Looking to shave some weight off my sled. It weighed 3776 w/ me in it and a 1/4 tank of gas and still ran 10.02

Was looking at ditching the factory seats and putting some lightweight seats in there.

I still drive the car on the street but with my LS-1 it's daily driver days are long gone.

Are there any tech requirements for seats when you are in the 9's?

Anyone running the summit seats? Kirkeys?

Looking for feedback on comfort and quality and any other pearls of wisdom you want to share

Marc

 

Kirkey's LOVE them,daily driver with 5 points. Mounted onto my electric base though,comfort is important when you drive 300+ miles to/from track every weekend.

They are very light if mounted with lightweight tracks.

 

jaz seats suck ***. plastic seats with metal screw ins= super unsafe, i have kerkey seats in my camaro, love them to death, stronger, and way lighter. dont go with plastic if you crash, they break and your body will hit stuff=bad move. spend the money on kerkeys you'll love em.

 

How you mount an aftermarket race seat to the floor is up to you but there are a few rules to follow.

If you don't use the factory mount points, the seat must be securly mounted to the floor. Large fender washers although they will work, may not usually pass a tech inspection. The seat should be secured to the frame. Since F-bodys don't have a frame, some other way to secure them should be fabricated. My SFC runs right under the driver seat. I welded pieces of angle iron on each side of the SFC and bolted the seat mount through the angle iron. Another option is to weld plates to the floor similar to how a rollbar is secured and bolt the seat through the plates. The less sheetmetal the seat relies on to hold it in place the better.

All aftermarket seats need to be secured at the rear. This means fabricating a bracket to secure the back of the seat to the roll bar cross tube. I've seen fancy brackets made up that still allow an aftermarket seat to be adjusted. You need to pull a pin at the rear before you can adjust the seat though.

 

If you're a big guy (I'm 6'4), I mounted mine w/ about 1/4" spacers off the floor to the factory rear mounts. I make two small aluminum brackets to attach the front of the seat to the front mounting studs. I'll also tie the back of the seat into the rollcage when I cross that bridge.

I love the Kirkey too! A lot more comfortable than I thought. Several other guys have sat in my car and loved them so much, they ditched their seats (one guy had some fancy Sparcos in his RX7) and are getting Kirkeys.

 

Thanks guys,
I am a little leary of the plastic seats from Summit so I figured I'd see who's used what and how they like them.

I live about 30 minutes from the track and usually take the car to work and then go to the track (about 5 minutes away ).

The only long trips I take are to either my tranny guy which is two hours away or to my dyno shop which is 1 1/2 hours away, most of the time it's 1/2 hour trips / beat runs


Mongose, I'm not exactly a little guy but at 6'1" fit in a tad better than you

What about angle, I was looking at the Summit catalog and they have 10* and 20* angles. What are you running? I guess 10* is best as I can mount it further back before it hits the rollbar?

 

These are the seats I got:
http://www.kirkeyracing.com/41000seat.html

I have the black velour covers.

This is the only pic I have of it too.
http://www.quarter-mile.net/images/T...ewinterior.gif

I was in the process of making a new speedometer cluster and wiring up the car, so disregard the slight mess.

 

I have the black plastic summit seats in my car. I made my own custom brackets from 1/8" angle steel and mounted to the stock floor studs. I also utilized all 6 of the mounting bolts for the seat. The rear of the seat is bolted to the cross bar by a simple bracket with a plate and bolts for support. Its very comfortable to be honest with you. Its also VERY sturdy. Now its not adjustable and I dont drive mine on the street anymore but I have no problems with saftey being in mind. In fact I belive my setup will hold up to just about anything you could throw at it. Combined with my 5pt restraint... well, its comfortable and just as sturdy as any other seat out there. 1 thing I can be sure of, if I end up in a wreck, I will be staying put in my seat.

I will admidt that my custom bracket weighs a few lbs (6-7lbs of steel) but I'd rather have a secure seat than a lightweight bracket that wont pass tech...

 

Be VERY careful using the stock seat mounting points in the 4th Gens. I actually had the two rear ones tear loose from the floor, while still running the stock seat and hardware. Adding "spacers" contributed to the failure.

 

Fred, would that be a problem if the seat back was supported firmly?

Putting some race buckets in this winter.

 

Al, I wouldn't think so. Mine is actually tied in at 3 points...one on the back to the crossbar (made my own), one on the bottom of the seat to the stock rear studs (used fender washers rather than normal 1/4" jobbers) and one on the front of the seat to the front studs (custom aluminum bracing). I am thinking about adding some more support on the studs through the bottom of the seat, but that's not high on the list right now.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I think if you brace the seat to the cross-bar, it would take a little bit of the "play" out of it, and reduce the possibility of damage to the floor/studs. It's the load ( ) in the seat, rocking back and forth that fatigues the thin sheet metal that the floor studs are welded to. Adding a "spacer" simply concentrates the load on the stud area.

I need to figure out what to do. Right now, I have a Corbeau Forza, with F-Body specific "slider" mount, bolted to the stock front studs, and with bolts/fender washers through the double floor sheet metal, where the rear studs used to be. No brace to the cross-bar. Seems to pass "tech" but no one really looks at it. If the car ever runs what its supposed to, and I need to go to a cage, I want to add a brace to the cross-bar, eliminate the "slider" (it isn't "double locking", so it wouldn't pass an NHRA inspection, and it weighs 10#) and add some sort of "frame" under the floor to bolt the seat directly to.

 

If you use the stock floor studs only I could see how it may become a problem with repeated abuse and stress. Fred, I think your right. I assume you added spacers to give yourself a more comfortable angle to sit. But the spacers really spread the load across the entire stud, and probably put too much stress on the top and ended up pulling them out ove time.

I used 2 pices of 1/8" thick x 3/4" angle. one across the front, and one across the rear. Then used the same angle on the seat. One down each side (summit seats) and drilled holes to utilize all mounting bolts. Then I basically sat the seat on top of the 2 pices already anchored to the floor via the stock studs (basically formed a square at this point). Made some spacers and small brackets from 1/4" thick 1" wide flat stock to get the seat comfortable for me... tacked them in place and removed the entire assembly. Unbolted the seat and welded everything up at every place I could. This made for a very sturdy seat actually. But I did this just before I had my bar done and fortunatly planned it this way. The seat back was then fastened to the the cross bar by a 1-1/2" x 4" wide plate that I bolted thru the seat. the plate is connected to the cross bar by a simple bracket. Opposite the bracket is the mount for my belts. This is a very sturdy seat even though its made from molded plastic. Six bolts to the seat, 4 studs to the floor, and 2 bolts to the cross bar. Its not going anywhere....

Fred since your rear studs are gone you may just weld a new plate to the floor just as if you were installing a mount for a bar. Then bolt thru that or just weld some studs to the plate.

Either way I agree that the use of the stock mounting points alone is probably not sufficient. Actually I am supprised it even gets thru tech. I know down here at Atco they do check for that on their regular points days. On street night they usually dont "tech" anyone. Stock mounts inn conjunction with the seat back attached to the cross bar should be fine with any brand seat.

 

At 10.0x you need the seat brackets properly secured. In addition to using a sfc isn't there a minimum distance from the roll bar to the seat back (helmet) area that must be maintained of like 3 or 4 inches?

The Kirkey is a good choice. That is what I have and I like them. The covers are ok too although they will not stand up to much street use.