Just curious… I know seats can definitely be a wear item depending on how low they are mounted. But assuming you haven’t torn apart the bottom and no cracks are forming around the mounting holes, how long would you run a seat for?
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Until it’s broken. 20 char
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What TJ said. Or when I lose the extra kgs. Or opposite 
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I had a seat I ran for three years probably and it was cracked on the side, looked like Swiss cheese, and was filthy but when I swapped in the new seat I noticed basically no difference. Seats are like a pair of well worn in jeans.
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Every year when my kid’s ass won’t fit in the one from last season haha
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Replace when it’s an absolute must.
Number plate and some duct tape got us out once after the bottom came 3/4 way out of seat. My son was actually holding his butt off the ground coming to scales after heat 2 LOL.
No difference in lap time with no bottom, number plate and tape or real bottom.
Glassed it and raced it for another year. Got every penny out of that one 
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When there’s so much carbon fiber in it that the original shape is lost and it’s all lumpy and bumpy. I don’t exactly work in an aerospace fabrication facility.
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When the bottom gets worn through. When it cracks. When there are too many holes from mounting that breaking is inevitable. When ass gets too big. Always have several seats in the arsenal to tune to track as well.
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Do you guys tune with seat on race weekend? Isn’t changing seating position sort of a pain in the butt to do in 1/2 hr between heats?
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You’d be surprised how quickly it can be done, especially with the right tools. More lead on the seat can make it more difficult, but all you need is a flat surface to clamp to the bottom of the frame, and sometimes a tool to support the back of the seat. Sometimes I will pre-fit the seat to multiple positions that I’m likely to use, and that makes for the quickest change of all when trackside.
It’s pretty common at the top level to have varying rigidities of seats to tune with as the track develops throughout the weekend. It can also be dependent on the type of tire, e.g. MG works best with seat A, while Levanto works best with seat B.
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Thanks for the responses guys.
I would have assumed that seats lose their rigidity over time…
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They do, but sometimes you want that. There has been a big move to softer seats lately, with the Tillett VG becoming the base seat for a lot of drivers.
Maybe a standard seat can afford more abuse because it’ll soften a little. Maybe a soft seat will become too squishy if you run it too long. Hard thing to quantify.
Mainly, I haven’t noticed performance drop or tuning issues after a seat gets old. That would be the real indicator for me. If you see the kart not responding to changes as it used to, and you’re sure the chassis is still okay, might look at tossing a new seat in there.
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I can tell you that performance goes straight down the drain when the seat cracks all the way through! People in the pits look at me funny when I lay up the carbon fiber and polyester and point the hairdryer at it.
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