seat mounting

[wrankin]

Hey all,

I just picked up a 91 RX-7 track car. While it's not quite legal for ITS yet, the plan is to bring it into line with the GCR over the next year while running HPDEs and Timetrials to get used to the car on track.

The previous owner had installed a Corbeau Clubman on Corbeau sliders. This little seat was not going to fit a man of my, errr... "stature" (6'0", 260). This week I picked up a Kirkey Intermediate 20 degree seat. I wanting to mount it in the car and am wondering the best way to do that. Sitting (squeezing into) the clubman puts my head almost in the roof, so I believe that I need to mount the kirkey directly to the floor.

The car has an auto-power bar in it and due to budget the full cage is not scheduled to go in until the end of the year, so I cannot consult my cage builder (I will when the time comes to have the cage put in).

So does anyone have suggestions as to the best way to mount the seat? Side mount? Bottom mount? Home Depot Race Shop? URLs or references are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-bill

[Eagle7]

I'm not that familiar with the Kirkey, so this may not apply. I'm 6'0" and my seat is directly attached to the floor - 4 bolts through the seat and through the floor. I added a little more layback to give me plenty of headroom. The seat back is rigidly attached to the cage cross tube. My cage keeps the seat a little too far forward for my liking, so make sure your main hoop and cross tube are far enough back to give you the room you want.

Edit: Nascar bars will give you a lot more room. I just finished mounting a passenger seat (OMP) for track days, and had to do minor surgery on it to squeeze it in width-wise.

[C. Ludwig]

Mines bolted directly to the floor pan as well. Needs to be, I'm 6-3. The FC is not known for it's head room.

[benspeed]

I have an '89 RX7 and the front of my seat is mounted to the cross beam on the floor and then with spacers and bolts to the floor. The back is mounted to the cage with a angled piece of steel that bolts to the back of the seat and then ins u-clamped to the cage. It's a LaJoie seat with a halo. The seat is pretty massive and very safe.

That said, when I bought a Kirkey intermediate for my 2004 SPO stock car and mounted that I started to have doubts about how we mount our seats in IT cars. With the stockers you have to mount the seat to the cage via cage bars that run under the seat. That way if the cage moves you move with it and not get pinched or crushed by the cage. My seat is mounted in 10 locations, 4 on the seat, 4 at the crosstube at the back of the seat and two mounts that come off the cage at the headrest. Everyplace said don't mount a stocker seat to the floor.

In an IT car there's no way around it unless you make arrangements to have bars come off your cage when you build the cage or have somebody weld in some crosstubes afterwards. Also, IT cars have smaller cockpits - no head room for a big guy unless you mount to the floor.

Make sure you use aircraft level fasteners or grade 8. Also make sure that the moutning point below the floor has reinforcement or some pretty huge washers so your fasteners can't pull through.

I spent a whole day mounting the seat - pain in the 'arse' pun intended, but I know that it's as safe as can be.

Cheers,

[Eagle7]

I spent a whole day mounting the seat - ...[/b]
Just one??? You're a lot better at this than I am. :happy204: