2020 legal 206 clutch

Gotcha. Meaning that a "machined" stinger drum was found to be advantage over stamped drum perhaps? Or for some other reason that want ALL to be STAMPED. Wondering what was at heart of that decision concerning stinger drums and what's so special or different about a STAMPED drum?
And thank you for reference to clone or predator class, guess I wasn't thinking about that use.
Clutches with machined drums tend to be more pricey. Performance difference will be nil. Briggs is just trying to keep costs minimal.
 
Clutches with machined drums tend to be more pricey. Performance difference will be nil. Briggs is just trying to keep costs minimal.
Thanks for responses. I guess it still is NOT making sense to me, here is reason.

If Briggs or anyone else is trying to keep it cheaper, AND there is no performance difference betw the $80 drum (people already bought andnpaid for) to the soon available $10
drum, why make my $80 drum obsolete for 206? Is there a LOGICAL reason? I DO UNDERSTAND THEY CAN MAKE A CHEAPER DRUM APPARENTLY, THATS GOOD. Allow the new cheaper drum, ok, but what does that have to do with banning the older already paid for drums. THAT decision is more expensive to racer and so far WITHOUT LOGIC.

Actually, $10 vs $80, that’s AMAZING. Is it possible that the NEW REQUIRED DRUM WILL NEED REPLACED FAR MORE OFTEN? Is there a hidden LONG TERM money objective or conspiracy on fastly worn out drums?
I DON’T GET IT?

I am bothered by this in part because I keep getting the feeling in various areas that “money” is driving too many things. So if there is no logical answer to eliminating what might be a long lasting drum? Notice I keep throwing in the word “logical”. I scratch my head thinking: “ok, maybe money 💰 is the root of all evil” and this isn’t just about racing.
 
1) Anyone telling you that the $10 drum will perform the same as the $80 drum long term is full of it.

2) The $80 drum was always illegal, but Briggs kind of just looked the other way for a bit until the "snap your neck" controversy.

3) It isn't a money grab, although the $10 drum will only be priced at $10 until June 30th as per the Target Distributing website. It is about the clutch being legal as per the rules and them letting you convert to legal for just $10 instead of buying a new clutch like rocket rim folks have to do.
 
1) Anyone telling you that the $10 drum will perform the same as the $80 drum long term is full of it.

2) The $80 drum was always illegal, but Briggs kind of just looked the other way for a bit until the "snap your neck" controversy.

3) It isn't a money grab, although the $10 drum will only be priced at $10 until June 30th as per the Target Distributing website. It is about the clutch being legal as per the rules and them letting you convert to legal for just $10 instead of buying a new clutch like rocket rim folks have to do.


EXACTLY! Spot on response!
 
Don't think of the replacement drum as a $10 drum. It is NOT.
It has been discounted by the manufacturer (kudos to them) for a short while to help their existing customers (and while they tool up production of their new drums) conform to the rules (as they have been all along.)

All the drama about certain manufacturers being "singled out" is kinda silly at this point.
The rules state that any manufacturer may submit their clutch for approval and be added to the list of approved clutches.
It needs to be commercially available, affordable, no coatings, no machined drums, no mixing of manufacturers parts, etc. It's spelled out.
Follow the rules or stop whining.
That's my take anyhow.

Personally, I would have rather seen it just be open (dry, centrifugal, drum or disc) clutch, same as most of the other 4 cycle classes.
But it's not - so we'll deal with it. :)
 
It's just annoying that all we get to use now are "Fred Flintstone" clutches.
 
Marking on the drums



Joshua,

That comment piqued my interest ;)

Didn't check every drum in inventory......but the few I did check had no markings.

Max-Torque conversion drum looks no different today than it did ten years ago, nor did the Hilliard.

But any knowledgeable Briggs trained Tech Inspector should be able to spot OEM from aftermarket.


Mike
 
These are basically the same clutch rules since day one.
If you would like to race in a class that allows disc clutches there are other classes that you can choose.
Open motor classes, and clones are ones that come to mind.
 
Sorry but I have to disagree. Here are the clutch rules I copied from the 2013 ruleset. Identical to the 2012 ruleset but I could not copy and paste from the 2012 rules. Nothing about stamped drums vs machined. You are correct about disc clutches not being allowed but all the rest of the clutch BS started later when SMC came out with the two piece aluminum and steel drum for the Stinger. Wish they would just go back to the 2012 ruleset so we could just run either the stingers we have with original drum or the SMC Rocket rims we have recently been running.

