Track gear for a street car
08-29-2003, 10:08 AM
#1
Race Car
Thread Starter
Track gear for a street car
What are people running as far as seats and cage/roll bar that is still semi-comfortable for street use (including passenger) and adequate for DE's and other track time?
08-29-2003, 10:25 AM
#2
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After a lot of research, I'm running Corbeau CR1 seats, five-point harnesses with BK mounts plus the regular seat belts for the street, and a Redline rollbar. This is in a DE car that I drive to and from the track. It works well for me as a compromise, but for the track, race seats and a full cage are better. It all depends on where you want to be on the street/race spectrum.
08-29-2003, 10:55 AM
#4
Rennlist Member
Recaro SRD seats are a good compromise. They are stiff, have the added shoulder and thigh supports and are cutout for the 5pt harnesses. But they have the moveable seat back (upper seat portion has a similar latch as the factory seats and can be pivoted forward to access the back seats) and can be used with the standard seat belts. Other brands like Sparco have an equivalent/comparable seat.
Full cages are intrusive to getting in and out of the car, because the front bars will come down following the A pillars, pass in front of the dash (from drivers perspective) and down to the door sills. It cuts down on the room for your feet and legs when getting in and out. If you put the door bars on (bar that runs from the rear hoop of the cage to the front bar, attaches at the door sill mounting point on the front bar), it makes it even more difficult to get in and out for daily use.
Roll bars do not hinder ingress/egress but still reduce or eliminate much of the usefullness of the back seat storage area. And in a high speed rollover, a rollbars helps strengthen the passenger compartment, but does not protect the A pillars from collapsing.
If youre putting a cage/bar in for safety on the track, go with the style that bolt to the hard parts of the car, like the door sill and frame rails. These kind require the weld in nut plates. Which unfortunately does do some permanent alterations (although minor) to the interior of your car.
I wouldnt recommend style that bolt through the floor pans, in a real rollover wreck the mounting pads can push through the unstiffened floor pan. With door sill/hard mounting point style, you most likely will have to pull the rear seat back out for either the bar or the cage.
Ive seen a couple 944 series cars (w/o any bar) roll at pretty high speed and come out ok, but Ive also seen a car that could have been catostrophic had it not had a full cage. These were high speed track incidents with speeds over 100mph when they let loose.
You put in a cage to protect yourself from a worst case accident, and usually you cant predict the circumstances or the cause. So what type, if any, you decide to go with kind of depends on your useage, what kind of speeds you see at your local track, what kind of run off or barriers are at that track, and your own level of confidence and security (do you feel safe w/o anything, with just a roll bar...).
For both the seats and bar/cage, look at some local cars at your track and see if any style or type looks better or works better for you. All can be very expensive, so you dont want to end up with something that you dont like, or will want to upgrade again in the near future.
Full cages are intrusive to getting in and out of the car, because the front bars will come down following the A pillars, pass in front of the dash (from drivers perspective) and down to the door sills. It cuts down on the room for your feet and legs when getting in and out. If you put the door bars on (bar that runs from the rear hoop of the cage to the front bar, attaches at the door sill mounting point on the front bar), it makes it even more difficult to get in and out for daily use.
Roll bars do not hinder ingress/egress but still reduce or eliminate much of the usefullness of the back seat storage area. And in a high speed rollover, a rollbars helps strengthen the passenger compartment, but does not protect the A pillars from collapsing.
If youre putting a cage/bar in for safety on the track, go with the style that bolt to the hard parts of the car, like the door sill and frame rails. These kind require the weld in nut plates. Which unfortunately does do some permanent alterations (although minor) to the interior of your car.
I wouldnt recommend style that bolt through the floor pans, in a real rollover wreck the mounting pads can push through the unstiffened floor pan. With door sill/hard mounting point style, you most likely will have to pull the rear seat back out for either the bar or the cage.
Ive seen a couple 944 series cars (w/o any bar) roll at pretty high speed and come out ok, but Ive also seen a car that could have been catostrophic had it not had a full cage. These were high speed track incidents with speeds over 100mph when they let loose.
You put in a cage to protect yourself from a worst case accident, and usually you cant predict the circumstances or the cause. So what type, if any, you decide to go with kind of depends on your useage, what kind of speeds you see at your local track, what kind of run off or barriers are at that track, and your own level of confidence and security (do you feel safe w/o anything, with just a roll bar...).
For both the seats and bar/cage, look at some local cars at your track and see if any style or type looks better or works better for you. All can be very expensive, so you dont want to end up with something that you dont like, or will want to upgrade again in the near future.