Normally true, but I just want to note that whatever posture you use can change the kart’s handling, so being a statue in the seat might not be the best solution all the time. Sometimes you’ll have to be pretty active in how you place your body to get the kart to handle differently if you miss the setup a bit or the tire falls off or track conditions change mid-race. I noted in my USPKS blog, that we took weight jacking out of the kart for the one session because I felt like we were transferring too much in the fast corners and oversteering slightly. This made the kart less reactive in the slow stuff, but I was able to use my body more and lean harder in the seat to help counteract that for those corners that needed it.
Although yes, the goal should be to be stable and consistent in the seat and get your shoulders back into seat.
My new seat is a size up from my old one. I fit super super snug in my current seat, but just a little bit looser in the new one? Is that going to be detrimental? Should I sell the seat for the old size?
You can always pad it out if needed in key areas. If your current one is uncomfortably tight, then yes size up.
My new go to for thin amounts of padding to fill out a seat or in my case protect my hip bones that really stick out is advertising sign corrugated plastic. Lightweight, cheap, thin, and easy to trim. Thin memory foams for me never last from getting in and out of the kart if they are taped up or not. This has worked great.
If done right yes. It just gives that extra little bit of give instead of resting against hard fiberglass. Also great over the seat bolts to protect your suit and rib protector if you don’t have low profile ones.
I needed something practicing one day when my hip bones were bruised badly and grabbed some cardboard from a tire box. Worked great so I figured the plastic stuff would be even better
I was thinking kinda similar re the giant rental seats. Some sort of seat insert with the bottom cut out. Sort of an issue if you are fighting weight in a rental kart. The torso stops being a structural part of the kart, for me, since I’m skinny relative to seat.
Just kidding. I wouldn’t say I am leglocking the gas tank, but I try to keep my legs from flopping around. The heel stop helps this. When I sit in a kart, my butt is barely touching the seat. I am up in the seat with my arms and legs pushing myself into the seat with the wheel and heel stop. I once raced half a Pro Tour race with no seat bottom after an off-track excursion.
Yea rentals would be tough to not be sloshing around the whole time. The seats are huge, but in most cases your body positioning isn’t as critical as sprint karts. Plus your body makes up less of the total weight. Still if you can keep yourself in the seat better it should help performance.
Okay I’ve got the measurements and pictures. It’s even more exaggerated than I thought so bare with me. I’ve got 660mm from left front seat to chassis. 670mm from right front seat to chassis. and 278mm from top of seat to axle.
The front of the bottom of the seat sits level with the top of the frame. and the rear is about an inch above the frame.
Holy cow on that seat height. If I understand correctly, the front of your seat is about 30mm too high and the rear is about 60mm too high.
For context, the HIGHEST I ever run my seat as a 5’7" driver is like halfway up the frame rails, so still about 15mm lower than your seat at its lowest point.
Bottom should be level and even with the bottom of the frame rails to start. You can go a bit lower if you’re tall, but then you’ll be scraping the seat on curbs.
Keep in mind we adjust in 5-10mm increments when tuning seat placement… Seat position is the fundamental base all of the kart tuning is based off of. I would really sort that out before jumping to any conclusions on your posture or chassis setup.
Yeah let me re adjust it later tonight. I actually did have it below the frame rails for the first year. Just slightly. But I blew the bottom of the seat out and that kind of scarred me. You can actually see in the picture the repair job I did on the seat. But I will put it back even with the rails and sit in it and give some feedback.
