Z06_BluByU

Any safety concerns for the street (dual duty) car?

I'm strongly considering upgrading the seats and belts in the Z06 to something that holds better than the stock bolsters with 5 point harnesses.. I would add the necessary harness bar for anchoring and would like to retain the stock power seat tracks.. Does SCCA, NASA, SAE, DOT..etc.. or other people have and bulletins on why this int a good idea?!

Compared to my old C4 the seats in the Z06 dont seems as supportive for HPDE or other performance driving and i'l looking for a solution.. no plans to cage the whole car or anything crazy like that..

Thanks!

fatbillybob

dual use is always a difficult compromise. Search for pictures and go to the track to see what others have done. Only with a little experience will you be able to formulate ideas on what is acceptable to you. It is pretty easy to put in non-damaging harness bars, people seem to love sparco evo seats for HPDE and they are plug and play with the associated seat base, 6 pt harness are easier to mount than 5 pt and work better in general. On harnesses pull down shoulders and pull up laps work best for me as well as formula style 6pt subs or scroth hybrid subs to give the most room for the family jewels. Buying your first helmet locally will usually get you a better fit than buying internet unless you are really lucky. We have some great forum support right here who can get you set-up with a typically acceptable set-up with just one phone call and your credit card. The stuff is pretty easy to put in if you have the skill to change your oil.

C66 Racing

That's a tough decision and one that ultimately contributed to my turning my car into a dedicated track car with a cage.

At one point in time I actually did put a Cobra Suzuka FIA approved racing seat on the stock motor mount. Very very tight fit and the mod wasn't exactly a plug and play. The stock motor mount bolt pattern isn't the same as most racing seats. I bought the aluminum side rails that are available for the seat and made it work in the front, but in the back, the stock motor assembly bolts were about an inch narrower than the side rails on the seat. I ended up using a 1/4" piece of bar stock that ran across from the stock bolts and bolted the seat to this bar in a slightly different spot. Used high grade bolts, but this was a compromise at best. Only used it twice on the track.

On the stock mount, the seat inner front edge touched the center console and the upper outer shoulder of the seat was about a 1/4" inside the edge of the car. Additionally, the seat sat very high on the motor mount. As I'm only 5'8" it wasn't too much of an issue, but I think you're going to find it hard to get a racing seat on the motor mount. Not sure how I really managed to make it work.

I was never really comfortable with the harness bar option for the belts and that's what really drove me to a cage.

A few years later when looking for a suitable racing seat for the passenger side, I went with the much simplier Corbeau Forza and the sliding rail mount that they make that specifically fits into the C5 Corvette. That was a plug and play.

Good luck on your decision.

AU N EGL

get special mounts for the race seats. HARDBAR seat mounts on the race seats and swap seats for a track weekend.

Not really a good idea to use the race seats with stock belts for DD.

and race seats dont really fit on the stock seat mounts.

Bill Dearborn

I have my passenger seat on the stock slider but it took some work. We fabricated side mount bars for the front of the seat and ran a bar between the rails so we could bolt the seat bottom in the back. The lap belts are fastened to some special brackets that were welded to the seat rails in the back and the sub belt is welded to a another bracket that runs between the rails. Using the slider makes it easy to get the seat in and out of the car as I can slide it forward to get access to the rear mounting bolts. When in use the slider is all the way back and the seat back is pinned to a plate on the roll bar. A large number of organizations are now requiring the back of a racing seat be fastened to a hard point in the car so it will not break in an accident. This is especially true of aluminum seats as all manufacturers say the proper way to mount them is with the back fastened to the roll bar or cage.

Bill

Z06_BluByU

This si just as much for the street as it is for the track as the stock seats dont do much for me.. And because there is such limited adjust-ability in the steering col I hate to lose what little driver position adjustment they give us.. so having two seats of seats for me is kinda out of the question.. I'd like to have supportave seats but keep the safety items for DOT use.. I've hear that fixed back seats without a roll bar is a no no.. does anyone make aftermarket seats with more support for the street for these cars?

ghoffman

I get this question all the time and the real answer is there is no good compromise. Any really supportive seat that works well at the track is a PINA for daily use and any seat that is nice for daily use does not support you properly at the track. The best solution is to have a full race seat that is easy to swap out in minutes with the OE seat. That is one of the reasons why the Hardbar seat rail system is so popular. With our system, you get the best of both worlds and after you install it the first time, it is a 10-15 minute swap from stock seats to race seats. Please check out the instructions and see if that works for you.
http://hardbarusa.com/uploads/image/...lv1%206(1).pdf

