looking to buy a race seat, inputs
 

2nd gen fc, i need a race seat before i can get fitment of the cage for myself...i was leaning towards the sparco pro2000 since i have drove a car with that..i loved it....just wondering if there is anything comparable in comfort/fitment but not as costly... $700+ for a seat is just out of my range.

this being said...fixed position seats only....

What organization? SCCA?

Do the rules require head protection/restraint?

if im not mistaken it will be nasa organized drift events. i would like a seat with head restraint but its not 100% needed

BRIDE Zeta III is very comfortable and light.

i would need to be able to find 2 matching seats eventually...price, color?, anyone used these? how do they compare to the pro2000 sparco

also what is the fia expiration date? not sure it matters a whole bunch in the events i plan to drive but theres no point in paying top price for an expired seat

Save your money, get a kirkey aluminum with a back brace.

this wont be a drag car...it will be setup for a drift car only. saving money isnt the issue being kirkley seats are actually less expensive than say the sparco pro2000

Not sure where the "Drag Car" comment came from, but the Kirkey Intermediate Road Race seat (which I think Gene was referring to) is a good, safe and comfortable seat (I have one in my FC). You will need a back brace, but since you are already spec'ing a cage that should not be an issue.

You said earlier that $700 was "just out of my range", so we were assuming that price was an issue. Is that still the case? The Kirkey is < $450 from Summit Racing.

-b

do you have pics of your seat fitment? i only have heard of them mostly for drag racing seats, i browsed their site and found the 45 series, it just looks like a monster of a seat and i cant find any real feedback or reviews on comfort and stability etc. weight isnt an issue but ultimately comfort is.

$700 isnt really OUT of my range, just if i can get a seat for considerably less it would be great since $400 or so can go to other things...

Yup, that's the one. A friend of mine has one in his race car that I've driven a few times (and I'm buying from him actually) and it's pretty comfortable and doesn't expire. The FIA composite seats have expiration dates... once they expired I think most sanctioning bodies let you use them if you install a back brace, but they aren't designed to have holes drilled in them for the back brace, so it's questionable whether that is even safe... Drilling the composite creates stress risers in the material so the mount might not be strong enough to hold in a crash.

http://www.kirkeyracing.com/index.ph...&code=Series47

thats what i was worried about with the composite seats. i know the local events dont check seat or harness expiration dates so i may be somewhat in the clear. i would really like more feedback on the kirkey brand seat. pro/con etc...

I use Ultrashield road race seat

http://www.ultrashieldrace.com/prod.php?id=49

man the price has gone way up on these seats.

how did you like that style of seat? it looks very similar to the kirkey brand. i have thought about purchasing a bag kit to make my own custom formed seat pad

we do the seat cushion thing, it actually works really well.

seat cushion as in creafoam?

The Kirkey seats are well proven through years of racing in SCCA and NASA. They are solidly built and I have never heard any concerns about the quality of their construction. One of the nice things about them is that you can order them in widths with 1-inch increments, so you can size them for yourself (something you cannot do with many models of composite seats). I'm a big guy, so I have an 18inch seat, which fits fine in an FC.

Ultrashield's are certainly an alternative for an aluminium seat, and I not heard anything bad about them. They seem to have been popular amongst the Spec-Miata crowd.

Composite seats are certainly nice, can have some benefits in the weight department (depending on the construction). However, I do not feel any less safe in my Kirkey and it definitely very comfortable.

-b

we have 4-5 drivers, so we have a different one for each driver.

the "best" ones are just 2 part foam in a garbage bag. mario's got some fancy foam thing with a fabric cover...

i think i might go with the kirkey seat, especially if i can do my own foam for comfort. do you have any information about the seat foam and maybe which brand to purchase?

damn those are cool looking and nice for the price but that might be too much for a car that will be a daily driver

i dont think its a dumb question. if its comfortable enough for DD then it would almost be godly at the track :)

you got a point there. plus it beats paying a bajillion for a seat that has an expiration date. to the people that have them in there car, how big is it?

I had a Kirkey Intermediate Road Race seat in my FC. The nice thing about FIA seats can be that some don't require a seat back brace to comply with safety rules. But if you don't mind having the brace, bang for buck the Kirkey is hard to beat.

Comfortable enough to daily, well.. that's a stretch. I could do it if it was a sunshine fun car I drove a few days a week... But a true daily driver seat? I don't think it's any worse than any other race seat, so if you could deal with it in a sparco seat, I think you could do it in the kirkey too. But not me, my back would be toast :)

PaulC

I have a kirkey intermediate road race seat 15 inch in my race car as well. I love it, using their cushion and it is perfect for me. I tried a bunch of different seats including the sparco line, none of them felt any better to me. Advantages of an FIA seat would be if you have different drivers of varying heights, much easier to reposition frequently without the back brace. Even that can be handled easily enough when you are fabbing the cage and seat mounting if you know you will need to move it. Other than that The extra weight, but you said tht was not your primary concern.

I dunno if this helps, but we have a excelent company over here in NZ that does some of the best seats I have used.

http://www.racetech.co.nz/

The majority of there stuff gets sent overseas and with the way our dollar is, could be a good option for you guys in the states.

