How Safe Is Your Race Seat?

A few months ago, I posted my opinion on Race Seat Safety at this forum. It opened up dialogue amongst many people which was exactly what I had hoped for. We at RealRide Racing are strong proponents for mandating stricter race seat requirements amongst racing and driving organizations. Our feeling is that the current seat requirements are insufficient, even within some professional racing organizations.
Our team's engineer spent the past few months researching race seat safety and we have since replaced all the seats in our race cars with Racetech seats. Our decision to go with these seats was partly based on their extensive crash test data. At my last posting, we weren't able to release the footage, nor were we able to discuss what we saw. As the official race seat of every Dodge Viper Competition Coupe, the crash test footage is property of the Daimler Chrysler corporation.
However, Racetech has now released some of the footage for us to show and we feel that it is important that every racer review this for their own knowledge and understanding of what can truly happen in a crash. While a head and neck device can protect you in a head-on or rear impact, a proper race seat is designed to protect you in a side or angular impact. Please don't take just take our word. Watch this video clip and make your own decisions. The clip is available by clicking on: http://images.realride.com/cgi-bin/imageFo...wmv&img=&tt=avi
Or click on the Racetech seat link at the RealRide Gallery. We welcome any thoughts or questions at the RealRide Forum.

Regards,
David
REALRIDE.COM RACING
http://www.RealRide.com

David, which seat are you talking about (9009, 4009,?)

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-Scott Gallimore
-ITC #88 Pulsar

I'm not sure precisely what we should learn from that clip. There are scant references to indicate what we are seeing in terms of seat design. I agree that better seats are needed. The most interesting portion of that video shows a seat with 2 nets installed to prevent movement of the head outside the confines of the seat. I have seen this on several club racer cars including one this past weekend that belongs to an MD involved in Motorsports Medicine.

I am starting to develop my own checklist of important criteria (based on what I have read, talked about with knowledgeable people and can derive). These are in the order most often stated by others.

1. Head and Neck restraint (opinions vary as to which one but there are only 2 I am considering).
2. FIA (or better) seat. Most opinion I have heard is that aluminum with a seat back brace is not the way to go.
3. Nets on either side of the seat to contain your head.
4. Polyester harness system
5. Light weight helmet

I am sure the ordering of those items will generate debate, and I am certainly not sure that is the correct order. But I think it captures the requirements.

Paul Gipson

[This message has been edited by pgipson (edited February 18, 2004).]

A few random thoughts:

- Dave is more familiar than I am with the Racetech seats, but everything I have heard about them is very positive.

- I met a driver recently who took the racetech seat out of his Viper because "it's too heavy."

- I believe pgipson has a very good list. From a practical standpoint, the ranking of 1, 3, 2, 4, 5 may be preferred only because the side nets are inexpensive and easy to install--unlike a seat.

BTW, Racetech is our seat of choice for lateral impact tests.

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Gregg Baker, P.E.
Isaac, LLC
http://www.isaacdirect.com

DING, DING, DING, DING!!!!!

That's the seat I mentioned in late 2002.

Couple comments:

FIA testing - 15g, Racetech - 45g (agreed public number from Chrysler testing)

Racetech shoulder supports tested to 2000 pounds, head to 600.

ONLY seat I know TESTED to any kind of high g. Joie of Seating and Butler have similar looking seats but to my knowledge have only been real world tested.

Viper seat is 9.9kg, made from fiberglass/kevlar. They have a carbon/kevlar version that's 4.9kg.

Features rear seat mounts.

The hurt: $1800 - $1900 in fiberglass, double or more in carbon.


(And yes, you should see ALL the video they have. Yes, it's just video, but the data is confidential.)

OK so in price order which seat is safest, $1800+ for a seat is out of my budget, not that I want to scrimp on safety, I know I am worth at least a couple of bucks more then $1800, but I want to race and stay within my means to do so. I am looking for a new seat for an ITB car.

thanks