Okay, now I really have no idea what to do! :)

-ch

Well, all that said, when in doubt get a race seat... but if there's an extenuating crcumstance (like streetability) that is prohibitive, I wouldn't be afraid to cut a small slit in the base of your seat. 'Course I'll take the disclaimer just like Shroth and say that I'm not responsible for the quality of your modification or any injuries or damagies resulting from it :-)

[QUOTE=ptrhahn]I'm not surprised in the least that Shroth wouldn't sanction cutting your seat, because they couldn't control the quality of the modification in such a variety of applications, and want to protect themselves from liability.

I don't see anything indicating that "foam compression" in the base of the seat is a consideration... and it doesn't make sense: Many aftermarket reclining Recaro and Sparco, as well as some factory seats in Porsches and BMW's that HAVE a sub strap hole built in are padded just the same as any other factory seat. Once you cinch down the belts, you've effectively removed much of the foam give anyway. I remember the first time I cinched my belts down w/ the factory seat, and I couldn't reach the steering wheel anymore.


the main difference between those factory race seats and the fd is that all of them that i have seen have a structural fiberglass base and the foam is much thinner.... after looking more closly at the fd seat I would like to semi retract what I have stated in regardes to a 5 point set-up only, if the sub belt is mount straight the the floor in the center....I still hold stong to my objection to a six point, the bottom of the fd seat is in no way strong enough to support the load created by a six point set-up if tested I am fairly certain that bottom of the fd seat would crack and allow for far to much slack in the sub belts for them to be of any use in which case you may aswell have a 4 point. sorry if this is getting to confusing, I am not always the best at explaining myself:)

Yes... a 6 pt. would require a bigger hole. If mounted correctly, you'd only need about a 1/2 x 2" hole for a 5 pt.

I'm so much concerned with the size of the hole as much ast the angle and routing that the subs would have to take... in a hybrid style six point the subs are mounted rearward of where they must comethrough the seat, which means when strained they need be supported to some extent by the seat in the case of the fd seat bottom i don't believe its strong enough in addition even if it didn't outright break it would still flex enough that the sub belts would be useless giving one a false sense of security.

i just realized I my be speaking without the full picture...I have been baseing all of my comment off of a touring seat, is there any structural difference between this and an R2 seat??

So I'm looking at getting a 5 point belt. I want the safest belt that'll attatch to my cage. Are they all about the same as long as they're SFI certified?

I would highly doubt that any given SFI rated harness would be better than any other one with the same rating. G-Force has some of the cheapest SFI harnesses around. Some companies do offer re-webbing services so that it might work out cheaper in the long run despite a higher purchase price.

^^ yes there is little difference between the actual belts safety wise the main differences are style and applications...chances are if you have a failure from any sfi belt its going to be do to poor installation or inproper application (no reflection on your personal skills just a general observation).