steve J06

Ordering up seats soon and need to know what size of seat to get for the passenger/ instructor's side. Thanks.

CHJ In Virginia

I am going to make the assumption you are talking about a race containment seat. If it was my car, I would install a 17" wide seat. That is a bit wider than most folks would normally use, but will accommodate almost any size insructor. Make sure you install matching reatraints on both sides.

FruiTay

Recaro Profi SPG XL would be my recommendation. http://thmotorsports.com/i-70599.asp...FQ5qfgod3qAALA

Sparco Evo II or Evo III will fit as well.

steve J06

Correct, race seat. Leaning towards Kirkey. Have read previous posts advising the same seat and harness set ups for both sides but also knew that most folks won't fit into the same 15" seat I'll be getting. so if 17" is big enough that's great, not sure how well an 18" seat would fit based upon my searches.

BrianCunningham

I know COM requires the harness to be of the same type

good question about the actual seat size

NVR2L8

Good question. I would get as wide as will fit. The guys at Kirkey will know. Also important, get a slider if you can.

A passenger can always add inserts (cushions) for a better fit, but they can't make the seats bigger!

I would also make the seats interchangeable, in case you want a larger person (instructor) to put down some laps for you.

CHJ In Virginia

The 17" Kirkey is as large as you can fit in the Vette without removing interior trim. You will be butting up to the central tunnel and against the door and stock seat belt trim. The Kirkey is an aluminum seat and requires additional support in the form of a back brace. Check out IO Port racing for a good reasonably priced support.

Bill Dearborn

A 17 inch Kirkey or Ultrashield seat will accomodate almost anybody but there are some really large butts out there. I had one large rider sit in my 17 inch Ultrashield seat and he pushed the sides of the seat out so far the inside wedged against the tunnel and trapped the lap belt so tightly we couldn't move it. Then it took two people to pull him out of the seat. A 19 probably wouldn't have fit him. Thought he had ruined my seat for a while but once he was pulled out the sides snapped back to where they belonged.

Luckily, most instructors don't weigh that much.

Bill

naschmitz

18" Kirkey Intermediate Road Race seats fit. Barely. Seat back brace with a harness bar is only a few inches long. Shoulder supports leave small marks in the soft black portion at the top of the door card.

2 GTOs

If all else fails, find the smallest instructor.

steve J06

Assuming 6 point harness, proper seat mounts and a back brace, is it possible to have too large of a seat for the passenger side? Is there an increased risk of injury in an oversized seat but with proper restraints, or is it just less snug with just a bit of extra sliding around in the seat bottom for the smaller instructors?

Bill Dearborn

Very Good Question. A person that doesn't fit well into the seat might be more susceptible to injury in case of an incident. I know when I put my Ultrashields in the car I used 17 inch seats on each side. After a couple of years I lost a lot of weight and could easily fit into a 15 inch seat. I slid around in the seat quite a bit and eventually had to go to a foam manufacturing plant and get some very stiff foam to use as filler panels on the back and sides. The foam filler has to meet the same compressability specs as the stiff roll bar padding that you can buy.

The Pros that drive in multi driver cars have molded seat shells that fit into a base seat. The shell is molded to the to the driver's body and is made out of a very firm material that doesn't deform easily under impact forces. Several of the Race Shops that forum members use sell the product so you can make one for yourself.

Bill

Hat_Trick_Hokie

Good point.

I have the seat model and specify "6-point harness" on my car information when registering. Hopefully this note gets to the chief instructor so they can use the information to assign a proper "size" instructor.

steve J06

good idea, I'll use that.

BryanPendleton

Same here. They did well at my first event (with seats) this past weekend at TWS.