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General Chassis Theory

What makes a kart fast?

Racing, in the end, is all about completing a lap faster than your competitors.  In this pursuit, there are three general areas of improvement available to optimize a racers performance -- horsepower, chassis tuning, and driver ability.  When shopping for new street cars, it becomes obvious that the automotive industry primarily makes cars faster by adding horsepower.  While this works great for being quickest off of a stop light, it is an area that has effectively been taken out of racers hands by stringent engine rules.  Once you have a competitive engine package, the guy beside you has very similar horsepower to yours.  The chassis tuning rules are much less stringent than engine rules.  This allows chassis tuning to be a very large opportunity to optimize an advantage over the competition.  We'll save the driver instruction for the Driver Academy.

One critical issue on any racecar is weight distribution, or put more simply, how much weight each tire supports.  When the car is steady, the weight is mostly equal between all four tires.  With any change in speed or direction, weight is transferred.  When accelerating - weight moves to the rear, under braking - weight moves toward the front, and in a corner weight is moved to the outside.  Chassis tuning is making adjustments to manage how and how much weight is transferred.

Some racers are more familiar with chassis tuning cars than karts.  When tuning a car to handle properly, you are adjusting the suspension to more efficiently manage the transfer of weight in racing situations.  Because cars have suspension, you would like the chassis to have zero flex.  This allows you to adjust the shocks, springs, and anti-sway bars without having an unknown chassis flex affect the handling of the racecar.

Karting has been designed around a far simpler idea.  A kart does not have suspension separate from the chassis.  Every piece of tubing in the kart flexes in some degree to manage the weight transfer.  Some things can be adjusted, like castor, camber, track width, etc., but other parts of the design are integral to the chassis.  Because the kart acts like a very large spring, the material and design play a very large role in how well the kart will perform in any given condition.  Karts designed for different classes and engines are built softer or stiffer to best handle the conditions it will be raced in.  Generally, more horsepower, more speed, or more total weight requires a stiffer chassis.

When determining a chassis that would best fit your needs, the first issue to figure out is what engine and class you'll be racing.  Additionally, factoring in your body weight and size will help to find the kart you'll be fastest on.  If you have questions about what would be best for you, please don't hesitate to call and use our extensive experience in the sport.  This process can seem a bit overwhelming at times, but well informed choices now make race days much more enjoyable.

Next - choosing an engine package