ADVICE FOR IMPROVING A KART'S SET-UP BY MOVING THE SEAT

The seat is an element that plays an important role in balancing weight on the four wheels of a kart. Care must be taken when mounting it, following the step-by-step procedure described by Dr. TKART in the article "Mounting the kart seat in the correct position", but once fastened in the standard position it can be moved back, forward, raised or lowered to improve the setup.
To understand if a seat is mounted correctly, find out about the available models that depend on the driver's height and understand how to improve a kart's set-up by moving it, we asked for help from Aldo Fattore, owner of IMAF Racing Seats, a manufacturer of seats and accessories for karts since 2003.

1 First of all, how can we understand whether the seat position on a kart is correct?

Each chassis manufacturer defines the correct seat installation measurements. The ideal position is defined with track tests and varies according to the type of chassis. Although at first glance the chassis may seem to have the same shape, the hardness of the tubes often changes, so the position of the seat can also vary accordingly by a few centimetres. If you buy a used kart and are not able to recover the seat assembly sheet, you can still do some checks.
A measurement valid as a reference point is the one that goes from the left spindle pin to the central point of the upper edge of the seat back. In particular, the left side spindle pin allows you to have a starting point that is the same for all chassis, unlike other areas, such as the front tube, which may differ depending on the geometry chosen by the manufacturer. The left side gives us a height that takes into account the rotation of the seat to the right to compensate for the shift to the left due to the balance of the engine’s weight. The displacement must be checked taking the fuel tank and the front part of the seat (called the tip) where the legs rest as the reference point. The distance between the fuel tank and the right front tip should be approximately one centimetre greater than the same measurement on the left side.
The flat bottom of the seat must be 3 mm lower than the chassis side fairings. If the kart is used for training, or in any case not for racing, you can keep the bottom of the seat in line with the bottom of the chassis side fairings. This will avoid breaking the bottom in case the kart goes off the track or drives over curbs.