Been karting about 5 times in my entire life (age 32 now).. normally end up mid-field somewhere so I’m distinctly average I guess.. apart from one time when I managed 2nd place (I think the electric karts were a bit more forgiving/potentially suited my driving style).

Anyhow, there’s one of the lads wins EVERY SINGLE TIME! Each of the 5 times I’ve been he’s been there and won. It’s not as if he’s even a skinny midget either – he’s probably one of the heaviest of all of us and certainly has a few stone on me.

So, question is – what is the most important thing when it comes to technique in a kart? Smooth on the wheel at turn in or just launch it into corners? Avoiding sliding at all costs? no trail-braking? Momentum?! I’m sure this guy has some sort of ground-effect going on due to his weight.

There’s a few of us going to the new track in Newcastle while it’s half price and it’s already getting competitive before we’ve even arrived!

one of the lads wins EVERY SINGLE TIME!

Have you asked him what he’s doing that’s different to you?

Get somebody to video your races from different points on the circuit and go back over them in fine detail. Compare what he does on corner entry, mid-corner, and exit. What lines does he take, where does he brake, turn in, and get onto the throttle, and what is different about how you do those things? Ideally, you’d have video of you following him so you could see where he’s gaining time on you. If he’s passing other drivers, how does he do it? If other drivers are passing you, how do they do it?

Oh I love karting, not done a lot but it’s awesome fun. I’m 17st and only driven the low powered ones on tight circuits so momentum is definitely the key with that challenging combo. But regardless of power to weight ratios whatever steering and throttle inputs allow you to retain speed are good. Yes that’s ambiguous but every situation is different, almost invariably smooth = fast.

Like on a bike you are the heaviest part of the rig so moving yourself about is important to find grip. Line choice is vital of course but I think that comes most easily with experience of each track, kart etc.

Personally I had to work on getting over turning in too early. In my case a later turn-in allowed the space I needed to get the power on and run wide on the exit (no fatty jokes please).

Only been once for a friend’s stag do. It was pretty amusing as there were a lot of guys with fancy cars bragging about their driving skills. My closest friend and I came first and second. Neither of us could drive at the time. I just launched the kart around the course paying scant regard to braking or technique

I’ve always done reasonably well (although I’m relatively light) and I reckon it’s all to do with keeping engine speed up. If you come all the way off the throttle to brake, the little engine struggles to get back up to speed. I generally feather the brakes whilst I still have my accelerator almost fully down. I don’t think the kart owners will thank you but I believe it helps. Also, the little motors haven’t got the heft for a slow in-fast out approach so do your best to maintain corner speed.
If none of this works, some sort of ramming or brake checking combo normally does the trick.

I’ve been a few times to a proper track near us and had a similar thing – the same guys win all the time. With karts as they don’\t have much power and acceleration it’s all about preserving your speed round the bends. That’s about choosing the right line, knowing where to lift off and press on, finding the grip so it is a feel thing. Listed to the engine revs, if you’re going slower than them then they will drop less engine revs by the time they get to the exit of the bend, so that is your marker, listen to your engine revs and try to lose as few as possible through the bends.

That’s the theory anyway. The practice is, as always, the hardest bit.

There are of course sneaky tricks apparently, that those who kart alot will know about. One is to cover up the carburettor on the entrance to the bend, then at the right point uncover it, fuel will have gathered in the carburettor chamber and you get a big whaj of fuel going through at once and a momentary burst of acceleration, which, when deployed at the right time can give you an advantage. However such trickery was strictly prohibited at the events I did. But those pesky Karters are competitive guys with big ego’s so I suspect they know of a few more little tricks of the trade too.

Skillz I think.

Used to work with a larger chap that raced single seaters as a hobby – completely thrashed us karting.

Appeared to be due to taking the ‘correct’ line around the track, correct point to break/accelerate and no skidding.

