Another vote for the flathead and days of old here. Accepted nationwide, tried and true, stable rules, one set of tires all season, full fields everywhere; and not 21 classes with 2AM tech room encounters.
I certainly like the idea of 2 classes of juniors, 3 classes of adults, and 1 class of opens. 6 classes is plenty (or at least it used to be.)
Some valid points made above as well. The flathead years may well be the "hay day" of karting, but it certainly was not the first engine to come along - it replaced others, Macs, West Bends, Yamahas, etc. Karting has always been about innovation and tinkerers.
I absolutely love the L206 engine and obviously it would make a great platform for beginners, which is why I liked Chip's post, but it allows little to no room for "shade tree mechanics." I think karting should always appeal to this crowd. Unfortunately, the trend in recent years has been more toward touch and go (buy it and drive it) attitude with racers learning very little about their engines and how to work on them. Maybe it's just a sign of a new generation that doesn't work on their own cars anymore, I don't know.
We still build plenty of flatheads through our shop so I still get my "fix" as do the racers who continue to run them.
There's something to be said though for technology improvements and the direction the ohv stuff is going.
I suspect we'll be having this same discussion when electric motors start to get more popular.
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Thanks and God bless,
Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
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