You might be able to argue that they are depending on where they are used
The rules under the subheading "Technical Regulations/ Chassis / measurements/ state that titanium isn't allowed.
"16.5.2. The use of titanium or magnesium is prohibited."
There's a reason. Titanium is a reactive metal, and mixed with steel particles and water may exotherm and catch fire. Machining titanium can be interesting and you need to keep the swarf separate from contaminants especially steel.
A kart grinding along a wet track creates the potential for steel, titanium and water to come together with a lot of localised heat. (the sparks!)
Titanium will burn even in nitrogen.
However one might get away with the argument that despite 16.5.2 we can use magnesium alloy wheels so there is implicit permission to use titanium parts but not as part of the chassis.
The difficulty is that the scrutineer has to be satisfied that the kart is safe and there is a hazard with titanium parts, so unless you had a certificate from the MSA (Technical Committee?) saying that the part was legal, the scrutineer could reject it, either as unsafe or because there is ambiguity in 16.5.2.
Of course, you would have to find a scrutineer who could recognise a titanium part and know there's a risk or who applied U16.5.2 for, say, a stub axle.
However it would be very disappointing if you won a race, then were disqualified for non-compliance and then had to go to the MSA to get that reversed.
Then you might find that you had fallen foul of some of the other construction rules eg: 16.11.8
he steering column ~~~ must be a hollow tube and be constructed from Magnetic Steel.
As far as I can see you are limited in the loopholes to the stub axles, possibly the wheel rims, the seat ,the pedals and the engine mounting system. Everything else including the floor tray is specified.
The only performance advantage would be in the unsprung weight, stub axles / wheel rims, unless you are having real problems making a minimum weight.
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Titanium by 'dynamax' (07 Aug 2014 @ 9:00)
