give no real guidelines (apart from mentioned above) on how to safely mount this ballast.
Any views on the whole topic are welcomed!

Message Thread:

The big debate about lead.... by 'Iwan' << You are here!

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'MattScott' (01 Apr 2009 @ 9:10)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'PaulMRotax' (01 Apr 2009 @ 9:16)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'Inter61' (01 Apr 2009 @ 11:03)

PaulM-Rotax by 'michaelg36' (01 Apr 2009 @ 11:13)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'archiebald' (01 Apr 2009 @ 12:18)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'Iwan' (01 Apr 2009 @ 12:51)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'MattScott' (01 Apr 2009 @ 12:56)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'MattScott' (01 Apr 2009 @ 12:59)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'chriskasch' (01 Apr 2009 @ 14:10)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'MattScott' (01 Apr 2009 @ 15:00)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'Aquila' (01 Apr 2009 @ 15:12)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'jonnyricer' (02 Apr 2009 @ 20:51)

Re: The big debate about lead.... by 'dave97tkm' (03 Apr 2009 @ 17:20)

Post a Reply:

You may post a direct reply to this message which will appear in this thread.
To post a new or unrelated message use This Form. Top of Page
Notice Board Index

[ UK Karting Main Index ]


News	Karts & Karting	Notice Board	Market Place	Companies Directory	Tracks Directory	Events Calendar	Race Results	Photo Gallery	Links