What tends to be a better eating position? The seat all the way forward or back or somewhere in the middle? Some local kart guy told me to try to always be as far forward as possible.
I’m no professional but usually am one of the fastest on most of the hobby tracks, I never knew about this, I’m going to be even faster now, this is gold!
Makes a ton of sense why leaning out would be faster. It's effectively like how inertia moves the weight of a car to the outside forcing the outside to the ground, increasing traction, and improving cornering speed. Same for why taking kerbs is so effective. You'd think by removing the inside tires from contact to the ground would decrease traction, but you're further moving the weight of the car to the outside tire. For karting, by leaning outwards, you're effectively working as an active weight jacker like what IndyCar uses that drivers adjust to help manage understeer. At especially ovals, as the tires wear out throughout a stint and understeer increases, they'll adjust the weight jacker to be further to the outside to help mitigate the understeer.
Leaning in vs out doesn't matter as much in rental chassis as the chassis tubing is much thicker and stiffer and doesn't flex as well. If anything, leaning out is beneficial solely because it keeps you stable and doesn't strain you fighting the G forces, so your endurance is better and you don't fatigue during longer races. It can, however, be helpful to toss your weight to the outside at corner entry to overcome the tendency for rental karts to understeer as they're setup for lower skilled drivers that would spin out constantly with a CIK kart setup.
The difference is much more pronounced in a proper CIK chassis. It's almost undrivable if leaning in but handles like a dream if leaning out, but they are much softer and more flexible so that's why, not to mention the tires are much grippier and will fight much more if the kart stays "flat".
I never leaned in any direction; I just assumed that it wouldn't make a difference because the kart is heavy compared to the driver. Now, I learned something 🙂
You lose so much by leaning in. Those who recommend that doesn't know what they are talking about. When leaning out in a kart you lift the inside rear tire off the tarmac and creating more rotational force in the kart making it turning better with less steering input and less input means less drag on the front tires which ultimately means higher exit speed. Your steering position also greatly improves if you are driving with a 8 to 4 hand position. You are fighting the laws of physics when leaning in and trying by fighting what the kart wants to do. I always told out customers that leaning in is like a child walking a great Dane seeing a rabbit and runs off, the dog is walking the boy so to speak but leaning out is hulk walking a chihuahua it's him walking the dog.
Damn I wish I knew this when I still worked at my local karting track. The owner's son always mentioned leaning but never explained the correct way (probably didn't want anyone faster than him)
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0:24 it’s because of INERTIA not gravity*
Thank you to everyone who pointed this out! 😆
What tends to be a better eating position? The seat all the way forward or back or somewhere in the middle? Some local kart guy told me to try to always be as far forward as possible.
The extreme application of the lean out is on wet condition, you really feel the differences… especially on slick tyres !
I use leaning in due to the weight distribution while cornering
I learned that it was a good tecnique to keep the weight inside while taking a corner
I will try this one to see the difference
Hey 👋
Just met you at TeamSport Warrington today, you gave me a card. I was already watching your videos.
Great vids, really enjoy them.
Get to Preston do the electric karts, if you want a race with my boy Jake, give us a shout. he’s the current lap record holder.
Take care 🏎🏆
Great video mate
I’m no professional but usually am one of the fastest on most of the hobby tracks, I never knew about this, I’m going to be even faster now, this is gold!
I’m racing in a few days I’ll try this as well as human DRS
Great video, i learned this from the anime Capeta
Mechanic:
DRS not working, is malfunctioning.
We are in go Kart ☠️
Where is this track? By the way, good explanation! 😉
Makes a ton of sense why leaning out would be faster. It's effectively like how inertia moves the weight of a car to the outside forcing the outside to the ground, increasing traction, and improving cornering speed. Same for why taking kerbs is so effective. You'd think by removing the inside tires from contact to the ground would decrease traction, but you're further moving the weight of the car to the outside tire. For karting, by leaning outwards, you're effectively working as an active weight jacker like what IndyCar uses that drivers adjust to help manage understeer. At especially ovals, as the tires wear out throughout a stint and understeer increases, they'll adjust the weight jacker to be further to the outside to help mitigate the understeer.
Wow, nice! Counter intuitive
Leaning in vs out doesn't matter as much in rental chassis as the chassis tubing is much thicker and stiffer and doesn't flex as well. If anything, leaning out is beneficial solely because it keeps you stable and doesn't strain you fighting the G forces, so your endurance is better and you don't fatigue during longer races. It can, however, be helpful to toss your weight to the outside at corner entry to overcome the tendency for rental karts to understeer as they're setup for lower skilled drivers that would spin out constantly with a CIK kart setup.
The difference is much more pronounced in a proper CIK chassis. It's almost undrivable if leaning in but handles like a dream if leaning out, but they are much softer and more flexible so that's why, not to mention the tires are much grippier and will fight much more if the kart stays "flat".
Cant wait to try
i did not even know this is a thing. thanks for the advice <3
I never leaned in any direction; I just assumed that it wouldn't make a difference because the kart is heavy compared to the driver. Now, I learned something 🙂
Good to know!
I tried leaning in the last couple karting sessions and it literally gained me like 1-2 seconds per lap
Do you not get more traction if you lean back when acelerating?
Used to lean in until I got tired and just gave up naturally leaned out then wondered how I got faster even though I felt off point. Now I know!
Thanks just tried it yesterday and helped me corner faster than everyone else. Did not know this was that effective. Will credit you in my video.
I was driving a prius and tested this out…. The results showed there is in fact no way to make a stock prius faster
kids, go do some downhill mountain biking, you will understand physics better!
Great video, congrats!
You lose so much by leaning in. Those who recommend that doesn't know what they are talking about.
When leaning out in a kart you lift the inside rear tire off the tarmac and creating more rotational force in the kart making it turning better with less steering input and less input means less drag on the front tires which ultimately means higher exit speed. Your steering position also greatly improves if you are driving with a 8 to 4 hand position.
You are fighting the laws of physics when leaning in and trying by fighting what the kart wants to do.
I always told out customers that leaning in is like a child walking a great Dane seeing a rabbit and runs off, the dog is walking the boy so to speak but leaning out is hulk walking a chihuahua it's him walking the dog.
Damn I wish I knew this when I still worked at my local karting track. The owner's son always mentioned leaning but never explained the correct way (probably didn't want anyone faster than him)
Lean out could help in grip on the outside wheels. But it all depends on the track.
I always use human drs at my kart track and it helps
Great tips. Btw the only lean work for me in Grand Turismo is forward "human drs". The other lean wont work.
At my local track there is one corner that is more stable when you lean in
Leaning out means that your butt is on the outside or your head is on the outside?
I aleays thought kart breakes worked on the front wheels. My mind is blown now