bbh03

I promise this is a little different than the past threads on this topic! I'm in need of racing seats and a roll bar or light cage for a 1978 911. The problem is I am aggrivatingly tall (6' 6") and need a setup where the seat is low enough to allow clearance for my helmet covered head. In addition, the roll bar would have to allow the seats to move back enough for my legs. Anyone here have the same problem and can share some advice with me? Thanks!

Brian

Dave in Chicago

Brian - You may have much better luck posting this question on the "Racing" board. Many folks have taken many paths down this lane.

I don't have the 6'6" issue, just standard 6' here. That said, when I went into Club Racing my 968 this year, I found the best professional cage/car builder in the area and placed my bet on them. They turned out to be a true "engineer to order" kinda shop that can address these types of challenges.

Being in Chicago, that doesn't help... But I imagine there are a couple of similar shops in your neck of the woods.

Again, I would ping the boys and girls on the Racing forum for "been there, done that" stories and/or recommendations of a good shop to work with.

Hope this helps...

bbh03

Thanks Dave - I though it would get deleted in the racing forum. I was hoping to avoid the added expense of custom if possible. I have a friend who has built his ouwn bars for BMWs, but does not have the equipment. For the price of a good mandrel bender and the steel, maybe I could hve him build one, but I'd rather go prefab if I can find it!

Mods, if you see this, could you move the thread?

JCP911S

Some thoughts...

First buy your seat and get it set exactly where you want it... you will probably have to mount it to the floor, and have some re-inforcement built in.

Then measure around the seat and see exactly what the fit is...an off the shelf cage may well fit. My guess is the belt crossbar may be too far forward... but you'll never know until you measure against the actual seat position. Also you want to make sure you have clearance for your head relative to the main hoop.

You may be able to simply re-weld the belt-bar and move it back a few inches... most racing shops can do that for a few hundred bucks.

If not, a custom fabricated cage may not be that much more expensive... in fact it might be easier for the shop to fabricate to fit than to spend hours wrestling to adapt a cage... who knows?

Also, maybe look for a fab shop that is not a Porsche specialist.... (the conspiracy theorist in me suspects that everything gets double price for us..)... a roll cage is a roll cage, and somebody who is more involved with SCCA or dirt cars or dragsters may be cheaper...

RedlineMan

Hey Brian;

6'5" here. I can almost guarantee you that you will need to do a custom seat mounting system. I know of nothing that will get a 911 seat low enough on the exisiting side sill mounts. Those mounts a kinda flimsy anyway.

Also, I don't think the roll bar will be a problem for you. What you will likely find is that when you can sit low enough (with the seat mount mods), your thinking on seat positioning will change from the old days where you had the seat tilted way back and your arms straight out, to sitting much more upright and closer to the wheel. The seat may therefore be farther ahead of any belt bars than you think. Been here before, dude!

I mounted these seats in standard location for a 930 customer who is only 6' but has a long torso.



Not only did he have very minimal headroom, but the OE seat mounts were flimsy. I did this (below) to solve the problem. 1.5" more headroom in his very upright seating position.

bbh03

Looks like you welded two bars there on the floor for extra support. Did the racing seats come with the slider hardware and did you just bolt that to those bars?

I think legs may be a problem for me. Even if I get low eneough to get up on the wheel (where I'd like to be) I think my knees will hit the dash. I'll have to work around that if it happens. My knees are the limiting factor for me now when racing my 3 series, at least on stock sport seats.

Can you suggest a brand or model of seat (reasonable price) that might make this modification easier? Will I need a custom seat since my shoulders are probably higher than most and a standard seat might have the shoulder belt holes too low? I will be using a Sparco 5 pt. cam lok harness.

I'll worry about the bar last as suggested above.

Thanks!

Brian

e911

Brian,

I agree with John. Your problem will be with the seat height. I just completed a roll cage install in my 78 SC non-sunroof track car, along with a sparco Pro2000. I am 6' about 225lbs. But I don't have 6 inches of clearnce. I have the BK side mounts with sliders. There is plently of room below my seat. I went this way to get a feel for where I will fix the seat on a permanent basis later. Also both me and my sons will drive the car and one position may not work.

Not sure where you are in nj? I am in west Phila subs you are welcome to come bt for a test fit.

