employing commercial racing seats

[Arturo Mendieta J]

Hey guys

Does any one know about if seat brands like KIRKEY, SPARCO, Tillet, are allowed by judges to use them in FSAE cars? does the seats must be customized? anyone of U employ this seats in your cars?, I was thinking to use a KIRKEY one, but in our team we have pilots from 1.63 m to 1.92 m, and I think we could have problems with the head restraint rule in tech inspection (the tallest driver head is not supported by the seat head restraint).

Thanks

[Arturo Mendieta J]

Hey guys

Does any one know about if seat brands like KIRKEY, SPARCO, Tillet, are allowed by judges to use them in FSAE cars? does the seats must be customized? anyone of U employ this seats in your cars?, I was thinking to use a KIRKEY one, but in our team we have pilots from 1.63 m to 1.92 m, and I think we could have problems with the head restraint rule in tech inspection (the tallest driver head is not supported by the seat head restraint).

Thanks

[jsmooz]

Arturo, we have used a Kirkey seat for the past 2 years without a problem. Of course we did modify the seat to make sure we met the seatbelt requirements at the shoulder. You could always cut the seat and make your own head restraint so all drivers fit, but by then why not make your own seat?

[frenzy]

Hi there,

i'll just try to hijack that topic: I was planning to use a Tillett B3.5 seat in our car ( http://www.tillett.co.uk/html/images/B3.5test_000.jpg ) but i'm not sure if that seat it allowed - in section 3.4.4. of the 08' rules they say, that at least 38mm (1.5") of ethafoam/ensolite must be located on the headrest of the seat - does that mean, that we would have to chop off the headrest part of the tillett seat and make a new one?

[Grant Mahler]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by frenzy:
Hi there,

i'll just try to hijack that topic: I was planning to use a Tillett B3.5 seat in our car (http://fastda.de/cad/sitz.jpg) but i'm not sure if that seat it allowed - in section 3.4.4. of the 08' rules they say, that at least 38mm (1.5") of ethafoam/ensolite must be located on the headrest of the seat - does that mean, that we would have to chop off the headrest part of the tillett seat and make a new one? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Frenzy,

Official rules clarifications should be sent to the rules committee. They are (or have been) unbelievable fast and helpful in clarifying rules.

Any clarifications you get from here are completely unofficial and may steer you wrong.

That being said, you need the required thickness, need to meet the broomstick rule, and the distance from helmet to padding, etc. To me, that would suggest at least modifying the Tillett seat. Personally, I would just start from scratch.

[Wesley]

To me, it seems a commercial seat would be a bit heavy. Sure they're lighter than OEM seats, but not compared to a carbon or fiberglass bucket.

Though the team has discussed a powered adjustable seat. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[K Plush]

Hi, we use a tillet Karting seat in our car and have done for the last couple of years. Our head rest is seperate and is attached to the same bar as the seat belts. Drivers who have driven our cars with and without the seat say they prefer having the seat rather than just foam. The only issue is you need to make sure all your drivers can fit in the seat or you will need to have different seats for different drivers.

Swansea University Formula Student team