Who Steers Least - Wins
If there is a single principle to live by in karting this is it - don't turn the steering
There are many options to combine with your kart driving style that can make your approach to driving unique. Different styles of braking, lines, how you address the steering wheel, how you sit with your posture, leaning, using rotation and all that.
Plenty of ways to approach driving that you can become attached to and refine, in order that you can go out on track and prove your personal method is the best.
But if all that is a bit of a headache to contemplate, and you just want one principle to rule them all - here is a single karting rule you can live by:
Every action in a kart has one purpose; to use less steering angle to get the same result.
Because using less and less steering to get a kart through a corner at pace:
Allows the kart to travel faster through the whole corner.
Preserves the tyres.
Higher corner speed and tyre longevity is an unbeatable equation! If you live by that principle with commitment, I reckon it is more than sufficient to make you the best karter in the world.
Steering angle in a kart means drag, it slows a kart down horrifically. It also destabilises the kart more and more for every degree of steering added, just because the steering geometry on a kart is berserk, and it gets more and more ridiculous the more you turn the steering wheel.
If you like the idea of becoming a practitioner of ‘the way of zero steer’ then this will be how you feel:
Steering with a single degree of extra angle, or for one meter too long in a corner is directly delivering sheer agony to your soul! Seeing flicky turn-ins are going to offend you deeply, and you will also be hitting the gym hard to ensure you have the stamina and power to keep a kart set with minimal steering used (which can be bloody hard at first)
Every karting technique serves the rule of rules - steer less
The ‘why’ of every driving technique I talk about can be answered with the statement: So I can steer less.
When you address every action you take with the goal to use less steering, and that purpose is alive in your mind at every moment whilst driving - you are going to be fast - seriously fast.
Here’s some examples