32. Clutch
a. Novice class must use the supplied Max-Torque clutch, part #555727. No
alteration to the clutch is allowed, except springs.
b. Junior 1, Junior 2, Senior, and Masters Classes can run any rim centrifugal
clutch with a maximum of 9 springs and 6 shoes. No alteration to clutch
allowed, except springs. Clutch coolers are not allowed.
c. Refer to your sanctioning body general rules for mandatory chain guard
guidelines.
 
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...and the crying continues.

Look, you can't please all the people all the time.
Rules making is not a democratic process - racers don't get to vote.

There seemed to be a consensus that the racers wanted to stick to "economical" drum clutches only, rather than go down the road of custom conversions with machined drums.

As soon as one clutch was deemed illegal, that manufacturer pointed out the hypocrisy of allowing other manufacturers' machined drums, and a clear decision had to be made.

Again, for all you owners of Stinger clutches, THERE IS A STAMPED DRUM COMING.

It will be heavily discounted to $10 as an introductory offer to help out all current Stinger owners. Premier makes a good product. I'm sure it will be as good of drum as produced by the other manufacturers.

Safe assumption that lap times will remain unchanged due to these clutch rule changes.

Race on and enjoy karting!
 
"Race on and enjoy karting!"
There are way bigger problems in this world than a clutch rule.
 
To echo Jim's thoughts....Just be thankful that you don't get the coronavirus, have your property destroyed by a wildfire, earthquake, erupting volcano, tornado, etc. or have serious health issues that many have these days. Be thankful for the karting facilities that we do have to race at and let's move on....clutch rule is what it is and we all have to follow the same rule, so be it. Enough said...
 
To echo Jim's thoughts....Just be thankful that you don't get the coronavirus, have your property destroyed by a wildfire, earthquake, erupting volcano, tornado, etc. or have serious health issues that many have these days. Be thankful for the karting facilities that we do have to race at and let's move on....clutch rule is what it is and we all have to follow the same rule, so be it. Enough said...
All that crap could still happen to me. And I still have to use a mediocre clutch on top of that. Rules are fine but don't change them at the last minute. Some of you up in frozen tundra-land still have time - we are already racing here and I just found out that the money (and time) I sank into a Rocket Rim and drivers are useless for racing. If a rule change like this is going to happen provide notice and at least let some of us get a season out of the clutch we just bought. This rule change hasn't saved me a dime. It's just made me want to put my 206 in a box and mail it back to Briggs.
 
All that crap could still happen to me. And I still have to use a mediocre clutch on top of that. Rules are fine but don't change them at the last minute. Some of you up in frozen tundra-land still have time - we are already racing here and I just found out that the money (and time) I sank into a Rocket Rim and drivers are useless for racing. If a rule change like this is going to happen provide notice and at least let some of us get a season out of the clutch we just bought. This rule change hasn't saved me a dime. It's just made me want to put my 206 in a box and mail it back to Briggs.
With all the talk in the past year about a coming approved clutch list and machined drums I would say you chose poorly.
 
Twice now I have been accused of either bitching or crying. I'm not doing either, I'm just stating my desires as well as correcting the facts although I know some don't like it. My last post was to correct an incorrect statement from Jimbo. He stated "These are basically the same clutch rules since day one". Sorry, the rules were as I stated above and did not change until 8/11/17 in a briggs press release. I already had Stinger clutches that were legal up to that time when Briggs made them illegal in a clutch rule change. And that just started this whole clutch deal. If you don't like my posts, ignore me! I feel that I have just as much right to post my feelings as the rest of the forum members. Posting feelings and statement corrections are not bitching and crying. We will abide by whatever rules Briggs puts in place. This is the best class we have going that is affordable and growing. The last thing I want is for a bunch of bickering to destroy what we have now.
 
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The SMC drivers will fit any of the approved clutches. I spend over 90-minutes talking to various vendors at the OVKA swap meet about just clutches. As someone who bought a Rocket rim and all new drivers less than 10-days before the Indy SYN situation, I feel you on needing to buy another clutch, but I get why and I'll play along. I'm not going to box up my kids fun over a $100 clutch.

Personally we will be going to a Flame based on feedback from others.
 
We tried a flame about 4 years ago and were not impressed so we went back to our Stingers. We will try both the Stinger with new stamped drum and the flame again this year and make our decisions based on performance. I would think the new stinger drum should be lighter than the original drum which could be better.
 
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