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| SMALL MOTORCYCLE ENGINE RACING CARS | |||
| The motorcycle engine powered small racing vehicle has long been a favorite with amateur drivers. Starting with the 500cc Formula 3 cars of the 50's and then moving to Superkarts in the 70's, there is now a new kid on the block. The Hyper PRO Racer. | |||
| FORMULA F3 - 500cc. 1946 - 1962 | |||
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The "500" movement began in 1946 as a way of encouraging cheaper forms of motorsport using 500 cc motorbike engines instead of the larger capacity engines that prevailed prior to the war. The idea caught on and was adopted by the FIA as a new Formula 3 in 1950. Many well known names were involved with 500s including Stirling Moss, Ken Tyrrell, Ivor Bueb, Jim Russell, Les Leston, Peter Collins, Don Parker, Stuart Lewis-Evans and a young chap by the name of Ecclestone!
 One of the most famous 500cc F3 cars was the CK51. It featured a rear swing axle suspension arrangement using aero specification rubber bands and large amounts of negative camber with wishbones at the front suspended by rubber in torsion. The driver was placed well forward in the triangulated frame giving a distinctive bulbous appearance to the nose, Borrani alloy Rudge type wheels were used and steering was by rack and pinion. The car proved highly successful with wins for Moss, Parker and Charles Headland and a full order book for Kieft. Moss' car used a Norton engine, production cars were offered with a JAP engine at £800 plus purchase tax or without engine and box for £700. |
 Stirling Moss winning the Grand Prix F3 race at Silverstone on the 14th July 1951 in a Kieft CK51. He averaged 82.13 mph for the 20 lap, 60 mile race.  The Kieft CK51 |
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| SUPERKARTS - 250cc. 1970 - Present day | |||
| Karting is often considered a low-cost and relatively safe way to introduce drivers to the higher ranks of motorsports. It can help a driver prepare for wheel-to-wheel racing by helping to develop quick reflexes, basic vehicle control, and decision-making skills. The father of Gokarts was a Californian, Art Ingels who, in 1956 fashioned a small kart out of tubes and a 5 hp lawn mower engine. Karting fever quickly spread throughout the U.S. and jumped the pond to Europe and Australia. With the demise of the F3/500cc class there was a pressing need in the market for a replacement category. In 1970, somebody bolted a 250cc motorcycle engine into a Kart chassis, called it a 'Super' Kart and drove it at over 200 kph. No seat belts. No safety cell. No roll cage. No leg protection. The FIA thought it was a good idea and sanctioned the category. Superkarts, are what their name implies, a "super" "kart". The word Superkart traditionally means 250 cc engine karts, and are the fastest category in Kart racing on full size car circuits. 250 cc Superkarts often set faster lap times than more expensive and technically advanced racing machines. Superkarts can reach speeds exceeding 230 kph. It takes a little more than 3 seconds to go from 0 to 100 kph. Their 250cc engines can be motorcycle engines or specially designed 90 hp kart engines with five or six-speed sequential gearboxes. Superkarts race on long circuits such as Silverstone, Laguna Seca, Phillip Island and Magny-Cours. The popularity of Superkarts has faded in recent years, due mainly to the fact that the class is now a 40 year old category with its associated 40 year old design and safety standards. Apart from their larger engines and a substantial braking system, the only major difference between a Kart and a Superkart is a fully aerodynamic bodykit. Tragically this bodywork hides a dark secret. The picture of a Superkart chassis - sans bodywork - on the right, shows just how vulnerable the driver is. It shows a vehicle that is essentially structurally unchanged from the Gokart that Art Ingels designed in 1956. The main structure is a 'ladder' chassis, a structural design not used in racing cars for over 60 years. In the event of an accident, this type of chassis might be acceptable in an 100kph Gokart, but is woefully inadequate in a 230kph Superkart. The intrepid driver sits perched on top of this platform, unrestrained in a fibreglass seat which is supported at the rear by two vertical steel struts aimed at the drivers heart, lungs and kidneys. He has a steel spear (steering column) pointing at his chest. His feet and lower legs hang unprotected out the front of the Kart and he has no rollover protection and very little lateral protection. The driver is partially covered by egg shell thin fibreglass panels, which offer visual psychological comfort to the drivers' family and FIA officials, but offers no protection of any kind in the event of an accident. Sadly, numerous Superkart deaths and serious injuries in recent years can be directly attributed to these design shortcomings and have raised questions as to the ongoing viability of this category.
