Are Fat Drivers Slower? - Adding weight to your Kart!

We take one of our more consistent drivers, and we add/remove weight from the kart to see just how much it affects your lap times! Join us for some humour and some fun as Mark, Blake, Jarrett and I show you how to do it!
This is the first in a series of videos coming out, we hope you like them! Please leave your thoughts and comments below!
Music in this video:
Desire by Markvard @markvard
On The Road feat. Anja by TFLM & Dave Erpson @theflashmusic
Music provided by Free Music for Vlogs
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[@xfelipelpx]

The problem with that kind of measurement is that it doesn't take into account unpredictability of races, a weak point of the kart is acceleration, the added weight makes a lot of difference. On a clear piste battling against time, momentum just keeps you going. On a race where you need to overtake, some sudden brakes because of other racers, etc. I'm pretty sure weight would make a bigger difference due to lost acceleration...

[@alejandrodelaflor6125]

What affects also to the lap time is the height because of the air resistant mainly because i have that problem and i cant go any faster because of that

[@brentkadler2870]

I'm sure that is part of it. But the Center of Gravity and the dynamics on the chassis also make a difference! Thanks for watching!

[@alejandrodelaflor6125]

@@brentkadler2870 oh yeah for sure but what i see is that air to me makes a lot and my height is 6,7 so you can really see my strugle

[@brentkadler2870]

@@alejandrodelaflor6125 That is tall! I'll bet the ladies love it though!

[@alejandrodelaflor6125]

@@brentkadler2870 hahahaha men that for sure ;)

[@paladdin1500]

nice video! the main factor in here is acceleration and braking. a heavier car will take more time to accelerate and require an earlier braking. The more corners on the track, the more the weight will affect the performance.

[@brentkadler2870]

It changes a many parameters! Even tire pressures and gear ratio need to be adjusted! We didn't have time to test out how much we could mitigate the extra weight with setup changes.

[@Chris-xl6pd]

The only place weight really helps is, low speed traction where you dont have too much lateral G.

[@jiwook3160]

Please help can you tell me kart weight without mark weight and without led weight please help me you know

[@brentkadler2870]

Kart weights approximately 190-200lbs. Add a fat boy like me in there and you’re about 400+lbs overall.

[@fabianweinberger2257]

Awesome video Brent! Kinda calms me down before my first race as I'm gonna have around 177-179kg, while 175 is the minimum weight. So thanks for the peace of mind now :D

[@brentkadler2870]

Yea an extra 3-4 kg (6-8lbs) is only going to make 0.1s at most! more likely 0.05s if you adjust your gearing and setup to account for it. For Qualifying that might suck, but in the race, it's a hill of beans and you can drive through 0.1s easily!

[@spoileddoggproductions2559]

So my take away here is that the weight doesn't affect as much as you might think. The heavy weight affected more, but as you noted Brent, he was struggling with breaking and learning to deal with the weight. I think skill can more then make up for a few pounds difference at the power levels most of us Karters run. Incidentally Brent, we're about 300 miles due south of you, hoping to come visit you all next year @ckrc if the dumb virus stuff moves on. Keep up the great vids!

[@brentkadler2870]

It's not a big variable Only a tenth of a second or so. But if you are in a competitive league, and the difference between first and 5th is two tenths.... well... then a tenth matters!!!! Would love to see you up in alberta next year.

[@cflux1030]

I'm the total opposite of you as I'm 18kg (~40lbs) underweight of the 162kg (~357lbs) minimum class weight. I find it difficult to drive without the 18kgs of ballast on the back as its a lot more difficult to put the power down on a sharp corner as the rear bounces a lot which unsettles the kart and makes it harder to get a clean drive out of the corner

[@brentkadler2870]

Being under weight is ok. Just strap some lead to the seat! haha but 40lbs is quite a bit! Eat some hamburgers!

[@KitKitChanIsaac]

@@brentkadler2870 anyone here who likes hamburgers?

[@DaylightDigital]

Bengio Bumper FTW

[@Chris-xl6pd]

Its all track dependant.

[@sen5908]

Any answers then on this 16 stone 5 ft 8 50 year old, against 11 Stone 5ft 8 18 year old, equally skilled, how slow around the same track would the fat fella be ?

[@brentkadler2870]

I get the first comment on this video!!!

[@mikebruce6037]

Cheater LOL

[@hawkgeoff]

Do you think the diff would be greater or less in LO206?

[@brentkadler2870]

I don't know. I suspect with the lower power to weight ration, it would be more sensitive to extra weight. That would need to be tested!

[@mikebruce6037]

Good content as usual Brent. The track I race at has 43' of elevation change so the added weight prob makes a bigger difference.

[@brentkadler2870]

Holy that's a lot of elevation! I look forward to racing you there sometime soon!

[@mikebruce6037]

@@brentkadler2870down hill into a off camber hairpin and then back up the hill. The track is like a roller coaster.

[@mikebruce6037]

@@brentkadler2870 kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIvXcoKtfrmMnZo

[@brentkadler2870]

@@mikebruce6037 Thats crazy! Is that your track?

[@mikebruce6037]

@@brentkadler2870 yes sir! Thats it. 0.85 miles of hills and off camber turns.

[@kerrykelaher2607]

" normally i agree with you a heavier driver is slower on all circuits " ( however on short tight circuits my " party trick " is to make up the weight difference with a heavy driver to add 4 extra teeth gearing so to pull away from light drivers with a short " flex to muffler to coast through hairpin corners then powerband comes on " gangbusters " because you have 2 extra ratio than the " light guys " you can pass them " halfway down the straight to just make it to the end of the straight ( with short flex exhaust to give top end to get you end of the straight ) australia 1980 granville track worked for me karen condrick 15.8 ( me gave away 10 kilo disabvantage my time 15.7 ) john pizzarro ( 15 times Australian champion time 15.5 ) cheers

[@haui08]

Hey iam from Germany and i will say iam a good Driver but my weight is 125kilo 😂 so my time is Not the best often . But in this Video i See what its like to be a Bit slightlier

[@LeFollon]

How tall the driver is is also important, short driver and tall driver same weight = advantage short driver

[@brentkadler2870]

Yes it definitely is an advantage to be short in karting!!! haha.

[@KitKitChanIsaac]

oh shit gotta hit the gym I'm too fat lol

[@upaiaq]

1:48 did you get Mark to sit on your lap? Is he over 18.Super creepy.

[@elGa_tUrRo]

aight

[@BLITZKRIEG1]

Lighter is not always faster. I'm also underweight for unrestricted masters and I find it hard to put the power down.

[@brentkadler2870]

Yup. I think that having a setup that works with your driving style is very important also. You can mitigate weight with gearing, and setup changes somewhat. Thanks for watching!

[@Chris-xl6pd]

Lighter is always faster, you just need to adapt to being lighter. You are doing something fundamentally wrong if you cant go faster whilst being lighter. The only place where being heavy helps is low speed traction.

[@eugene4643]

Ran in Briggs Masters and weight 135 pounds. Had a ton of weight on it and it sucked ! For what was my final race made sure qualified last for final and pulled all the weight ! WOW what a difference 😁😁. Lack of weight grip lead to a very fun off track excursion. Lost the 6 spots I made up .

[@marknewsonracing6671]

Hmm I look alright with a few extra pounds on 🤰🏻

[@brentkadler2870]

you look wonderful!

[@spoileddoggproductions2559]

Sporting my look. Only bad part is getting on and off.