Talk to me about seats....
Discussion
I'm thinking it would be wise to put a pair of bucket/racing seats in my track only car. The originals are pretty flimsy, the back rest broke on one when some lardy bloke (Not me!) drove it on a track day once!
I already have decent harnesses, but if the seat breaks in an accident they will be of little use.
If I put them on existing runners I'm worried i'll be too high up and hit my head (I've just removed the T&S sunroof because of that problem). The issue with fixed seats is going to be with different height drivers though, the OH drives it sometimes (to get rid of that pent up aggression
) and she's about a foot smaller than me.
Any solutions out there?
I already have decent harnesses, but if the seat breaks in an accident they will be of little use.
If I put them on existing runners I'm worried i'll be too high up and hit my head (I've just removed the T&S sunroof because of that problem). The issue with fixed seats is going to be with different height drivers though, the OH drives it sometimes (to get rid of that pent up aggression
) and she's about a foot smaller than me.Any solutions out there?
You may be surprised at the difference between you & how small they may be.
Women are typically more leg than body & men vice versa, so actual inside leg measurements aren't that far apart.
I have "fixed" seats in my e36 & had to modify the floor to suit due to me being 6ft5 tall so could not fit runners & in spite of 5 people driving the car have never had to move the runners as you sit lower so with it a bit close for me everyone else has been able to reach just fine.
Even if you do, if you are careful with your selection of bolts etc (wing nuts) it is only a 2 minute job to do anyway.
Women are typically more leg than body & men vice versa, so actual inside leg measurements aren't that far apart.
I have "fixed" seats in my e36 & had to modify the floor to suit due to me being 6ft5 tall so could not fit runners & in spite of 5 people driving the car have never had to move the runners as you sit lower so with it a bit close for me everyone else has been able to reach just fine.
Even if you do, if you are careful with your selection of bolts etc (wing nuts) it is only a 2 minute job to do anyway.
Seat adjustment/comfort is the biggest challenge when you've got different "sizes" of driver using the same car on the same day/event. I've recently bought a Mini Cooper S a friend owned & the matching pair of Cobra bucket seats he put in it fit me fine comfort wise, but not MrsC as they weren't so suited to her. When he was buying the seats, I did suggest him getting differing styles of seat from the same manufacturer, but he understandably wanted the seats to match rather than thinking I'd buy the car off him 6 months later!
The seat heights can be changed on some seat makes/installations if you've got the right seats/side mounts by either adjusting the cushion thickness on the lower back/seat base/under the knee locations (if you've got removable cushions fixed in with Velcro such as with the ones in my car where they can do 3/4 different thicknesses) and/or with side mounts which have several different height locations.
I'd suggest a visit to a local Motorsport outlet who have various display seats you can (ideally from several different manufacturers) try for initial comfort & also find an owners forum for your car to see what some of the other owners have put in that you can sit in (including wearing a crash helmet). Some seat manufacturers also do standard & GT width seats although for certain cars the position of the seats against the B post can be the limiting factor on fitting, or the width of the seat between the transmission tunnel/central console & the door etc.
Finally, there's plenty said/written about the cost of buying seats & you should try & buy a seat from a well known manufacturer with a known safety testing certification (rather than one that looks good but costs substantially less from say China). In the event you were to have an accident, you don't want the seat being ripped from the side mounts which can happen with some lower priced seats.
The seat heights can be changed on some seat makes/installations if you've got the right seats/side mounts by either adjusting the cushion thickness on the lower back/seat base/under the knee locations (if you've got removable cushions fixed in with Velcro such as with the ones in my car where they can do 3/4 different thicknesses) and/or with side mounts which have several different height locations.
I'd suggest a visit to a local Motorsport outlet who have various display seats you can (ideally from several different manufacturers) try for initial comfort & also find an owners forum for your car to see what some of the other owners have put in that you can sit in (including wearing a crash helmet). Some seat manufacturers also do standard & GT width seats although for certain cars the position of the seats against the B post can be the limiting factor on fitting, or the width of the seat between the transmission tunnel/central console & the door etc.
Finally, there's plenty said/written about the cost of buying seats & you should try & buy a seat from a well known manufacturer with a known safety testing certification (rather than one that looks good but costs substantially less from say China). In the event you were to have an accident, you don't want the seat being ripped from the side mounts which can happen with some lower priced seats.
Generally you need to homebrew something up, I've had it on a couple of trackcars done like that- http://www.sportseats4u.co.uk/sport-seat-sliding-r...
iguana said:
Generally you need to homebrew something up, I've had it on a couple of trackcars done like that- http://www.sportseats4u.co.uk/sport-seat-sliding-r...
Yes I think you're right there, there is no magical solution I don't know about! I'll do some measuring and research and see what I can get to fit.Gassing Station | Track Days | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff