Itpro,
You're not wrong but you're also looking at things in too little detail.
1) I'd agree that, in general, you can't have too much grip, but you can certainly run out of avenues for using it affectively and it can then slow you down.
2) We have a relatively high centre of gravity. Our ability to offset this with track width is limited by the regulations and the need to maintain an overall balance in the kart. Our ability to offset this by lowering the centre of gravity is limited by - predominantly - the bottom of the seat.
3) In the case of axles, it is not grip per se you are altering, but rather the timing of the loading and unloading of the inside rear.
4) Some people will tell you that changing grades of axles cannot alter how much the axle flexes since Young's Modulus of the different types of steels is the same. Again, they are looking at things too simplistically. An axle under load in a kart is not a simple spring system but a spring damper system (consider the load on one point of the axle as it rotates and you will see that it is the rate of change of flex (damping coefficient) that is important.
5) If any given kart were infinitely stiff, rear wheel lift would be directly proportional to steering angle and load, i.e. you would have to maintain steering lock to get through any corner. Flex allows the kart to take a "set" such that the inside rear remains unloaded and the kart can continue to corner in a controlled four-wheeled drift.
6) The rear axle "stiffness" plays a part in determining when and how quickly the inside rear is loaded again.
7) If you plot the load for a specified point on the axle you will see that the load oscillates. If the damping coefficient is large enough, the amplitude of these oscillations is altered (i.e. how much the axle flexes). By increasing flex of the rear axle, the outside rear tyre maintains its contact patch, grip is increased (the opposite to what people think they are doing), but the inside rear remains unloaded and the kart continues to corner without the driver complaining of "too much grip".
That's my take on it anyway.
|
|