To lean or not to lean - That is the question

You may have noticed that some people lean to either the inside or the outside while taking sharp turns in a rental kart. One of the first advise you will get when following any kind of karting training is that leaning towards the corner like you would do when riding a motorcycle is a big no-no. Besides not helping, it is actually counter productive as it may make it more difficult to get round the corner. So advise to beginners and even somewhat experienced drivers is to simply sit straight.

However if you look at some of the PRO (indoor) drivers you'll notice they lean to the outside of the corner. To understand why that can help getting through the corner faster requires understanding how the kart works and how to set it up properly.

First of all, unlike a car a kart has a fixed axle that connects both rear wheels and is connect via a chain to the engine to get the kart moving. No problem in a straight line, but when you take a sharp corner, the inner wheel has a shorter distance to cross than the outer wheel. But since both wheels are on the same axle, they physically can not move at a different speed. So, depending on which wheel has more grip, either the inner wheel or the outer wheel will partly slide over the asphalt. To avoid that, a properly set up kart will actually slightly 'lift' the inner wheel when cornering sharply which results in the outer wheel getting more grip and the kart getting through the corner in the most effective way. If the kart is not setup properly, this results in understeer which can seriously impact your laptime.

Obviously you can not change the setup on a rental kart like you can on your own private kart. So the next best thing is to lean outwards while taking sharp turns in a effort to put more weight on the outer wheel and hopefully getting the inner wheel to lift slightly.

That said, this is a technique to try to shave off the last few tenths or even hundreds of a second of your laptime. Don't expect this to help much unless you already master the technique of taking each corner in the optimal way.