mortymower

My best friend was killed last week in his 97 BMW 328 is when he spun off the road in the rain and hit a tree backwards. The rear half of the car was completely demolished as he was going about 70 however the car crushed leaving the driver and passenger areas untouched. Unfortunately his seatback broke in two places causing his neck to break. It seems crazy that a car could perform perfectly in this type of crash and have everything behind the driver seat gone, and the fact that he was so close to being bruised and dazed and thats it but then the damn seat broke.

Two days later another close friend was rear ended in a late 90's BMW at a stop from a 60 MPH truck, his seat bent and ALMOST broke but he was lucky and survived with a headache. This got me thinking, is this a late 90's BMW thing or do all seats fail in bad rear impacts. I have a harness bar and was thinking of fabing up some kind of brace from it to the back of my stock seat so this would not happen to me. Is this plausible?

Rock

This must be a BMW thing. One of the seats in my BMW is like twisted *** sideway for some reason- and it hasnt even been wrecked yet!

mortymower

Yea I wasn't sure at what force the average seat back fails but since I already have a harness bar I am thinking about fabbing something up to help prevent it from breaking during a wreck

Lorax

If it looks like the ones that you can buy for the corbeau seats it might be more likely to just pierce the seat and impale you or something. Not cool.

mortymower

I was thinking since I have the stock seats, just have a plate thats almost as wide as the seat back and maybe 5 inches tall to spread the forced over the whole seat.

Lorax

Idk... sounds dangerous. I would honestly feel safer if my seat werent connected to the rear part of the car. If the rear gets smashed then that thing is going to puch the seat forward.

mortymower

I would think it would be better to be pushed foward a bit while still giving support to my neck and back than to let it break and then nail the harness bar causing my neck to break, but I could be way off here. These incidents have just freaked me out a bit and I am just trying to make the car as safe as possible

RKD in OKC

Hans device?

samluke

I was rear ended at relatively low speed and both front seats collapsed (admitedly it was a Hyundai).

PCA clubracing rules changed a couple of years back, first to require a brace to the back of the seat, and then more recently to outlaw seats in two pieces/reclineable. Changes we directly as a result of seat failures in a rear impact situations.

xsboost90

well when you club race, you are required to run a seat brace behind the seat for just that purpose. Between hitting walls backwards or going off and getting rear ended, seats are known to break - especially aftermarket seats- and it can be fatal. Ive been thinking of buying a seat brace for my one piece seat for just that reason. Sorry about your friend, thats always hard to loose someone you know, especially close.

2bridges

Seat back brace and fixed back seat is required for nearly all forms and types of racing (amautuer and pro) for good reason.

One note for anyone not aware - Seat brace must be mounted to at least a four point roll ball that is properly installed.

Van

A Hans device will only work going forward (i.e. forward impact). To function it also requires the use of a helmet and the shoulder belts of a 5 or 6 point harness. Basically, as your head tries to go forward in a frontal collision (while you body can't - because of the harnesses), the Hans will transfer the load to your shoulders so the base of your skull (where the spinal column connects) doesn't feel the full force of the impact. Otherwise you can have a "basal skull fracture" (you skull rips off of your spine).

OriginalSterm

At Watkins Glen earlier this year, an E36 BMW went backwards into the wall pretty hard. The rear end was completely destroyed, but the passenger compartment was pretty much intact. However, the driver and passenger seats were replaced with reclineable racing buckets and the driver's side broke. The driver walked away, but did reinforce the idea that fixed back racing seats are the way to go on the track.

Manny Alban

3 years ago I hyrdoplaned in my SUV and went backwards into a concrete highway divider at approximately 60mph. Car was demolished (only straight panel was the roof), but I walked away without a bruise or ache. I bent my seat back six inches on the left side. The State Troopers and medics on the scene were surprised to see me untouched. I'll never talk bad about Chevrolet products again. The car took the brunt of the impact without a doubt.

Musche

Several years ago I wasin my Chevrolet exteded cab pickup truck and was hit from behind by a Ford van going about 40mph with a wide open stuck throttle. The hit pushed my truck about 30 feet through the intersection with my foot on the brake. As a result, the seat back broke and was bent enough that I was looking up at the ceiling! Crazy thing is that the van bumper made direct contact with my bumper and the class V hitch. The impact bent the hitch and bumper straight down not even touching the tailgate. It also moved the cab far enough back that there were two dents in it from where it had make contact with the top of the bed. The impact totaled his van. I guess it depends a lot on inertia. I'm about 200 lbs and to accelerate that kind of mass instantaneously to 40mph requires the seat to exert a huge famount of force since it is attached to the truck. My guess is it would take a very serious type of hinge not to break. Luckily I walked away with only a nasty bruise on my arm and a stiff neck.