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home > info > international friends > Karbyk (Italy) > Karbyk test Italian Pedal Car Racing - KARBYKKarbyk test
The 2000 Rugby 100 mile race saw the BPCC debut of the Italian Karbyk. Shipping arrangements had the vehicle itself being delivered to Great Central Racing's Rugby base two days before race day, with the Karbyk personnel (Managing Director Paolo Cencigh, Public Relations Manager Giorgia Buzzi and driver Andrea Romito) arriving on the Saturday to assemble the car, ready for Sunday's race. After the initial greetings, Paolo and his team set about unpacking and assembling the Karbyk - due to the way they are shipped, this was a relatively simple process involving swapping the dummy wheels (chipboard squares) for road wheels and attaching the seat. These jobs completed, Andrea climbed in and drove it up the road and back to check everything was OK, which it was. "Now, you try", said Paolo. Wow. This was like being handed the keys to a Ferrari. This man has paid for a single racing car to be shipped several hundred miles with no major spare parts. Tomorrow I will be competing against it and he has never seen me drive or ride anything, yet here he is, telling me to try it out on an open road. If anything, he's even keener for me to try it than I am, and I've been dying to open the box all day to take a peek. So, at approaching 6pm on a dull, damp and rather chilly Rugby Saturday, I became the first non-Italian to drive a Karbyk on British soil. Well, I like to think so anyway - if anyone has information to the contrary, please, er, keep it to yourself as I'm quite proud of this claim. Thanks. The first thing you notice is how easy it is to get into. With the central frame spine being the only structural member, the only thing to step over is the steering bar - as they are quite far apart, this is not a problem and you have no shortage of space to put your feet. Then you sit down in the surprisingly comfortable carbon fibre bucket seat (yes indeed folks, you don't need to buy a Ferrari to own a carbon fibre seat!), put your feet on the pedals and you're ready to roll. Or rather, you're ready to see if you fit properly and if not, stand up and move the seat until you do. This is a very quick and simple job as the seat is adjustable for both reach and rake, as Paolo demonstrated until I fitted. If needed, the hand controls can be moved along the steering bars too, to fit the driver's arm length. Once sorted for size, I'm away down the road. Even on the slick damp tarmac, the two wheel drive and rear weight bias mean there's no chance of any wheelspin under power. First impressions are very good, with the stiff, light chassis giving excellent power transfer and hence good acceleration. The wide track makes the Karbyk feel very safe to sit in, while the cunning front axle design smooths out the bumps in the road, keeping all four wheels in contact with the blacktop at all times. The steering is very light to the touch and very direct, but still surprisingly controllable and stable at any speed. At the end of the road, having slowed to less than walking pace, I pull a U-turn, where the Karbyk's only handling weak point becomes apparent. With the weight of the driver so far to the rear and the front of the car itself being so light, a tight turn from a very low speed start is never really on - the front end goes light and skips forwards rather than turning. However, this is only really a problem if you're trying to put a lot of power down at the same time - the answer, therefore, is to take things more gently! Back down the road and while I fight with the gripshift (I've never liked them on bikes either) one foot slips off a pedal and disaster, well, doesn't happen. The Karbyk's stability and solid handling get me out of the hole I was trying to dig for myself with neither effort nor drama, allowing me to push a bit harder with confidence. I'm really starting to like this car! The larger road wheels do display a hint of understeer in extreme situations, but it's nothing to worry about and the hub brakes in the rear wheels work reliably and well when needed. Excellent. After my short test it's time to let someone else have a go, which Chris is very happy to do. He comes back a few minutes later, grinning from ear to ear. The following day, I and several more people tested the car in race trim, with its smaller wheels. By dropping the centre of mass just those crucial couple of inches, the handling is stepped up another notch. Acceleration is even better and every hint of understeer has been scrubbed off - no matter how hard you push it into tight turns, the Karbyk sticks like glue to your chosen line, even with severe provocation and mid-turn course corrections. It's difficult to compare the Karbyk to any of the other current BPCC cars, as the technology and design are completely different, but the Italian machine is light, responsive, stable, accurate, very comfortable and handles incredibly well. If you're designing a car and get even half of these attributes right first time, you're doing pretty well. In short, of the dozen or so people who tested it over the weekend (including some non-racing personnel), no-one had a bad word to say about the machine; everyone was very impressed. Some people even expressed interest in buying one! Fantastic - Thanks, Paolo! Need bike type stuff? Try our affiliates (What is this?):
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