Karts have no differential, meaning the drivers need to lift the inside rear wheel to rotate the kart. They are light enough to manipulate the balance by leaning in karting. Is it a valid technique and does it give any advantages?

Before any leaning and tilting takes place – become a rigid joint between the seat and the steering wheel. Fix your posture, grab the wheel tightly, hold your body firmly, thus more faster and effective you will be!

Wet Conditions

Lean to the outside in karting when there’s little to no grip like, for example, in wet. It helps to shift the balance to the front that lightens the rear to give better rotation around the corners. Leaning outside also makes the outside wheels grab the tarmac better. This, once again, plays into our hands by lightening the rear inside tyre. And shifting the mass to the outside consequently increases the grip levels. Shifting balance may be easier for taller drivers. That is also why they tend to enjoy the wet conditions more. First, they have a bigger torso that sits higher from the ground. Them moving their body distributes more weight on the kart.

Secondly, long upper body allows this weight to shift exactly were they need. That’s why short and heavy drivers won’t benefit much from their additional kilos. And short but light drivers are in most disadvantage due to having all the lead attached to their seats. The dead ballast is unable to move around, placing most weight on the rear axle, whatever the conditions. This generates more understeer and unfavourable balance for wet.

Thirdly, longer guys with longer legs have more mass on the front axle naturally, making the kart more responsive to steering. This helps a lot when trying to get the kart onto or behind kerbs. Also wastes less time and energy trying to turn the kart.

Dry Conditions

Despite a common misconception, leaning to the outside on grippy conditions is not optimal. The trend also reflected in the numbers from KartletiX’s Instagram survey – 59% of people preferred to lean to the outside. It is not wise for a couple of reasons.

Leaning to the outside in karting, as we already talked, lightens the inside of the kart. On grip the forces created by friction between the track and the tyres are so big that shifting your body to the outside will make the inside too light and the outside too heavy. This will lead to planting and sticking the kart to the ground, ruining the exit from the corner. More mass on the outside will cause more friction, as we established, sticking with the kart to the ground. Additionally, it will become physically hard to tame the unstable beast. Therefore, the joy of driving will suffer inevitably.

Best way to approach is with a neutral body position. That is the simplest and doesn’t require specific setup changes based on the driving style. It is fast and consistent, loading the inside and outside axles equally.

Leaning to the inside in karting is a strategy for those who can manage understeer. This generates more understeer because the front will be light and the inside won’t cannot enlighten itself enough. There are driving techniques to help. Firstly, getting used to this and setting up the kart with a looser back and stiffer front. But primarily, turning the kart with brakes helps rotation the most. It’s a difficult technique to learn but is much easier to get used nowadays. Direct drive karting with rear brakes teaches drivers to play around with braking and balance. But it is possible also on 4-wheel-braking karts. I run my brake balance more to the back because my driving style promotes understeer as well. But try to avoid this behaviour in wet. Wet driving requires leaning to the outside.

Balance is the vital aspect of karting. For more insights about weight distribution, driving styles and balance, check out KartletiX PRO.