The World Motorsport Council of the FIA met last month and have released a press release outlining the decision they made regarding karting regulations. An interesting thing is the approval of a “Code of Conduct on Karting Circuits” that will be published in the General Perscriptions of the 2008 CIK Yearbook. Other issues included the freeing up of some technical regulations regulations in KF1 and KF3, and homologation procedure changes.
Press Release:
Sporting Regulations
The World Council has approved a “Code of Driving Conduct on Karting Circuits†derived from the Code of Driving Conduct on Circuits of Appendix L to the FIA International Sporting Code. This new Code of Conduct specific to Karting will be published in an appendix to the General Prescriptions of the 2008 CIK Yearbook.
In the 2008 CIK-FIA European Superkart Championship Sporting Regulations, a qualitative eligibility criterion is added to the single criterion which was applied until now (namely the date of receipt of entry applications) as in this Championship the maximum quota of entries is usually reached. The new priority eligibility criterion will be based on the quality of results achieved in the Championship of the previous year.
Technical Regulations
The World Council has approved the deregulation of the cooling radiator of engines in the KF3 category to allow competitors to mount a radiator with appropriate dimensions for their local climate. Clarifications concerning the Technical Regulations of the new KF engines have been adopted as regards: the control of carburettors, the functioning of the exhaust valve, the measuring of the cylinder block height, elements which must not be modified with regard to the data of the Homologation Form, the tolerances for the measuring of the dimensions of pistons, crankshafts & conrods, reed boxes, balance shafts and exhausts. The KF engine Manufacturers are also required to supply to the CIK and to applying ASNs template kits for the control of all the cylinder development dimensions and of the shape of transfers at the level of the gasket plane of the cylinder base.
From 2008, the following engine elements will be made free in the KF1 category: piston, cylinder block height, distance between the upper plane of the piston and that of the liner.
Homologation Regulations
Within the framework of the future homologation of chassis, brakes and bodywork (valid on 1 January 2009), the World Council has approved a modification to the homologation calendar, which is advanced by two months with regard to the usual homologation calendar (beginning of the procedure on 1 August 2008 instead of 1 October 2008), and late inspections will no longer be accepted (inspections will take place between 15 September and 30 November 2008). It was decided that the bodywork element called “front panel†would be submitted to impact testing (“crash-testsâ€). This new procedure is added to the impact testing which has already been carried out for 5 years within the framework of the homologation of front, side and rear bodywork.
Concerning the new KF engines, the World Council has approved the proposal not to allow homologation extensions regarding cylinders. It must also be remembered that, in order to prevent Manufacturers from creating new models during the same triennal homologation period, the engine Homologation Regulations automatically ban the possibility to make extensions concerning the following elements: mechanical design and general aspect, bore, stroke, conrod length, orientation of the reed box, number of transfer ducts, presence of the power-valve and exhaust.
2008 CIK-FIA Calendar
As a supplement to the 2008 calendar of the CIK-FIA Championships, Cups and Trophies partly approved in July 2006, the World Council has ratified the allocation of the CIK-FIA European KF2 and KF3 Championships Western Region Qualification event to the circuit of Alcaniz (Spain) on the date of 10-13 July 2008, and that of the KF2, KF3 and KZ2 Viking Trophy event to the “Kimi Circuit†of Lappeenranta (Finland) on the date of 13-15 June 2008.