Couldn’t get close enough to ram 🙂

As above, engine speed is key. If you go in to corners too hot and brake heavily the pick up of the engine is slow, that may be the reason you faired better in the electric karts as they pick up far quicker. Use your practice laps to see which corners you can actually take flat, hang back and use it as practice and not part of the race. If it’s a circuit non of you have driven before it’s also a much more even field. Even one visit previously weights massively in your favour as tbey are usually such short laps.
Basically all about being as smooth as possible.

I seem to do pretty well in karts (at mates/work colleague level…) and am usually a couple of stone heavier than most – far from a driving god to. I’d say be aggressive at the start then smooth once you’re in the lead (or close to it and hope people in front make mistakes), accelerating out of corners early and braking late into them is the only real way to be faster.

It’s all about the smooth, fast as you can without getting out of shape. Some people are just better at it than others – I can never understand why people aren’t the same pace as me, in the same way as I can’t understand how people go quicker!

I used to race them when I was a kid so I’m usually the one lapping everyone 😆 Means I never get invited to karting outings anymore 😥

As others have said above, it’s all about how comfortable you are throwing them round corners with loads of slip angle ie sliding round the corners. This requires little adjustments of the steering and throttle mid corner to really get the grip, but without overcooking it. There is a lot more grip available than you think when the kart is sliding, even with the rock hard tyres they use at the public tracks. The vast majority of people are not used to any sliding while driving whatsoever so they don’t get anywhere near the limit even though they think they are. With limited power you’re trying to conserve any momentum you can.

It’s weight IME

I haven’t been karting for ages and never really enjoyed it, more frustrating than real fun. I’ve never been great at it, top-third or something. I think I was generally a bit “faster” than that but I could never get past the moderately fast karts even if I could catch them quite quickly. In the end I was slightly coasting around behind a slightly slower kart that I just couldn’t get round unless they made a mistake (why, yes, I was one of the heavier competitors 😳 )

I can’t remember ever needing to brake, or even lift off the throttle except to avoid crashes as the things were so underpowered (although this was ages ago I’d assumed the same shitty engines still in use). My skinny mate used to win even from the back of the grid (in fact he’d overtake most of us between the start and first corner, just on acceleration). He didn’t use any tricks to boost his power; just weighed about half of what we all did. One of the lads working at one circuit was saying that he had the lap record for an empty track but couldn’t even always win races with casual punters like us because he was too heavy to accelerate past.

Mind, we once had a big group “race” at an outdoor track near Newark somewhere and my kart got a flat tyre. They gave me a new one and that had a fault too
… so they wheeled out a twin-engined one and made me promise not to smash it up. That was fantastic. So much better acceleration, needing to brake. It had a flattish tyre one side on the back which made the handling weird too – brilliant

TL;DR – to win, Picolax (and a second engine)

Being smooth and maintaining corner speed is the simple answer, try and follow the quick people and look at the lines they take. And maybe lean on other people a bit through corners 😉

Get somebody to video your races from different points on the circuit and go back over them in fine detail

Are you the person that turns up with their own race suit etc then comes last 😆

Maybe if you were racing properly but for karting with mates just go there have fun and enjoy yourself surely.

squeeze the throttle before the lights go and you’ll feel the bite point in the clutch, hold it just biting until the lights change and you’ll get away better. similarly, in bends try to keep revs up above the point at which the clutch disengages or you’ll bog down for a second or two before it re-engages and you get drive.

saying that he had the lap record for an empty track but couldn’t even always win races with casual punters like us because he was too heavy to accelerate past

This ++ I’m 14st & last time I went got the fastest lap of the evening but didn’t get into the top six final race of which only one of the drivers was a similar weight – on an indoor tight and twisty track.

Are you the person that turns up with their own race suit etc then comes last

I used to when I raced karts in my youth. Long time ago, turned out I wasn’t as good as I imagined, didn’t always come last though. Did look snazzy in my race suit, guess that’s a consolation.

for karting with mates just go there have fun and enjoy yourself surely.

Sure, but the OP wants to know why he’s getting his arse handed to him. Impossible to know unless he looks at what he’s doing differently to the champ. He can either get some coaching from someone who knows what they’re talking about or he can try to self-coach, random advice from a mountain biking forum isn’t going to help.