I have the 4009 in my race car and its hands down the most cumfy seat and best holding I've ever used. Happily did a 7 hour drive in it a while ago.

only problem with those seats is...they are retarded expensive heh, costs more than my cage alone

Really? I paid $1000nzd for mine so would have thought you guys could get them cheaper then that?

^^^Jesus! 7 grand guy! that cost more then what im doing to my car

with that being said, i think i might us it as a daily. it just looks a bit intimidating at first with all the metal that is exposed but i really like how raw it is.Ii called ultra shield and what i was told that the seats obviously need to be welded or bolted to your rails and/or brackets. With that being said he also mentioned about these seats need to have the back supported as well with a brace to keep it from flexing. Appearantly they aren't FIA regulated either? I really like the rally sport 2010 model from Ultra Shield a lot but for a guy that is 6'2" what size would be great and do any of you guys that have these seats have pictures of it in your car?

i was lookin at the full containment seats with head restraint. ive decided 100% that i dont want head restraint, i know i will be turning my head alot in the car. now if i want to go metal or composite :) i think i will even take a 2nd hand seat if anyone has one...if its expired thats ok aslong as the price is right

well if you're drifting that is okay but iwant to do a little bit of everything but manily road racing.

Gregory, do you want to know if it will fit easily? depends on how tall your upper body is. Me, I had to cut the rear seat mounts off the floor pan, and bolt it to the floor. Seat was mounted at a angle so I could get enough headroom clearance for my helmet.

Not FIA regulated, nope. SCCA/NASA doesn't require FIA legality, but they do mandate a seatback brace that isn't FIA and under 5 years old (I think the wording is installed in the car as the seat manufacturer specifies, so if the manufacturer says a seat brace, you gotta put it on) Not needing the brace sure does simply mounting, but I could never find a seat big enough that was FIA.

Attached a pic, not a great view, but best I can do.

luckily for me scca/nasa dont apply. the local rules aparently are that you have a full cage with side bars for side impact if you run tandem, and that you have seat belts pretty relax rules...so ive decided to buy a new harness and go with a used seat or possibly a kirkey alum seat new. no helmet restraint since i will be moving my head alot. if later down the road formula d rules come into play, i will have to either purchase an fia cert seat or if i go kirkey new i wont have to worry about it. i plan to follow the manufactures directions on seat brace etc..


the seat picture you posted is a kirkey?? which one did you purchase?

Where do you buy the seat braces from and how much $?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Kirke...d27921e79#shId for the seat

http://www.jegs.com/i/Kirkey/570/99204/10002/-1 for the mounts

Seems to me doing tandem drift you're probably more likely than most racers to bump into another car. Don't get a used composite seat, you have no way to know what it's been subjected to and composites are delicate if mistreated.

By helmet restraint you mean a HANS or competitor? Get one, no ifs, ands, or buts.

i bought the intermediate race kirkey seat today :) and i have a hans device already, i will always wear it. now i need to decide on seat foam.

creafoam, 2 part, or the kirkey foam with cover....

cool looks like imma get the same one! get pics of it when you get it and installed. also did this one say anything about a back brace needed to be installed? Also to the guys that have this seat, did you ever have sliders added to the brackets? (if possible)

well with a race type seat..its only effective if its NOT on sliders...sliders can break in crashes. and this seat requires a back brace to be mounted to a roll cage in order to be safe.thats where the composite seats are a win over this style...but lets face it..if you are buying a race seat...chances are you want safety and the stability of the seat itself...and at $250 its kind of hard to beat

You probably already decided. :-) If you didn't order a Kirkey bigger than necessary, you should just use the Kirkey foam/cover because for anything else you probably wanted a touch big seat. Carving your own foam, or using the bead-seat stuff will come out thicker normally.

They're expensive. I'm looking at an RT4009WHR for my TII build and it's $1425. Race shop *really* wants a halo seat... by the time I bought a Kirkey or UltraShield and they reinforced the areas they want to, plus added the Halo the way they want, the cost in parts and labor comes up to the same as buying the RaceTech...

The RaceTech looks cheap compared to the Sparco SPG XL HANS which is a crazy $1899!

i had a feeling that was going to be the case. i was try to look for a seat that would be a nice, functional, low seat position and would fit nicely in a mostly stock interior. that price is amazing though thats why im still looking at these! i still trying to grasp how exactly the back brace is mounted? is it connected to the roll harness bar in a roll cage car how does that work

http://www.petting-zoo.net/photos/Se...IMG_0809-r.jpg
http://www.petting-zoo.net/photos/Se...IMG_0810-r.jpg

Ignore the fact that nobody painted the bigger pad welded to the original back brace pad. :-) And that the belts aren't right. This was just for storing the car at one point.

i see that looks pretty cool. how much did that cost you?

Something like $75 which is about what it would cost to build with a couple of shaft collars, small diameter tubing, clevis and plate, too. :-)

I wish that first link was for the seat. That price is just for the seat cover.

Will NASA require me to have the back brace to use these seats? I do not have a cage--yet.

Oh, and best place to get a cage...

NRG Seats: total crap? For the price and the claimed 12lbs I can't imagine anything too good. However, I was wondering if anyone had ever tried them.

Well they're not going to let you race without a cage :) If you're just doing DE they'll let you run with just the seat, but what are you going to attach your harness to?