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How did you mount your race seat??


wm577

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I would love to see some pictures of how you guys mounted your race seats. Is using the OEM mount location a bad idea? If I weld some bars from the roll cage side door bar to the center console area (to mount the seat to), would that not be considered additional roll cage mounting points?

 

 

thanks,

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  • 2 months later...

I have my seat bolted directly to the floor. But instead of using large washers as backing plates. I cut two straps from sheet metal. Don't remember how thick, but thicker then it needed to be. I used one strap for both front bolts and the other for the two rear bolts. It would have to rip the whole floor pan out to pull through. This is on an old 911. Not sure if this method would work for other cars or not.

 

The rules vary by class, so I don't know if this would be considered legal for your car or not. This is a common method in GT style cars to weld in bars.

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Depending on your seat and the type of car you may be able to buy a seat rack, slider etc., so that everything just bolts together. Sometimes they require a bit of rework, but the idea is that the rack bolts to the OEM mounting points and the seat (and/or slider) then bolts to that.

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any place where something that is welded to the roll cage is welded to the chassis is an attachment point. Using OEM locations is fine. I am running flat bars between mine to attach the seat side mounts to.

cheers,

bruce

 

I would love to see some pictures of how you guys mounted your race seats. Is using the OEM mount location a bad idea? If I weld some bars from the roll cage side door bar to the center console area (to mount the seat to), would that not be considered additional roll cage mounting points?

 

 

thanks,

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Would somthing like this work? I used 2" angle and bolted it to the oem mounts.http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/randyscamaross/detail?.dir=edc5&.dnm=bb34re2.jpg&.src=ph

don't know if this posted right

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  • 4 weeks later...

Personally, I don't trust the OEM seat mounts. They're usually just spot welded on and can fail in racing conditions.

 

So, this is what I did:

 

http://www.nissanperformancemag.com/september05/g20/images/cimg3360.jpg

 

It's welded across from the tunnel to the frame rails with another bar locating it to the cage. Keep in mind this may not be legal for all classes (though it should).

 

More cage pics here:

 

http://www.nissanperformancemag.com/september05/g20/

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if you have the height to spare the setup connecting the rocker to the tunnel is great. flattening the floor and adding/welding flat plate to the floor will work to reinforce the light gauge floor metal also. I don't use sliders or the OEM mount as it is not solid enough for a serious racing accident. My personal car has the drivers floor section removed and a 1/4" flat plate welded from tunnel to rocker. seat mount is then bolted to floor. I needed all the headroom I could get. Make it as solid as possible.

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Yeah, our G20 was tall enough that we didn't need that. If we had it lower, the steering wheel would have been about chin level at the lowest setting...

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hotshtsr20 said:

 

Personally, I don't trust the OEM seat mounts. They're usually just spot welded on and can fail in racing conditions.

 

 

Being my first cage there are a lot of things I would do different now. But

I feel it is safe enough for a track day car for right now. When I get ready to compete I know I will have to address some issues with the cage.

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Yeah, luckily the seat mounting is easy to change, even if the cage is completed.

 

Now, adding front strut tower bars is a different story...

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am curious as to why the rules don't specify that the seat must be mounted to the cage. In other forms of racing (NASCAR) you CAN NOT bolt the seat to the floor. I kinda have to agree with them that it is not safe.

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In a tube-frame car like a NASCAR stock-car there really isn't any place else to attach the seat but to the cage.

 

In a production-based car there are thousands of hours of engineering and testing that go into designing the seat mounts, including crash testing. Why would that not be adequate? Given the relative level of engineering resources behind the automakers and your typical cage designer I don't have a problem using the stock seat mounts.

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I just thought that if the factory mounted a seat there then it would be relativley safe to mount another seat. I used 2" angle welded togther in a frame to mount the seats (no sliders). It feels very solid but you can never know what would happen in a severe impact.

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standard seat mounts are good for DOT crash standards but are not strong enough for a serious racing accident. For a good solid mount it should be attached to the cage structure. this is difficult as the rules for many classes don't allow the extra mounting points to achieve this. strengthening the floor is then the alternative. the tunnel and rocker areas are the strong part of most unibody cars, so attaching to these areas works best.

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  • 2 weeks later...

IN THE FUTURE I WILL ADDRESS THIS AS WELL AS OTHER ISSUES. BUT FOR NOW WOULD IT BE SAFE ENOUGH FOR HPDE? AS THE SPEED AND DRIVING ARE LESS AGRESSIVE THAN IN A REAL RACING ENVIORMENT.

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FWIW, if you buy mounting hardware (i.e., a rack) specific for your car from the seat vendors it'll be made to bolt to the factory seat mounts in most cases. At least that's been my experience with Sparco/Corbeau/Cobra and Fords.

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FWIW, if you buy mounting hardware (i.e., a rack) specific for your car from the seat vendors it'll be made to bolt to the factory seat mounts in most cases. At least that's been my experience with Sparco/Corbeau/Cobra and Fords.

 

you got a sparco seat bracket to bolt right up to a sparco seat?

 

This is what it took for me to get the 79-04 mustang bracket to bolt to an EVO2

 

IMG_7229.jpg

 

and this is what I use now,

 

IMG_9858.jpg

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I added some beams to make my seat more secured. I was fortunate the Focus already had welded beams for the seat… So, I only had to add a couple beams to mount the seat mounting.

 

 

DSCF0114.JPG

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IN THE FUTURE I WILL ADDRESS THIS AS WELL AS OTHER ISSUES. BUT FOR NOW WOULD IT BE SAFE ENOUGH FOR HPDE? AS THE SPEED AND DRIVING ARE LESS AGRESSIVE THAN IN A REAL RACING ENVIORMENT.

 

If you think because you are only hot lapping that you cannot or will not have an accident then it will be fine. Most accidents are not the result of car to car contact(as could happen in race groups), they are mostly driver mistakes that cause the car to go off track and hit things, like walls, embankments, and other cars. this can happen in any group and the speeds attained in HPDE events are as deadly as any achieved in the race groups. Be safe and get all the safety items done to the car before any other modifications. This thread has alot of great suggestions that are very easy to do, but it may take a welder/fabricator to do it well.

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I was just saying that in the first couple hpdes and being the car has never been on the track I will be less agressive. As I get more comfortable I know I will need to address some safety issues.

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finding the limits of the car is not what I would call being agressive. rookie drivers spend more time off track than most agressive experienced drivers. be careful and prepared anything can and does happen

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I agree at this point I just want to get on track and have some fun but be safe about it. the car has metamorphiszed into something different than what I originaly intended, but still want to enjoy it. thanks for the comments.

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the minimum I would do is use a quality FIA seat installed to a reinforced floor(no sliders), window net, and right side "sprint car" net if the full halo seat is not available. steer clear of the lo buck aluminum seats.

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