Lean the ‘wrong’ way in the corners (or just don’t lean), it puts as much weight / grip onto the outer wheels as possible, feels weird to begin with but it will give you more grip than expected. It also allows the inner wheel to slip, remember that Karts don’t have a differential so something has to give. Keep your weight back in the seat to get the rear end as grippy as possible too.

I am a Karting god

Only been a couple of times, but on twin-engined outdoor, tyres on an old airstrip type place.
A couple of tight hairpins were where a lot of the time was made up. These things don’t have gears so the same gear has to do 5mph that does 30mph, so maintaining as much momentum as possible really is they key.
That, and be absolutely ruthless (but not dangerous). If you want the corner line then take it, the other person will blink first if you believe they will.
Last time I had a faulty kart with only one engine working for qualy and had to start at the back of the field. I managed to make it up to 2nd of our group. I don’t count regulars who turn up with their own suits and helmets as part of our race, they just happen to be on the same track as us, flying past while I hopelessly try to keep up for half a lap before they disappear!

Don’t race every race. Be prepared to sacrifice a couple in order to get a bit of clear track so you can practice without the red mist descending.

Let a faster person lap you and follow them for a bit.

Watch for your competitors week spots – where they’re braking early or taking a wrong line. Learn to exploit those.

If you’re behind a slightly slower driver, give them a wee bit of space so you can build up enough momentum for an overtake.

Lean the ‘wrong’ way in the corners

This and bring smooth.

Although sometimes some late aggressive braking to steal someone’s line/momentum is fair game.

And don’t leave you door open.

I hadn’t been for year until recently, the boss was being all competitive for weeks before so obviously we all wanted to beat him.

It seemed to me that the best way was to be super boring and smooth when you had space and ruthlessly aggressive if you had to pass someone, you could spend 3 laps trying to pass someone by carrying speed through the bends, or just put in a block pass that would make Senna blush, lose a bit of time for that lap and then (hopefully) bugger off into the distance doing the smooth boring thing.

I like sliding too much though 🙂

Because carts have a fixed rear axle, and no LSD, the steering actively lifts the inside rear wheel off the track. Leaning into the corner fights against this action so you need to lean out to maximise grip on the outer rear wheel.

Drifting is fun, but not fast.

smoothness will keep momentum up, with so little power it’s not always best to go for the inside line when trying to pass on a bend. If the course is tight overtakes should be started on the corner before so that you can box out the opposition exiting the next corner again keeping your momentum whilst they lose theirs.
Used to be able to cover the air intake on old karts going into a bend so you could make the fuel mix richer to help accelerate out of it. Not sure if this is possible anymore with the Honda GX engines they use in most karts now.
Keeping heat in the tyres is hard if you’ve a mixed group so when the flags come out because someone has crashed try to use all the track width with tight turns back and forth to stop you losing too much heat.

i’m distinctly average in a kart so I concentrate on having fun drifting and running my ultra-competitive mates into the tyres when I get the chance…

The thing is with the indoor karts, they weigh so much, have plastic tyres and little power so are completely different machines to what ‘proper’ karts are like.

Smoothness is the key. Use the whole track and make sure your corner entry speed is right so your not still trying to slow down halfway through the bend. You need to keep your momentum up as much as possible. Nearly all indoor karts have a device on the pedal cables to prevent you pressing both the accelerator and brake at the same time, so trail braking isn’t really possible.

To be honest, as someone mentioned you shouldn’t really need to use the brakes at all with indoor karting, mostly just letting off for the tighter bends does it.

One thing I personally like to do is use one of the seat inserts to make the seat tighter. The seats are usually massive and its much better to be held in properly.

And if you really want to be competitive, get down there the day before and do some practice laps! 😆

Try and save some red shells for near the end of the race, if possible.

OK so this is something I actually seem to be good at! Every time I go karting I’m usually in the top 2 or 3. The key things in my mind seem to be:
– the racing line is super important.
– getting the back end out whilst you might think it looks/feels cool saps speed like nothing else and with karts not being geared its basically like being on your bike and trying to accelerate in a high gear – not good.
– when you do need to brake, get on them as late as possible.