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  A 1982 Superkart (top) and (above) a current Superkart. Tight controls over regulations have seen little change to Superkart design in 40 years.  The intrepid driver sits unrestrained on top of this platform, at 230kph, with no other protection around him and a myriad of pointy objects aimed at his vital organs. |
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| HYPER PRO RACER - 450cc. 2009 - Present day | |||
| The Hyper PRO Racer was born out of a desire by two ex-superkart racers to provide themselves - and others - with a fast, affordable and above all, safe race car. The Hyper PRO Racer features a state of the art, race bred, Yamaha WR450 cc environmentally friendly 4-stroke engine, 5 speed sequential gear box, 4 wheel cross-vented disc brakes with billet milled 4-pot aluminum brake calipers, Ohlins aluminum bodied race shocks, perfect 45 / 55 weight distribution and feather weight design. All this adds up to lap times that compete with the big boys. The Hyper PRO Racer is a break-through in fast, safe, affordable racing. With a set of tyres costing around $400 and lasting up to 2 race meetings, long engine life with modest re-build costs, bodywork and mechanical components designed and placed to minimize potential damage and repair costs and the ability to transport the vehicle in a small trailer behind a small car or in the back of a van, the Hyper PRO Racer is ideal for the ‘one man race team’ who wants to race on a modest budget. Karters can now afford to move up to the real deal and a safer world, and car category drivers can get their life and budget under control, by moving across to the financially saner world of the Hyper PRO Racer. Now you can race a real race car, with real performance, on real race tracks, without winning the lottery. At the affordable end of the racing world, the space frame chassis is a cost effective design reality, and if well designed, will provide the driver with a very strong safety cell. However there is a downside. The inside of the traditional fiberglass or aluminum skinned space frame presents a hostile impact environment to the driver in the form of exposed chassis tubes. The solution ? Put a compressible body shell structure on the inside. And that’s exactly what the Hyper PRO Racer designers have done. We call it the ‘outside-in’ chassis.
This breakthrough innovation combines the cost effectiveness of a space frame safety cell with the smooth driver friendly internal surfaces of a monocoque design. The chrome moly chassis features curved main rails for added lateral impact strength and a unique cross brace in the middle of the chassis for immense crush resistance and torsional strength. And in the same way that crash helmet design protects the head, the Hyper PRO Racers seat cell is lined with a ridged compressible foam seat insert. As added protection the seat cell and head restraint incorporate compressible crush pods at all strategic mounting points. Combine this with the Hyper PRO Racer’s other safety features. Lower body skid rails and intrusion plate, foot and leg protection, a six-point safety harness, an isolated fuel tank, a jointed collapsible steering column, an onboard fire extinguisher and a comprehensive head protection system comprising of front and rear roll bars, longitudinal intrusion bars (or 'Henry' bars) that ‘flip-up’ to aid driver extraction, and a rear and lateral head restraint enclosure. It all adds up to built in safety never before seen at the affordable end of motor racing.
FOOTNOTE:
In researching the history of the F3/500cc cars, the Hyper designers where intrigued to discover how many similarities there were in the design of the 1950's 500cc cars and the new Hyper. Sixty years apart, both design teams started with a blank sheet of paper, yet they ended up producing cars that, apart from half a century of technological advances, could have been designed by the same team. Both designs feature rear mounted motorcycle engines in a triangulated box chassis, chain drive, a central fuel tank, wishbone front suspension, swingarm/axle rear end and rack and pinion steering. It just goes to show that a good idea 60 years ago, is still a good idea today. |
   As a result of its innovative triangulated box chassis design, the Hyper chassis is constructed of very light tubing. In contrast, the ladder chassis, as used in Superkarts, has no inherent torsional strength and therefor must be built using very heavy tubing. The results is that the Hyper chassis is of similar weight to the Superkart chassis, but provides the driver with a comprehensive survival cell. |
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Hyper Racer - Copyright © 2009 - Dean Crooke
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