Having lost my garage, two cars and parts for well over $30k to fire, firesafety has become much more important to me than it was before. But i tink its a good thing. And i hope that i can offer some input and different viewpoint to the production of the seats.

Hopefully it doesnt sound like naggin or meddling, because thats not the intention.

I did some googling, and the relevant requirement is:

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 302
This standard specifies burn resistance requirements for materials used in the occupant compartments of motor vehicles

FMVSS302 Flammability of Interior materials_Ecosafene
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/571.302

 

I will pay extra for these seats to have the proper safety features in place. Anyone that has been in an accident or even done a track event can understand and appreciate the importance of safety.

 

"be safe then sorry"

 

This makes no sense. Many flame retardants are also hugely carcinogenic.

 

Hmmm. Are you more likely to get cancer from your seats, or burn to death in a fiery accident??
It's all a trade off.
Since APF says he had to have the cover material custom made from "thread" so it would match the recaro fabric, I'm going to guess it would not be feasible to just get them made with fire retardant material anyways. Then you get into questions of the quality of the fire "retardant". How far do you want to go. How much do you want these things to cost?? Every hair split is another dollar added.

We just need to have SBG do their final assessment and approval and set a price. If the product doesn't meet your needs then don't buy it.

 

Looking into the issue re: retardants may change your mind.

 

All car interior has to meet FMVSS 302 to be legal to sell in the US. This means that there should be possible to source the required materials that are within the fire retardant specs. And there are the same laws in Europe. And neither of those would allow dangerous and health risking substances to be used for this.

But i am just throwing out ideas and viewpoints. In the end SBG ofc has the final say, and ill have to make me my own covers if the price get to high to bie viable

 

That new car smell comes from cancerous volatile organic compounds fuming from all the plastics and foam in your new car. (Health risk)

Let's not forget all those air bags chopping people's head off...

 

A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

 

The first rule of RX-7 Club is you don't talk about RX-7 Club.

 

Sources?
And because a fraction of airbags can malfunction, its better to have all victims be impaled on the steering column?

 

My guess is he was being sarcastic.

The new car smell is comprised of off-gassing plastics and glues. New car smell is toxic, study says: Which cars are worst? - CBS News

But damn if those plastics and glues don't smell good.

 

well its people choice to what they wanna buy with their money, legit seat or replica seat
due to safety and non-safety that the choice they will accept once the problem come to an accident. but "accidently always happens" can just be around the corner

btw..if you guy ever change your mind about going to buy a real legit seats, I have fews pair RZ(3) and Spirit R seats (4)
cheer

 

I mean, obviously we'll do our best. It's a bit of an odd request but I can test a swatch and find out about any fire retardant properties or safety concerns with the material.

But... you guys do realize we sell aircraft grade clean agent halon extinguishers and seat mounts for a reason. You have an FD, I'd be more worried about a fuel pulsation dampener going bad and catching your car on fire than cigarette ash, but the extinguisher would have saved whoevers garage burned to the ground. We carry one in every car.

FD3S: Fire Extinguisher Mount (OEM Seats) - SakeBomb Garage LLC

Halon 1211 Fire Extinguisher (2.5lb) - SakeBomb Garage LLC

 

I don't want to get into a debate about seat design before I get a chance to thoroughly evaluate the end result of the changes that were made, but suffice to say, the OEM seats are not build to a particularly high standard. That said I'm not trying to pitch anything or force a sale... anyone that knows us knows that we do not "push" our products. I believe quality components sell themselves, and I'll do my best to remain impartial in evaluating them. If they're going in my car, I've got to be 100% confident with them. Granted we can't crash test them but I've seen many mounts ripped out of RZ seats, stock Lotus Elise seats, etc. I can tell you that just because they came in an OEM car does not mean they are bullet proof, well designed, or safe for anything more than a low speed crash.

I've imported RZ seats with ripped out/loose mounting points, cracks in the fiberglass surrounding the mounts, etc. I'll happily show you pictures of the Elise seats we have here for prototyping that came from a car that was in an accident, mounts pulled from the fiberglass. The issues is the type of composite inserts used (like a knurled cylinder). This does a poor job of staying in the composite in an impact, and the lay-up schedule, resin quality, materials quality, etc. around them is important as well.

 

Thats all i can ask Not saying that you need to have it fireproof, but if material choises for the covers ever become a discussion, having fire retardents in mind is good

I got one in both my cars as well. Unfortunatley Halon is not legal on this side of the atlantic, so i have to make due with a regular foam version.

 

The topic wasn't "which is better" it's "would a manufacturer install something hazardous". And only a fraction of airbags will ever be deployed in a vehicle. Enough of them have hurt or killed people that it's national news. And, in regards to the news, it may not be saying much since they recently aired a video of a cat chasing a dog.

Cars, in nature, are hazardous.

 

Yes, I was being sarcastic. And yes, the do smell good, lol.

 

Any Updates SBG? I'm ready to try the bad boys out!

 

We have not yet received the seats (still en route), but today we did receive the rails from AGP's manufacturer. Unfortunately they are not up to our standards. We're going to wait for the seats to arrive to evaluate whether we'll do them in house. I spoke with Francis today and mentioned the issues and he asked if we could do the engineering and reproduction of the seat rails here stateside, and offered to have us provide the finished product to him in Australia. At this point I want to wait to see the seats themselves before deciding if it's worth tackling the rails in house.

-Heath

 

Awesome! I appreciate all your hard work to make sure our community doesn't get screwed with a crappy product. I hope the seats will be up to par.

 

Thanks for the update SBG! Great to see you have our backs.

 

Interested as well...I'm following this.

 

Thanks Heath!!!!

 

Updates?