I’ve had vega whites on a yamaha and went faster with a harder tire. Both sets were new. No doubt you can have too much grip

Not really. Kart was just stuck to the track and lost a lot more rpm in the corners. The soft tires had so much grip I could go full throttle through most corners while with the harder tires I could lift and it would still exit faster.

On track with long straights, you might even find a super soft tire gives you so much more rolling resistance on the straights that you go slower.

Definitely have noticed this when switching between MGs and Bridgestones, even in TaG.

Hard for most of us 2-cycle sprint racers to say. Most organizations spec a tire so you don’t have the option to try different compounds.

Testing different compounds would be the only way to tell for sure.

When you’ve exhausted all possible tuning combinations to free the kart up properly on a tire and you still are struggling to get it free, then a harder tire might benefit you.

I would think there would be SOME setup that would free the kart up to make the tires work properly, unless we are talking really low hp stuff. I feel like even in Yamaha you could get the kart rolling nice through the corners on a super soft tire. My note about straight line speed being compromised by the extra rolling resistance of the tire still stands though.

my experience is that you need drive the kart differently with newer/grippyer tires. More grip= more potential rolling speed. also kart setup plays an important roll in this situation. you may have to much grip in the kart when you add grippyer tires try pulling castor out of the kart, harder axle, shorter axle, higher airpressure,  or more positive camber if none of those help try the right foot.

Simple answer is yes but that will be very hard for you to feel. You will likely feel if you have too much Ackerman if the kart turns in very quickly or is darty on entry.

Ackermann is more of a driver preference thing in my experience. It gives a different front end feeling. A driver with quick hands might not like it since it makes the kart really reactive and darty as Gary said.

I own a kart track and it also serves as a mini laboratory for my crazy experiments. In general, you deal with understeer by braking later and getting on the gas later and with oversteer by braking earlier and getting on the gas earlier. Because of this, we have seen karts with worn out rear tires get great lap times because drivers can get on the gas really early and accelerate all the way around turns. Once we put new rear tires on, balance shifted to neutral or understeery and lap times suffered even though overall grip went up. I’m no expert but I would try to increase grip on the front before I would try a less grippy tire on the back.