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The secrets of Vortex victories:
Experience and Innovation
The karting season prepares to get to the heart of
the scene: the second race of the Open Master and the first race of the European
Championship are just around the corner and, as well, the most important
International races will pass one after another unending. This short period of
season, already expressed some clear values and gave great importance to the
protagonists on the scene. Vortex, in this context, is the motor-sports company
which carried out a definitely complete and profitable work, the engines come
out from Giovanni Corona’s factory cleaned out the Margutti in Parma, the first
race of the Open and, by pure chance, they didn’t hit the centre of Winter Cup.
We are traditionally accustomed to the top of the ratings, just remembering that
our engines hold the iris of the two greatest classes, FA and ICC. In virtue of
the new International Regulation CIK FIA, our Vortex status up-to-date has even
a bigger weight. We remind that the greatest twistings in the motor-sports
regulation concern the displacement increase, from 100 cc. to 125 cc., the
clutch introduction and the restriction of the running turnover, fixed by an
electronic gearcase. These rules forced the radical engine remaking for the
up-to-date classes called KF. In addition to the satisfactions that RAV project
gave us, we have to take into consideration also the ones getting by the engine:
it belongs to a new concept, too and destined to the shift class, RVX. Who,
better than Giovanni Corona, Vortex deus ex machina, can tell us any secrets of
these two deadly arms?
Giovanni
Corona - Vortex s.r.l. President “Up-to-date the situation is favourable to us, and both of the
projects, the engine for KF and the one for KZ are excellent. This is confirmed
by our Racing Team and by all our satellite teams, with their results. But, for
sure, I am expecting a recovery by our competitors. The new Technical
Regulation, passed for the next 3 years, allows us to make the most of the good
work we carried out with our RVX and RAV. After that, we will have to propose
something innovative again, but we have these three years of margin in order to
work and study new solutions, so that this advantage can prove itself during the
next homologue three-years period.”
How could you sum-up the strength points of the new
engines? “Unlike the most direct
competitors, we are a relatively small company. This allow us to have an
outstanding flexibility in our work and in the reaction time. In fact, also
during the years in which we had tarnishing moments, we were able to place the
winning “ shove”, that allowed us to stake ourselves again. I think that another
one of our strength points is the fact that we always follow a self-governing
and independent way, in comparison with all the work that the others carried
out. We worked on the basis of our experience and of our background; we were
able to develop completely independent projects. In my opinion, if you work
copying or allowing the others to condition you, others’ mistakes add one on
another and… In a certain sense, the project grows
faulty.”
Which is the role of the
racing team in the birth and in the development of a winning
engine? “For sure, the engine success
results from the competitions tie, especially with the racing team and the whole
organization around it: drivers, the team men… All is a complex and
well-constructed process, that we are bound by. As all already know, we are very
attached to Tony Kart. The Tony Kart-Vortex actually become a sole equipment, it
is a forced coupling. This subjected us to an important pressure, because we are
indissoluble from them and they are indissoluble from us, so neither, unlike
some other competitors, can make mistakes. The mistake of one of ours would
affect the other and vice-versa, so we both have to take our great
responsibilities.” |