Earl

richard glickel.

Brian,

Few people know more about this stuff than John Hajny.

You will have to mount your seat of choice directly to the floor - not a big deal once you find your driving ideal position.

As John points out your track driving position will differ from your street-seat driving position. I didn't think that I would ever be comfortable seated fairly upright and much closer to the steering wheel. Now, I find that's the MOST comfortable driving position for me. I'm sure that installing a good quality seat (Recaro in my case) is also a big help.

Good luck with the cage or roll bar fitment.

Richard

Mike Andrews

Brian,

Is your height in your upper or lower part of your body? What inseam do you have? I'm 6'5" and have a 34 inch inseam. So most of my height is in my upper torso.

Will you be the only one driving it? You can get the seat pretty low by being creative with custom side mount brackets. Or you can do as John suggested and cut out the stock brackets and reposition them lower in the car. The custom bracket route might give you the height you need by themselves.

And while you are at it you can move the seat back an inch or so to get your legs as they should be. Once you have that worked out, you may find that moving the steering wheel closer to you is in order. And that's pretty easy and cheap to do.

RedlineMan

Brian;

What you see there in the 2nd photo IS the seat mount. The factory mount flanges are gone. I used aftermarket HD sliders that bolted to those angle iron spars.

I strongly suggest you try someone elses setup to see what I am talking about. You will indeed - as both Rich & I suggest - find you like to sit closer to the wheel torso-wise when you have the opportunity to do so. I don't think leg length will be that much of an issue. I could fit in the car I pictured even though the driver is 6" shorter than I. Even with sliders, the seat did not go back that far, and I built his belt bar just behind the b-pillar. Even then, there was room for me.

Mike also makes a good point that spacing the wheel back with a quick release is pretty simple to do.

JCP911S

Most major manufacturers have seats in different witdths... your hips are going to be the limiting factor unless you go with a full containment seat (like a Kirkey) in which case you should probably have it custom fitted anyway.

The hight of the belt bar in the cage determines the positioning of the harnesses on your shoulders.... not the seat. the belt holes are ususally tall enought to accommodate any height driver..

Best thing is to find a dealer with floor inventory and actually sit in the seat...

bbh03

My inseam is about 36-37". Don't me wrong, I really would like to be up on that wheel, I have just never been able to do so. I like the idea of setting the wheel back. Does anyone have a link to how this is done? Also, where did you pick up those HD (heavy duty?) sliders and is the angle iron you welded down regular steel or something else? Looks liek the perpendicular part of the iron is facing down so it can't be seen and the flat part is actually a little off the floor because of it, right?

I see what you mean about the harness bar so hopefully that problem will go away on its own.

Earl, I'm pretty far north. If I'm ever going to be down there, I'll PM you. Thanks!

RedlineMan

Hey Brian;

I deal with the dynamics of this a lot. It is entirely common for me to place a driver where I know they want to be, and they not like it in a static state. They always want to be farther away than they think, especially tall guys. They then take a DE and come back saying their arms and shoulders die from reaching too much. I then sit them up straighter (as I had it in the first place) and they love it!

Tall guys get used to sitting way back and reaching straight-armed for the wheel because they HAVE to. Once you give them the headroom to do otherwise, they will like to sit straighter and more up on the wheel. The only way to do this for our height in a 911 is to do a custom mount.

You are seeing that photo correctly. The JAZ seat tracks I use have studs on the ends that project down, and I bolted through the angle iron underneath.

I don't have photos of a quick release hub installation, but it is not difficult to accomplish, and really helps getting in and out of an aggressive race seat.

Regarding seats, I find that alloy seats seem to have larger belt holes than plastic ones. This helps tall guys because it gives a larger opening to get proper belt travel over the shoulder. In the event they are not right, an alloy seat can simply be modified. The more expensive versions can be custom sized anyway, as JCP suggests. Finally, your belt bar can be moved if necessary.

No Variocam

Do you use an aftermarket wheel? You can purchase extenders for the momo/sparco mount that will move the wheel a couple of inches close to you - freeing up some knee space as well as getting the wheel to where you can steer without your arms fully extended. Additionally, if you don't already have a momo/sparco, you can get one of the "dished" steering wheels which will give you another 2-3 inches.