Mounting FIA Approved Racing Seats

#1

Going through the motions of trying to find the right seat for me. I’m wondering how I should be mounting the seats to the car.

I’m of the mindset that everything should be FIA approved for safety reasons. I just don’t want to take any more chances than I have to. So I am looking at FIA seats, with FIA side mounted brackets, but I have yet figured out how these brackets will mount to the floor. I’m guessing there will have to be some sort of aluminum or steel angle used to mount the brackets. Is that FIA approved? Or are they going to bolt into the E30 holes? From what I’ve read the seat wouldn’t be high enough.

I took a look at the VAC mounts. They are nice and expensive, but not FIA approved. I’ve seen the Sparco sliders and they are FIA approved, but do they fit an E30 without modification?

What is everyone else doing?

How do you complete the FIA approved seat mounting?

#2

I used FIA approved Cobra seats with the Cobra side mounts on Sparco sliders attached to VAC mounts. I can’t imagine there are too many mounts that are FIA approved and making something yourself probably wouldn’t get FIA approval either.

#3

I dare say there’s enough room in these cars to mount any FIA seat. I gave my cage builder my seat, mount and slider and they fabricated and welded in a base. Yes, technically it is not FIA approved. Neither is the floor pan of an E30 for that matter. :laugh:

There’s no substitute for sitting in the seat. If you can catch a nearby race and sit in a bunch of E30s, you will find something you like.

Steve D.

#4

So it sounds like mount it whichever way works and hope for the best, eh? I was hoping there would be a more elegant solution. Maybe someone will produce something specific for the E30’s? I won’t hold my breath for development work to begin on such an old platform…but I could dream.

Those VAC mounts are very nice but at close to $300 a set, I dunno.

Any other suggestions people?

#5

a. Remove everything from inside car
b. Mount seat to brackets
c. Place seat in car, move it around until your comfortable
d. with a marker, mark holes in bracket to floorpan
e. drill holes in floorpan
f. bolt seat brackets to floor with grade 8 bolts and thick 3" square backing plates.
g. drive car, have fun.

#6

On my E30 I used Vac mounts, Racetech side mounts and seat. Originally also had sliders and combined with Vac mounts made me sit up too high for my preference, so dumped the sliders.

I had an RX-7 track car that was bolted through the side mounts and through the floor. I used two pieces of 1/8" thick x 3" wide by 12" long steel strap under the floor pan to reinforce. It worked fine as well but required planning (fore/aft/side to side) so as to not have to drill more than 4 holes through the floor. Frankly it was a PITA to set up it, but once done it was fine and the seat sat low as I like.

The Vac mounts are pretty nice but pricey (I think I only paid $180, and they are currently $199). Advantages are they bolt in using the stock seat mounting locations, provide a flat surface to mount the seat and provide a lot of adjustment options. Even though I’m bolting grade 8 into aluminum I have had no issues with galling the threads or having one come loose. I agree with SteveD that it’s ideal to get your seat set up before you take it to your cage builder so he can help with mount ideas and also to put the rear harness bar at the correct orientation needed for the seat and your HANS if you use one.

#7

a bit of a tangent but anyone out there using the seat bracket from crowders customizing (ebay). if so, please advise thoughts.

#8

I do not know of any requirements for the seat mounting brackets. I have always welded mine to the floor or welded them to brackets that were welded to the floor. Bolts with reinforcing plates underneath should also work.
As long as a seat is securely attached to the bracket and the floor as per the CCR I would not fail the mounting plates. If FIA comes up with a new ruling and it gets into the CCR that would be different.
Rich

#9

You may not be able or willing to use fully FIA approved components for your seating system. However, that’s not to say you can’t follow FIA criteria in your efforts to achieve a solution.

FIA requires mounting brackets to be either 3mm steel or 5mm aluminum. I don’t recall welding being mentioned, but I would personally not prefer it for bracket fab. Also there’s some really good information on the Race Tech site(New Zealand)about diameters of plates embedded in the seats and how the bracket should be the same diameter at the mounting point to the seat and what hardware to use.

After much seat testing in different E30s with different seats, I selected a Racetech RT4000W - which looks to be discontinued recently. I ponied up for the RT aluminum brackets for those seats. That turned into a comedy of errors I’ll save for later.

Good luck,

KB

In the long run, I spent a week and a half prototyping my own design that let me sit a little lower and a little more reclined than the RT’s would have. I found you couldn’t recline much further back than what the RT’s provided or your head would be a long way from the head rest and I thought that wouldn’t be too good in the event of a rear impact. I made the brackets out of some 1/8" steel plate I had laying around. Machined them and bent them at work after hours.

The E30 floor pan doesn’t make for a straight forward seat installation. There’s not enough flat surface where you need it. I am currently mounted on top of a set of borrowed VAC mounts - They’re 5mm thick at the bottom were they bolt to the floor, 20mm thick overall. I have some 20mm aluminum scrap from work, so I may knock off some of my own interpretation of the VAC’s. Depends on how time permits. I also considered the route Vic Hall took, but bolting in is so much easier. For me Vic’s method is Plan B(Plan B is always a “Doh!” away). I also thought about having a seat mounting frame incorporated into my cage. That would have made getting the seat like I wanted it a lot harder. Also, there would be one corner of the seat mount frame work(8 pt rule) not secured to the car, and I found that unappealing.

If you can’t use the Stock mounting points, you definitely want to have some 1/8" thick backing plates on the underside of the car. I’m pretty sure seat belts require 4X4 backing plates and would imagine the same for improvised seat bolting.

It’s imperitive that you have the seat and steering wheel installed and your ergonomics in place before you go to the cage builder. That is the only way your cage builder can properly locate the harness bar in the car. If you can’t do this on your own, your cage builder should be able to assist you.