2016, The Year of Safety Gear!

[F.D. Sako]

Hey guys,

I've decided to finally focus on safety this year. So, I'll be taking my car to one of the local race shops to get a custom rollbar welded in, along with the installation of seats and harnesses.

I'm trying to save a few bucks by installing the seats myself. So, I wanted to know what you guys have been using for seat mounts. Are there any bolt-in seat mounts for our cars where fabrication is not necessary?

Can I retain the sliders, at least on the driver side, with racing seats, or should I got with fixed mounts?
Also, what are your thoughts on types of seat mounts; side vs. bottom.

I was interested in the Sparco EVO III seats and Schroth Profi II hans 6pt harnesses from saferacer.com. Do you guys know of any other vendors that may list these items at a little more affordable prices?

Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
-Sarkis

 

[2012-Boss]

You can purchase a vehicle specific seat base from Sparco or Planted for our cars. The bases are very similar with the primary difference being the Planted mounts are drilled for multiple manufacturer's side mounts to include Sparco.

Competition seats are only available for use with side mounts. Sparco side mounts will bolt to their sliders which in turn will bolt to the seat base. None of their bottom mount seats are FIA certified.

I would not recommend the Sparco Heavy duty aluminum seat mounts if you want to use a slider. They are not offset and you may have trouble mounting the seat low enough using the slider.

Call me tomorrow and we can talk about this some more. Shoot me a PM if you no longer have my number.

I am currently installing seats in my car. If you want to stop by the house and take a look this weekend I'll be available.

Steve

 

[2012-Boss]

I forgot to mention I got my harnesses from Pete at Track Day Solutions a couple of years ago. If you buy Schroth belts they come from HMS no mater where you place the order.

I bought my seats from OG Racing. Check their sales and clearance items.

 

[VoodooBoss]

Good call on a roll bar, harnesses and Hans. I originally installed a harness bar to use with a Hans and it was immediately clear to me that was not safe and I only ran that a couple of times before installing a roll bar. Good luck with your transformation. I see this in your future. 8)

https://trackmustangsonline.com/index.php?topic=5404.0

 

[F.D. Sako]

Steve, really appreciate the info. I'll shoot you a PM in a minute!

Rick, that's what I'm afraid of!
I know the logical move is to sell the Boss and buy a built race car, but I'm just too attached to the Boss. If I had all the amenities needed to support a race car (e.g. garage, truck) I would've bought one and gotten into racing long time ago. For now, I will have to be satisfied with DEs and eventually TTs - once the safety gear is taken care of.

 

[C7 B8]

I run Sparco Evo IIs in my S197. Borelli handled the install. They scrapped my Sparco side mounts and Corbeau brackets that Vorshlag recommended. They ended up using Planted...simple bolt on. Works fine. Borelli handled mounting my Sparco harness and MM 6-pt bolt-on rollbar.

Check out OG Racing. I've found they have decent prices and some of the blogs on safety is actually pretty good.

 

[WinterSucks]

Steve, really appreciate the info. I'll shoot you a PM in a minute!

Rick, that's what I'm afraid of!
I know the logical move is to sell the Boss and buy a built race car, but I'm just too attached to the Boss. If I had all the amenities needed to support a race car (e.g. garage, truck) I would've bought one and gotten into racing long time ago. For now, I will have to be satisfied with DEs and eventually TTs - once the safety gear is taken care of.

This is the same situation I am in. Too attached, limited space...

 

[cloud9]

Hey guys,

I've decided to finally focus on safety this year. So, I'll be taking my car to one of the local race shops to get a custom rollbar welded in, along with the installation of seats and harnesses.

I'm trying to save a few bucks by installing the seats myself. So, I wanted to know what you guys have been using for seat mounts. Are there any bolt-in seat mounts for our cars where fabrication is not necessary?

Can I retain the sliders, at least on the driver side, with racing seats, or should I got with fixed mounts?
Also, what are your thoughts on types of seat mounts; side vs. bottom.

