Question about seats

[VMS Motorsports]

   I have a starter saver now too made by Hawk, it cost $40 but saved me $150 starter a few times. I was already used to a hand clutch from running mini-sprints so I figured why not try it  in a legend, now a few guys I run with have them.

Tom #3

You should buy your starters from VMS Motorsports, only $119.95 with free shipping!


...now back to the thread already in progress....

[JGRacing]

Jim, I would never guess that you work in sales.   

[NJRacer510]

Back to your seat question, In all of our cars we use the Kirkey Containment Seat that sells for $699.00 and it is great. They are 20 degree seats which we had mounted a different way than what 600racing offers. We had a lower seat bracket welded to the floor and crossmember under the seat with steel bungs welded in so you thread two bolts through with no need for a nut other other side. Also we had aluminum spacers welded into the back of the seats to use with the stock tabs there with two bolts. We can have our seats in and out in 5 minutes, we have never had any issues with the seats when it comes to room, I am 5'10 and I have plenty of head room and leg room.

You can also make a new steering column to the length you would want to help give me leg room and also CMGMotorsports.com makes aftermarket column brakets so you can weld on at a different angle to help with leg room as well.

Kirkey does not reccomend mounting the seats with the side tabs, they are the ones who told us to do what we did with the lower brackets.  Here are linked to photos of what we did, Zane Zeiner of Zeiner Fabrications was the one who did the work.

http://www.zeinerfabrications.com/images/Fabrications_09_068.jpg
http://www.zeinerfabrications.com/images/Fabrications_09_070.jpg
http://www.zeinerfabrications.com/images/Fabrications_09_072.jpg

Hope this helps

[trmiv]

NJRacer510, thank you that is really helpful!  Kirkey also makes a 10 degree version of that seat (the other one is actually 18 degrees according to their site), so I'm trying to decide between the two.  Thanks for the pictures, those will come in handy.

 BTW, in the instructions for mounting that 68 series seat it mentions that the head support must be tied into the roll cage to function properly.  Did you do that?  If so, how did you do it?

[TomTom]

    Ha Ha, hey VMS Motorsports do you have any 03' GSXR 600 starters. Ever since I got my little starter saver haven't had to buy starters. Plus it must free up some HP seen it doesn't have to spin the starter all the time.

Nice seat set up Jersey what size seat is that, it looks small, my 18" seat is a conventional style one & its tight in there I coudn't imagine having all that shoulder & head supports would fit


You guys have a nice weekend, my computers going in for a tune up, " my charger died" guy said it will be about a week for it to come in ....... Now what can I do all day


Tom #3

[NJRacer510]

TRMIV,

That is one thing we did not do, when we picked up our cars after Zane did that work we asked him about that. He said that isn't necessary with those seats although Kirkey does recommend it. With the speeds we go, he said the seat alone is strong enough. Those extra braces would be a good idea in a bigger car like a sprint car or such. On our older seats we did add those pieces, all we did with that was take 1/8" aluminum and cut out a horseshoe like bracket that would bolt to the seat and just wrap around the posts behind the seat. The left was shorter than the right but it was around those bars which come down on a 45 degree angle on the sedans. Kirkey told us that you do not want it to rigid so with those extra supports they should just float there if anything.

One thing I wish 600Racing would change is the mounting location of how we use the shoulder belts. I have a great idea on how to do but I don't want to spend the time doing it and have them give me ^#%@& about it. With mounting our shoulder belts the way we do it actually pulls you down in the seat which the shoulder belts should only pull you back. According the Simpson the belts should come through at shoulder level then down, not below shoulder level then up and around back down.

Hope this info helps.

Todd #m1
www.team510racing.com

[John_Schwemler]

To respond to NJRacer510 and TRMIV,

My driver has the same seat in his car, he's 6'4".  We modified the side tabs (no rethinking due to your post) and mounted the seat against the floor, same spacer type setup as you NJRacer510.  The difference is we did tie the upper "halo" piece to the frame by welding a piece of 1"x1" tubing across the car, underneath the lower halo rib (where the stickers say "mount here" )   The halo is bolted to the 1x1 in 2 different spots, and the tubing is welded to (I think, I'm away from the car right now) the down tubes (c-pillar tubes).  We also rerouted the shoulder belts differently coming up further than they had been using an existing bar.

Apparenty we should have mounted the halo differently....  using aluminum brackets or something.

[trmiv]

NJRacer510  I agree about the shoulder belt mounting location.  That was one thing that I noticed immediately when we started looking at these cars.  In my modified and late model we moved the mounting location so they were exactly where Schroth recommends.  I've really like to do that in this car as well, because I don't like how the belts mount so far below the shoulders, and I'm not really a fan of wrap-around  mounting either.  Not only does mounting the belts so far down pull you down instead of back, when the belts are as long as they are in these cars they stretch much easier.

John_Schwemler, is your driver using the 18 degree version or the 10 degree version?  I'd love to see how you've got those shoulder belts mounted.

[John_Schwemler]

trimiv,

We have the 18* seat installed.

I'm still not happy w/ having the long belts...  we still have the wrap arounds as well... but I harped on our driver until they were in a more ideal position.  I'll try to get some photos when I get home.

[NJRacer510]

It a size 16, It is listed by Kirkey as their Economy Containment Seat which was selling for $699.00 at the time but I don't know what they go for now. The same seat and mounting brackets are in my brother's car and we are having it done to our spare car before the Dirt Nationals in NC. We also have a '37 Dodge coupe for sale anyone knows somebody looking for a good car. There is an ad our site www.team510racing.com, also it is posted on racingjunk.com, flag2flag.com and centralpalegends.comTodd

[TomTom]

Are you boys talking about that the shoulder harness are too long for the seat hight ? It's a safety issue, the belts will stretch in an impact, I cut a hole on the top panel and routed them threw there so it's in perfect alignment with my shoulders. I was @ the 360 Sprint Car Winternationals @ East Bay Raceway in Tampa FL & watched one of the up & coming young guy lose his life, because of the belts stretching because they were mounted the same way you guys are describing he hit the wall so hard & the belts stretched that his head contacted the front roll bar. " R.I.P Ronald Laney "  




Tom #3