Other than that I think its all about being consistantly smooth. Basically building up a knowledge of the track as quick as possible and sticking to the racing line as much as you can. If you get stuck behind someone, ignore the racing line and do them on the inside of a corner by diving in there and sticking to the inside on the way out (basically get in their way).

Ok so I am better than you Davey – I am usually first or on very rare occasions, 2nd 😛 (the last time I was 2nd it was because I was taken out by the guy behind me going in *WAY* too quickly into a corner on the final lap. The less said about my reaction afterwards the better LOL.

I don’t think I have any more to add to any of the above but what I find helps me is to believe in the fact karts can go much quicker than you believe they will so push harder earlier and continue to try to find the limits of the kart.

On faster long corners *DO NOT* lift off the gas at all, keep the inside line and use all the space you can to get into position for the next corner.

Try to relax as much as possible and take time to breathe, focus, move hand positions, flex fingers etc especially on long straights.

Continue to be aware of people around you and protect yourself going into corners if there is someone close behind (ie, take a defensive line).

Ohh, and I find that the people that have the outright quickest laps generally don’t win as they push too hard for too long and make mistakes – I don’t make big mistakes so don’t end up in the tyres. Although I usually win, I never get the fastest lap of the day. (This has never been proven amongst regular racers, this is against others like me that do it occasionally).

It’s all about the aero. Skinsuit on, head on the floor between legs on the straight, knees and elbows in, guess braking point*

*I have never won a race in my life. Much prefer going sideways.

There are of course sneaky tricks apparently, that those who kart alot will know about. One is to cover up the carburettor on the entrance to the bend, then at the right point uncover it, fuel will have gathered in the carburettor chamber and you get a big whaj of fuel going through at once and a momentary burst of acceleration

Wait….wasn’t this what happened in Mario Kart on the SNES?
🙂

If you are happy that you have the basics covered such as no skidding or drifting, being on the racing line, getting you braking points right and accelarating early out of corners then this works:

Lean the ‘wrong’ way in the corners (or just don’t lean), it puts as much weight / grip onto the outer wheels as possible, feels weird to begin with but it will give you more grip than expected. It also allows the inner wheel to slip, remember that Karts don’t have a differential so something has to give. Keep your weight back in the seat to get the rear end as grippy as possible too.

A guy heavier and quicker then me mentioned it and it works. My other tip is get low, slam that seat all the way back and if there are half long straights, aero tuck yourself with the helmet behind the steering wheel. There’s a track in Cornwal at St Eval with two really long straights and the aero tuck helped me put time into my mates.

giantalkali – Member
I am a Karting god

🙄

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ7ed_ODHNk[/video]

i know nothing about karting but i do know good comedy and watching Martin Freeman’s reactions in that Office clip have me proper giggling.

councilof1 –

Kart technique? I’m a Kart afficionado as the poise and balance achieved through correct use of leaning styles is sublime, and yes it’s a technique that takes time to learn but their use when making a hooning a bend cannot be ignored.

Well you’ve certainly come to the right place fro driving gods.

giantalkali – Member
Kart technique? I’m a Kart afficionado…

In your own head perhaps! 🙄

Thanks for he replies all!

Lol @ “getting my arse handed to me” 😆

I’ve never heard of the lean toward the outside of the bend. I’ll have to remember that tomo. I think I probably do brake too much as well.. I’m going to try and find the limit much earlier in the practice session tomorrow and really try hard not too lift off in the faster bends!

Turns out the half price offer is just two time attack style sessions.. so no racing tekkers required. I’m gonna focus on creating space on track for myself as noted above and try to get dialled in as early as poss.

Just tell yourself you’re Stirling Hamilmacher and you’re sorted.

Finger shoot yourself in the mirror to complete the affirmation…

Having Googled “tekkers” I now understand (erm, bro). I think I’m becoming Davis Mitchell.

Turns out the half price offer is just two time attack style sessions.. so no racing tekkers required. I’m gonna focus on creating space on track for myself as noted above and try to get dialled in as early as poss.

That’s loser speak – it’s always a race.