CRG HERON PLUS: THE 2000 EUROPEAN CHAMPION KART WITH LEWIS HAMILTON

The CRG Heron Plus has been talked about for its particular design, light years away from the more traditional standards, since the time of its first launching into the market at the end of the 90s. The cassis is composed of tubes with two different diameters, in particular the front chassis with the 28 mm diameter tube which starts from the Cs area and makes the entire rounded bend in the central area, while the others are 30 mm in diameter. The main feature of the chassis manufactured by CRG was the exceptional grip with the rear end/tires, a determining factor in order to make the most of the Karts performance which was outstanding.
In the front, the geometry is adjusted by rotating the upper bushing with a decentralized hole that allows them to modify the position of the stub axle with four positions, while below, the lower bushing has the hole in the center of the axis. Conceptually, the system is the same as today which, once developed, allows for many more adjustments and requires less setup time. The support of the steering shaft is an open case, as from Kali Kart tradition, one of the first manufacturers to understand and utilize the importance of the rigidity in the steering shaft attachment, thus making its own trademark. In the rear, the supports of the axle bearing case allow them to setup two heights, high or low.  The chassis wheelbase is fixed. At the time, in order to modify it, frames were created directly with casings welded forward or backwards according to the desired size needed. More than 20 years later, the CRG Heron is back on the track, always with its unique shape, yet completely updated with the 2018 homologation. Following this linkyou will be able to read the analysis by TKART

The braking system, utilized only at the rear end and is like the chassis, very distinct. It is equipped with a double caliper system designed and manufactured by Brembo, the world leader in the brake system industry. It has the ability to be mounted on the front brakes as well(for the shifter kart version) greatly simplifying the management of the chassis accessories. In the 125 cc karts of the time (the displacement for shifter karts, while for the non-shifter karts it was 100 cc) a single caliper model could be installed on the front right and left and on the rear end, thanks to the double support design. The brake disc, floating and self-ventilated, follows the same philosophy, being the same for the rear and front end.  The hydraulic system pump, instead, has a classic design, similar to the latest generation of karts.

If mounted on modern karts, this braking system would be undersized both due to the increase in displacement (from 100 to 125 cc in the non-shifter karts) the power, and the weight which has been considerably increased, therefore needing a more robust performance braking system.