Brian,
I don't disagree with any of the suggestions you raise, however, for as long as I have been involved in pro-karting there has been noise around a fiche and the powers that be have chosen not to embrace it and it has all been left to the free market.
The 200 extreme project is not a perfect solution by any sort of imagination but it is, at least, an attempt to satisfy 2 of the over-riding complaints of the prokarting class: namely engine price and performance disparity. I continue to see it as a positive step and continue to applaud RPM for attempting to provide a solution - I am not aware of anyone else doing so and they have the support of the principal players within the pro-kart community. If it doesn't work at least we can be proud that we tried but one thing is certain, doing nothing isn't an option.
We simply can't continue to spend more and more money just to buy the latest SP's to continue to attempt to compete on a level playing field. Over the years we have seen costs escalate to the point that whole essence of prokarting as a budget class has all but gone. It would be awesome if we could have a grid of self built/tuned motors (and you know I take pride in my preparation and have won on these) but for those that don't have the time, skill/knowledge or confidence would be disadvantaged. So they engage the services of a tuner/engine builder and go faster than the home built motors so, guess what, they find a better "big name" tuner to go faster still. So the other guy pays for SPs is faster again so we all have to get SPs and so on. It has to stop.
Who knows how the Extreme thing will evolve but it will. This already has momentum. There is nothing more constant than change. Not everyone likes it and it is good that there is skepticism and challenge. Surprisingly no other solutions!
Graeme
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