"Would it make sense to use a flashing red 3 / 4 LED lamp on the back of a kart in wet conditions?"
What would be the purpose?
It is only at a very novice level that one runs into the back of the kart in front because you don't know he is there.
Normally the problem is that you know he is there, but you don't know what he is about to do. At a range of between two or three feet, the margin for error is very small, and if the guy in front decides to brake early, turn in suddenly or it is just wetter than your thought, LEDS aren't going to help.
Indeed, there is strong evidence that LEDS would just make people drive closer to the kart in front in the belief that somehow they were safer.
Then you have to look at the practicality of the system. What are you going to do. Clearly you can't mount them on the bumper, that's far too vulnerable. So either you mount them on the seat back, or you are thinking about another bracket at the back. Do I want the target for the guy behind to be mounted a foot inside my bumper?
I can see the parc ferme arguments now as one person 'came in until I could see your light, but I missed it" and the crashes because people will come in confidently until they see the light, or not as the case will be.
Then, to be useful they have to be mounted all the time. I've been out on many a race when the rain has come down after the start. So you will need a switch to turn them on, and a flag for the CoC to tell people to turn them on.
Then we come to penalties. If the light has to be available at any time, mounted on the kart, with a switch, it obviously has to be tested at scrutineering. So anyone whose light doesn't come on has either not switched it on, had a flat battery because someone forgot to switch it off or suffered battle damage. Which of those is an exclusion event?
"So far as I know, all formula cars have it - and it has saved countless collisions - so why not karts? "
Well, one reason is that Formula cars mount the lights much higher than can be managed on a kart, and secondly they use 40 LED clusters, not 4, and thirdly one rarely travels as close as one does in a kart. Although speeds may be higher, there's a huge difference between being 30 feet away and less than 30 inches.
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