I was interested in the Sparco EVO III seats and Schroth Profi II hans 6pt harnesses from saferacer.com. Do you guys know of any other vendors that may list these items at a little more affordable prices?

Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
-Sarkis

Great call on adding the safety equipment. I'm not sure if you saw this but you could buy my Sparco Evo seat, base, slider and harnesses and save a lot of money. It's all ready to go. I have the Sparco bendable eyelets for the lap belt so the only thing you would need are a couple eye bolts with fender washers to mount in the floor for the sub-belts.

https://trackmustangsonline.com/index.php?topic=10437.0

 

[F.D. Sako]

Nope, I had not seen your FS post.
Next Friday I'll be going to OG racing to see which seat my big butt fits into. If i remember correctly, the regular EVO was one of the smaller size seats. If i fit into one, I'll be considering your seats!

 

[Greg Obadia]

If your plan is to do some TT's in the future check the rule books, as some organizations do not allow sliders. OG Racing is a great local resource for safety equipment.

 

[F.D. Sako]

thanks for the heads up, because my plan is to do TT sometime this season!

I've already decided to go custom fixed mounts, which will be fabricated by piper motorsports. Currently, my build date is scheduled for April 4th, which is cutting it close to my first event on the 16-17th.

I've started piecing the parts together. Already bought a pair of G-Force, FIA rated, 6-pt harnesses a couple of weeks ago.

Two weeks ago I test fit the OMP WRC-R XL and the Sparco evo II seats at OG. To me, the sparco felt like I was sitting on top of the seat, instead of in it. The OMP had a better "sunken in" feeling, but it was the XL size. This Friday I'll be going back to test for the regular size WRC-R, which I think I'll be settling for. While at OG, I'll also be test fitting hans restraints as well.

I'm getting too excited and anxious!

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

The journey begins

 

[TMSBOSS]

Sarkis

Fixed seats usually lead to removable steering wheels.

Any thoughts?

PS. Watch out for the internet...I can be expensive. LOL

 

[F.D. Sako]

Tracy,

You're not helping ;D the rabbit hole is already too deep!

Ironically, I'd like to keep my deadly Takata airbag, until I can sort out a truck and a trailer :

 

[TMSBOSS]

I hear you.

I tried getting in and out of a race seat at Miller with the wheel in place. Difficult to do with a fixed seat.

Will you be installing the seats for the track and removing for the street?

 

[F.D. Sako]

My plan is to keep the race seats in during track season, and swap to the stock seats during off season.

 

[F.D. Sako]

Yesterday I picked up one of the seats from OG. Unfortunately, they had only one in stock and the rest are on back-order. I'm hoping the seat comes in on time before the car goes off to the shop in a few months. I usually never have good luck with back-ordered items!

 

[Greg Obadia]

I know you are going to drive your car on the street so I wont push a head restraint seat on you. I personally do not like being on track without one. Keep in mind that a Hans in meant to work with a head restraint seat as it is only effective to certain angles. You will need a head restraint device the works not only longitudinally but also laterally like a Hutchens(i think, but check for yourself) device.

 

[F.D. Sako]

I know you are going to drive your car on the street so I wont push a head restraint seat on you. I personally do not like being on track without one. Keep in mind that a Hans in meant to work with a head restraint seat as it is only effective to certain angles. You will need a head restraint device the works not only longitudinally but also laterally like a Hutchens(i think, but check for yourself) device.

Yeah, a halo seat would've been the safest. Because I drive the car on the weekends, a halo seat would've been a little dangerous due to reduced visibility. I know sparco ergo has removable halos, but I did not like the seating position.

I do have an update. The car was dropped off at Piper last week. We got to test fit the driver seat, set the angle and seating position. I couldn't believe how much lower the seat was. It's going to take some time getting used to driving again!

The car should be completed end of next week. In the meantime, I'll update the thread with progress pics as I received them from Piper. Too excited ;D

 

[F.D. Sako]

Received a few updates from Piper 8)

Seat brackets




Rollbar