FIA Seat... without back brace?
 

Just curious what folks think of this... my race shop wants to put in a seat such as the Recaro Racer Pro SPG HANS XL and not use a backbrace until the seat ages out of it's FIA certification (5 years). They say the FIA certified seats without the seatback brace are safer because the seat can do its job and absorb some of the energy by bending/deforming rather than transfering all that to the driver.

Thoughts? Anybody have one of these seats, or a Racetech?

personally i like driving with a near rigid seat. i can understand the whole wanting to deform for wrecks but i think i can feel what the car is doing better with it more solid.

Agreed. But I think it's relative. These seats look pretty stiff to start with so I'm not sure how much more feel I'd get from having it anchored up by my shoulders, too. I asked them about the aluminum seats but they said they wouldn't recommend anything but the top of the line aluminum seats because the others were too thin and bent too easily, etc, etc. I've had Kirkeys, UltraShield, and one fibreglass (non-FIA) seat before... what they're recommending is pretty spendy so I'm just curious. If it truly is a bunch safer, then it's worth the added cost, maybe...

If you go without a brace be prepared to need to educate most tech people about the FIA seat. IIRC you have to use the manufacturers mounts to have it meet the requirement, I may be wrong but check into it.

Speaking of FIA stuff, go with the FIA belts when you get them. They'll give you around 5 years instead of the 2 years in SCCA and they only cost about $50 more.

well in nasa they do not require manufacture specific mounting brackets. im a nasa tech official and ive inspected cars with both aluminum seats and fia seat after wrecks and have not seen anything that will lead me away from the kirkey aluminum intermediate with brace that i have in my personal car. its comfy and cost effective but thats just my .02

Yeah. I have TeamTech JetPilot belts right now, and they're recommending replacing them with Schroth Profi II HANS belts.

I think you're right about the mounts because they appear to be FIA certified, too. We'll see what happens when I get to hop in to one of these fancy seats... maybe I'll hate it and save myself some cash. :-)

In my track FD I'm running the Sparco Evo 2 Plus seat with Sparco steel side mounts and Schroth profi II 6H harness. No issues at SCCA Tech.

Cheap Momo FIA seat, custom mounts, no back brace w/ Schroth Profi II-6 HANS belts. When my FIA seat goes out of date in a year or two it's time for a Racetech.

Check with your FIA seat manufacturer. When I bought Racetech 4009 they stated that the you were required to use their side brackets for it to keep their FIA cert.