JDIllon

Many answers, and they are all correct, for that person. Many of us have gone with Caravaggio Race seats and a harness bar and 5 or 6 point harnesses. They work quite well for street use and are a great improvement on the track. If you check some of mine or Short Throws treads you will see our installs. The seats are imported leather and the workmanship is beautiful. They look great in the Z and you can have any color and stitching you want. And they fit on the stock frames and all of the electronics work fine, you can even have them with seat heaters if you like. The cost is a little more than a racing seat install but looks and the dual use more than make up for the extra cost. By the time you buy racing seats and brackets you will have $1000.00 to $1300.00 invested per seat, you can buy Caravaggio's for $1300.00 per seat plus shipping and have a great looking install for street and track. Here are some pictures of mine. JD
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Z06_BluByU

aren't those frames from another seat manufacturer?!?! Like Sparco or something and recovered?!? They look GREAT!!!

trackboss

I have hardbar rails that I modified to position the seat exactly where I like it. Attached to them is a 16" kirkey road race deluxe seat. I was planning on using the seat only for the track and swapping in the stock seat for street use, but found the seat comfort to be acceptable on the street. However, I made things much easier by installing a removable steering wheel. It makes getting in/out of the car much easier. If you don't mind losing your airbag this is an option. you can also add a button to operate your horn if you want that as well.

-V

johns68

Whatever you decide to do, be aware: fiberglass or composite shell seats will expire, like harness, and not be accepted by most racing tech once expired ... they'll be fine for hpde and time trials, but not wheel to wheel racing.

Aluminum seats don't expire, but require a backbrace rigidly connecting it to your harness bar.

My own track use, very rarely street driven solution is an Autopower 4 pt rollbar, and Kirkey aluminum road race seats rigidly mounted to floor and bar. Mounting any race seat so it will slide is a pain, and often not secure enough to be safe. And I know I'll catch flak for this, but the sliding, adjustable back braces marketed by several race shops are junk, imho. I use a brace fabricated from aluminum plate that spreads the load across the entire width of the seat, not concentrating it at the center of the seat back like some others.

I know your car is your driver, so you're not concerned with some of my points, but many of us started by tracking our driver, then thought time trials looked like fun, and before you know it we're racing it. NASA tech just told a buddy last month that his Sparco Evos are expired ... kinda pricey for something that needs to be replaced, even if it is only, what, every 5 years?

trackboss

Proper seat back braces should be used on all seats, composite or not. Ignore the FIA rule if you want to be safe. Here's the one I made for my kirkey:



-V

johns68

Nice ... similar to what I've done mounted to the roll bar. But I've been involved lately in safety discussions that stressed composite seats should NOT use backbraces. They are engineered to distribute force without the brace, and the addition of a backbrace creates additional stresses not accounted for ... some tech inspections are failing composite seats mounted with backbraces.

trackboss

Problem is that composite seats flex. In a severe accident, as the car is tumbling around and the driver's body exerts force on the belts and seat, the seat moves around yet the shoulder harnesses are mounted solidly to the roll cage and cannot. That can cause the driver's body to slip off the shoulder harnesses causing injury. If the shoulder harnesses were attached to the seat itself then they could move with the seat and it would be ok. Those inspectors that don't understand really don't know enough about safety. If you ever want to learn more about safety than you ever could possibly remember give curt tucker a call at teamtech. Not only does he make the best harnesses around, but will inform you exactly how to mount them and what should be done to keep you as safe as possible regarding harness installation.

Wicked Weasel

Kirkey Road Race Deluxe Seats with Foam covers, Seat Brace, Hardbar seat rails and Teamtech harnesses is what I did. I also find the Kirkey seats to be comfortable for when I take the car out on the street, but my car is not a DD.

If I wanted to I could easily switch back to the stock seats since I am using different rails.

beerkat

I am with JD on this. Going with the Caravaggio Race seats. They are plug and play for the most part. Yes they are fiberglass but if you are just doing DEs or other driving events that not a problem. I am on the large size and they fit me well. I can not fit in most race seat unless they are the BIG size and then they do not fit in the car easily. They use the stock seat rail, staight bolt on, need no extra hardware.

AU N EGL

arn't the Caravaggio Race seats leather covered Sparkos?

beerkat

I am not familiar with the Sparkos. All I can say is that Caravaggio seat bolts straight on the stock seat rail. There are no other holes drill in the seat bottom to fit any other rail. the driver side seat has a location for the seat function switches that I doubt other seats have. There is no way to use any kind of side mount hardware like some of the race seats use. Maybe Sparkos makes the shell but I believe that is it made for our car.

Z06_BluByU

Mainly I want to be sure whatever setup I get is at LEAST as safe as the stock setup for street use.. this isnt a wheel to wheel race setup.. no roll bar.. nada.. I suppose I would add a harness bar if necessary for the belts..


I've also read someplace that the harness belts arent DOT approved.. Is this true?!?! If so why?!?! Wouldn't they be safer than the 3 point rigs we have now?!?!

Is there a setup that can maintain DOT approval?!

Thanks fort all the comments and knowledge shared already!!

AU N EGL

That is correct and NO there is not a harness setup designed for corvettes that is DOT legal.

Yes a 6-point harness system is safer then the DOT 3 point. But 6-point harness should really only be used in seats designed for the use of Harness systems.