Kart seats?

[ZRubenson]

What are people's thoughts on using kart seats with an add-on headrest? I did a bit a searching and didn't find anything useful on the forum. The lightweight carbon seat in the FS section looks damn similar to a kart seat, and I was thinking about just buying one off the shelf to save time (which we're desperately lacking). The plan would be to size the seat a bit big and use foam inserts, cut slots for the harness, and bolt it in. Does anyone see any problems with this?

We're damn close to a rolling chassis now... crunch time never seems to end on a two man team...

[ZRubenson]

What are people's thoughts on using kart seats with an add-on headrest? I did a bit a searching and didn't find anything useful on the forum. The lightweight carbon seat in the FS section looks damn similar to a kart seat, and I was thinking about just buying one off the shelf to save time (which we're desperately lacking). The plan would be to size the seat a bit big and use foam inserts, cut slots for the harness, and bolt it in. Does anyone see any problems with this?

We're damn close to a rolling chassis now... crunch time never seems to end on a two man team...

[fade]

A 2 man team?! At the least you need a supportive shell. If your competing in East or West buy the kart seat and get on with it! Many successful teams have used(still?) that method. Don't omit driving practice for a slightly better seat(or any part really).

[Kyle Roggenkamp]

We just bought an off the shelf seat from jegs I think. We are adding a headrest to it like you mentioned. It is really simple, cheap, and effective. In my opinion, people building carbon fiber seats have too much time on their hands. Our seat weighs a few pounds and we spent about 10 minutes ordering it and 10 minutes installing it. we are in the same position you are. We've got a 4 man team, so time is tight for us too.

[Biggy72]

we used a kart seat last year. It weighed 5 lbs or so, and that was without the additional bracing needed to fit it into the car. This year a couple of us made a two piece firewall seat combination. It weighs 5 lbs as well, plus now we have quite a bit more room to stick stuff around the seat, and it's much more comfortable.

With that said kart seats will work, look at Texas A&M. No matter what you do just get the thing done and go test.

[A Richards]

It does take a very long time to make a good moulded carbon fibre seat... We had only had three people last year and while busy with the rest of the car it took me three months to punch out this bad boy. We lay the driver right down so no kart seat would do the job in our case. If a kart seat will work put the bloody thing in an be done with it, more important things to focus on, and surely it will be cheaper as well.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa249/deakinracetechnologies/Picture028.jpg

[GSXR05K]

Yes, we used kart seat, pulled a mold off it, modified the mold...some carbon, kevlar, some core material...

0.91 lbs, last years was 0.93 lbs.

After looking at numerous seats: Recaro, Tillet, Momo, Sparco, and a couple English brands, I was greatly suprised at how many were just fiberglass. Even the "Carbon" ones were only one layer of carbon, with the rest e-glass. Too heavy, even though they met FIA 8855-1999.

[Kyle Roggenkamp]

Ours is plastic, weighs probably 4 or 5 pounds. I'm only going to eat one hamburger the night before; that should make up for the weight savings of cf.