[Anonymous]

Generally if the kart is pushing, you might get a flat-slide kick out mid-corner, or if you have too much front grip on turn-in, you can also get a flat-slide at apex as you overload the outside rear tire. If it’s your driving, you’ll have to adjust a few things.

You’re probably charging the entry to the corner too hard and putting too much wheel into the kart. What I always coach for this situation is to slow your hands down on entry. Aim for the same apex point as you normally would, but slow your turn-in down. This will cause you to turn-in slightly earlier. By doing this, you are loading the kart much more progressively and rolling through the rubber of the track a lot more. When the kart is loaded progressively, it reacts more predictably and less harshly.

You’re probably driving in too hard and too deep, and then forcing the kart to do a lot of turning all at once. This upset the chassis by putting a ton of weight-jacking into it. You want to finesse the kart into the corner more. Roll onto the throttle easier as well.

[Vernon Head]

Wow that’s pretty good stuff. The hard thing about all this is that I feel like I’m driving fast when I feel that slide, but the turn really should be calm in a way.So as a rule of thumb, I should avoid flatsliding at all costs? Sometimes it seems unavoidable.

[Anonymous]

Correct, it FEELS fast because you’re on the throttle hard, but you are sliding meaning you aren’t getting optimum traction and you’re wasting some of the grip available. Remember that the tires always have a finite amount of grip available in them, and if you’re wasting some of that grip going sideways, you’re not using all the possible grip to go forward.

Sometimes it’s tough to keep the kart in line in every corner, since corners vary and grip levels vary. This is where the really, really good drivers make up their time, by adapting constantly and not just applying one technique throughout the track, but attacking each corner as needed to use all the grip most efficiently and carry the most speed through the corner and down the next straight.

I used to think that being super smooth on the wheel was the only way to drive. But in some cases, you need to be a little harsher on the wheel and flick the kart around. Generally, it seems like most drivers fall into the “super smooth” technique or the “aggressive and harsh” technique. Both of these can be fast. But the BEST driving style, where the REALLY fast guys excel and find that extra tenth or two, is by combining a few driving styles over the course of a lap and maybe driving aggressively in one corner and super smooth in another.

I got off on a tangent, but hopefully that covers a few important notes.

[Vernon Head]

I was told once to keep the back end following the front end. That was when I ran sportsman and you could really feel the flat sliding slowing you down. It’s harder to feel that in a 125. The extra power kind of masks it.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah it’s very easy to overdrive and hack up a corner in a kart that has lots of power like a stock moto or TaG. I grew up racing Yamaha and Komet and switched back to Yamaha this year after several years of TaG and realized how choppy I had gotten. The Yamaha requires so much smoother inputs and finesse on the wheel. After some races in that I got back to where I should be and when I jumped into a TaG kart for one race later in the season I was immediately comfortable and confident again.

[Vernon Head]

So just to be clear, always keep in the inside rear unloaded until you set it down with the steering wheel. Correct?

[Anonymous]

The kart should unload the inside rear when you turn in, and then as you approach apex, the kart should be loaded to the point where you can basically straighten the wheel and apply throttle and it should float itself off the corner.

[Vernon Head]

Thanks.

[Author]

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