The new Ribcage body support system comprises of two bold on, rigid yet comfortable pads that give extra upper body lateral support. Traditionally the only way to achieve this was to either use a seat with deepened sides, or to produce a wrap-around seat that curved around the body.
Ribcage panels avoid the damage caused by the hard edge of the seat, particularly if a driver is thrown forward or out of the kart. Also, kart seats are available in many different shapes and sizes but they are not depth or height adjustable, which means that the fit of the seat is nearly always a compromise.
A good tight fit around the chest is essential to help protect the ribs and hipbones from damage and by using Ribcage, you can choose the perfect height, depth and by using the Ribcage Spacer Kit, the width around the rib area is also adjustable. The Ribcage Spacer Kit contains 6 x M8 long seat bolt sets and 18 x 4mm nylon spacer washers.
Ribcage does not alter the properties of the original seat by changing the rigidity and therefore will only have a positive effect on the lap times. Due to their curved shape they restrict entry and therefore are more suitable for clutch driven karts than direct drive. If a seat with rib padding is to be used the use of a 40 mm diameter x 4 mm thick nylon spacer between the seat and Ribcage is recommended. This ensures that the bolts can be tightened sufficiently by crushing the foam completely.Therefore they are best used with uncovered T5, T8, T9, T9.5, T10, T11, T12 and T250. Fully covered T5 and T7 seats can be ordered without side foam to suit the Ribcage, though not on-line.