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Formula Blue come in two engine sizes, Blue which is 100 cc and Green which is 117.
The reason there are two sizes is that the restrictor adjusts the power for driver weight. Obviously with a straight through (no restriction) restrictor, one is getting full power but then everyone's speed is limited by the heaviest class of driver. With a 100 cc engine and a 100 kg driver the speeds were dropping by a couple of seconds a lap, and drivers were moving to other classes as they were 'faster'. So the 117cc 'green top' engine (or Maxi) was introduced to allow heavier drivers to participate but still keep the performance up to around that produced by a TKM /Max 177.
Of course, if you are below the minimum weight to use a Green engine (75kg in your PPE) then you can't use it for MSA racing. But you would be going at the same speed on a Blue.
Essentially, any difference on laptimes between an FB and TKM or 177 is really down to the rubber. A few years ago TKMs were on one tyre and were up to 2 seconds a lap slower, they chnaged the rubber and were up to 2 seconds a lap faster.
There's a difference in the way the power is put down between a Rotax and a Blue, the Max has a power valve that means that on a drag race down the straight the Max moves away from the Blue, on the corner where controllable power makes a difference the Blues tend to catch up.
A really good Blue Driver can stay ahead of most Max drivers ( which is a bit like saying Jenson Button was able to stay ahead of most Max drivers on his TKM during practice at Clay.)
Today most engines have similar costs for maintenance, especially if you are able to buy 'not approved for racing' parts. Eg: you can buy a piston for most karts for around £30 from the wholesalers but the class operators demand that you use 'their' pistons at £60 +, and an on-board starter for TaG's can be bought for £35 on Ebay, but for up to £200 if they are bought for racing.
if you fit unapproved parts to your engine, that may be OK for IKR (depends on the rules for teh club) but if you join an MSA class, the engine and ancillaries will have to be fitted with 'approved parts' and probably the whole thing vetted by the class organiser to ensure that some other mods, eg machining of any sort haven't been done.
All chassis tht have been homologated in the past are OK for average club racing, provided they are straight. Some people swear by one chassis, claiming it made them seconds a lap faster. This may be true, the difficulty is knowing why. If you replace a battered chassis with a brand new chassis you will probably go faster, but as soon as the new chassis has a bang, you may find you are going no faster than the old one.
The answer is that you may have to try several chassis to find the one that makes you go fastest. You alone know whether you can do that on your budget.
Does that help?
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formula blue, rotax snr, x30?? CONFUSED! pls help! by 'shaun90' (04 Sep 2015 @ 13:39)
