Advice needed!

"roflcopter" (roflroflroflcopter) 12/10/2013 at 14:36 • Filed to: None

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We have a LeMons car and we have been trying to get a few things squared away before the season opener at Barber Motorsports Park. On this list are gears, head, and driver comfort/data acquisition... the last of which being what I'm stuck on.

I've been doing lots and lots of reading on seats and proper mounting, both per the rules and just from a general safety standpoint. I can't quite wrap my head around what is completely necessary when looking at seats and ways to mount them and what is just something we should keep in mind. Right now we have a Kirkey layback seat that fits one of our drivers perfectly but leaves the rest of us wanting more and that we had to cut, which forces us to use a secondary seatback brace and no adjustable sliders. From my reading, any of the aluminum, true bucket, seats are like this, they are made for one particular size person and don't really work very well if you aren't that size. We have a Corbeau FX1 that we could put in the car, but we'd have to remove the braces we installed to get the Kirkey mounted. As it sits, the Corbeau is too tall and would put the helmet of the driver out the sunroof. The requirements we have for a seat are: Must have built in holes for both shoulder belts and the 5th belt, must be tall enough to go at least halfway up the drivers helmet, must be able to be mounted low enough so that the driver will fit within the confines of the cage, and preferably not have huge bolsters so that we can accomodate more drivers comfortably.

So what say you people of Oppo? Should we continue our search for a 'nice' seat, find another, less restrictive, Kirkey, or something completely different? Also, in my searching I seem to be finding it difficult to find places selling used seats, the usual eBay/craigslist duo is severely lacking in this particular area.

THOMAS5 > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 14:43

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I'm trying to get to drive to Birmingham and see that race (I live in Atlanta) I'd love to come see your car

Brian, The Life of > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 14:43

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If you are using anything that cannot accommodate all the drivers on your team with a quick adjustment a sliding mounting frame, I'm sorry but you are doing it very wrong. One of the keys to success in any wheel to wheel enduro, LeMons included, is quick pits and driver changes. If you have to do anything beyond sliding the adjustable seat between drivers, you're gonna have a bad time. You cannot have anyone in the car or working on it while it is being refueled. MAJOR and embarrassing penalty from a screaming judge if you do this.

roflcopter > Brian, The Life of 12/10/2013 at 14:47

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I completely understand this, and that is precisely why it's high up on the list of things to change before Barber. If you were to put a seat in a car for this kind of thing, what seats would you be looking at? Also, what kind of mounting would you feel is appropriate?(OEM mounts, through the floor with backing plates, cage extension bars with tabs on them)

roflcopter > THOMAS5 12/10/2013 at 14:49

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We will definitely be there and could always use a hand with pit/paddock stuff if you'd like. We have a driver's roster full for this event but will most likely be looking for other drivers towards the end of the season, you're close enough to the Carolina events that I'm sure you could find a ride with us if we go or another team.

Kailand09 > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 14:50

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Not sure but got more pics of the car?

It's a "Porch-uh" > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 14:50

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You'll need to find a seat that fits the biggest driver's ass, then buy different pad sets for each driver size. We run a Sparco Circuit Pro on seat rails and two different seat pads.

Really though, if you have four guys with the same size hips, and one guy who's way too big, he might be relegated to pit duty.

TheLOUDMUSIC- Put it in H! > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 14:52

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GURNEY BUMP ALL THE THING!!!

Brian, The Life of > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 14:53

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All I can offer is the route we took: A Cobra seat with an adjustable (sliding) mounting bracket that was bolted through the floor pan. Our team's drivers varied in both height and girth and the setup accommodated all of us just fine.

Is the issue that an adjustable bracket makes the seat too high regardless of which seat you use?

THOMAS5 > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 14:53

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I could see if I could lend an extra hand in the pits, I'm not that great working on cars (I'll only be 16 in February) but I could try to help out if you need it. I don't think you or any team would want me to drive for the team since I'm so young

roflcopter > Kailand09 12/10/2013 at 14:55

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Here's a public album I have on facebook of the car since we got it, really haven't taken too many pictures...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set…

roflcopter > Brian, The Life of 12/10/2013 at 14:59

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The issue is that we have two bars welded into the space between the front framerail that the stock seat mounts are and the one that runs the width of the car at the bottom of the main hoop and with a sidemounted kirkey we can get it low enough, but with a top mounted Corbeau/Recaro/Cobra/Bride it would seem that we can't get the bottom of the seat low enough. Just doing bolts through the floorpan worked fine? I was under the impression it needed to be more reinforced than that.

roflcopter > It's a "Porch-uh" 12/10/2013 at 14:59

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We have two smaller guys, one decent sized guy, and one larger guy. The biggest constraint on finding another seat or mounting one we have laying around is keeping it low enough, there really isn't much headroom in a foxbody once the cage gets in there.

roflcopter > THOMAS5 12/10/2013 at 15:00

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Ah, well if you make it over there I'm sure plenty of teams will be around that won't mind you lending a hand when things go wrong, or even just watching. It's a really friendly crowd for the most part.

roflcopter > TheLOUDMUSIC- Put it in H! 12/10/2013 at 15:03

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You have no idea how much I'd love to do that, but it would mean modifying the cage to extend into the bump too :(

It's a "Porch-uh" > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 15:27

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Our's is raked back a bit to solve for this.

Kailand09 > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 15:52

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very nice indeed! I like your choice of vehicle too!

roflcopter > It's a "Porch-uh" 12/10/2013 at 16:36

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Our current Kirkey is too, and that's easy to accomplish with a sidemounted seat we can drill our own mounting holes in, but when we are moving to a seat that will use floormounted bracketry is there an easy way to still do it?

It's a "Porch-uh" > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 16:42

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On the Sparco, it's rails on the floor attached to the side mounts attached to the seat.

roflcopter > It's a "Porch-uh" 12/10/2013 at 17:11

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Oh cool, hadn't seen the mounting hardware for one of those in person. Does that mean we could probably drill new holes in the sides to achieve the rake we need?

It's a "Porch-uh" > roflcopter 12/10/2013 at 17:15

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I would hope you just need to drill the side mounts, not the seat. I don't have that option with a fiber seat (the metal mounting bosses are set in).

Here's what the Sparco side mounts look like:

I just drop the back down to the bottom spot and I think our front is at the second highest.