gums

I'm 6'1" and I'm crammed in most race cars. Wondering if the relation of my head to the roll bar crossmember is potentially dangerous. It seems that I'm right on it. Maybe jam my neck in a frontal impact? What do you guys think?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfOrqSBZ7Sk

Evan Fullerton

Can you drop your seat at all? I would be more worried in a rollover that the top of your helmet exceeds the height of the roll bar. At 6'1" shouldn't you be sitting farther back than that? A steering wheel hub extension and lowering the seat would likely do wonders.

gums

I don't think so, I'm down on the floor, but I'm sure gonna take a look this evening!
Thanks for the suggestion.

SundayDriver

Looks to me like it could cause injury in certain cases. Both frontal impact, as you suggest and an impact that has both lifting and forward force on you. Could really jam your neck, I would think.

Gary R.

Frank - I would have to say that looks pretty bad! In my car the (wink) mirror is pretty close but my head would be stopped by the HANS or worst case I would destroy it with my helmet. The scruts made Sean and I cut out our stock mounts and design/weld new mounts on the floor to put our heads below the side bars in case of side impact (now all I see is the top of his helmet, kind of like being behind a 4' granny driving a big Cadillac.. he had to remove his wipers to see out... ). Looks like your head is slotted in and you wouldn't even come close to the HANS full travel before your head hit the bar..

Veloce Raptor

Yup, seems a bit too close....









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

MUSSBERGER

At 6'1" I don't see how you can be on the floor and be that close to the roof and wind screen. Next time you lap me slow down and I'll have a peek.

Different cars and I'm smaller at 5'10. I have Kirkey mounts on top of the stock seat rails with Kirkey (16" wide I think) seats.The seats bottoms can be adjusted to below the top of the seat rails Gives me a lot of flexibility. And I removed my wipers too.

911SLOW

I am tall and had same problem on a caged GT3.

But your situation looks quite more dangerous.

My suggestion is to find a way to go back and down by any means necessary. I installed the seat on lower rails that I fabricated and tilted it back and also brought the steering wheel more forward with an extension.
I am also using this padding that is so much better than the hard stuff we all know and is thinner too giving some extra room.
No affiliation just a clever product IMO. http://www.stbarinc.com/orange-aid/index.html

John

bb993tt

I seem to remember some insane 911 project Patrick Motorsports (?) did a while ago. They lowered the floor somehow for CG reasons. I know this might sound like a crazy spend YOUR money kind of thing, but ...

RedlineMan

Ummm... YIKES!

Under certain circumstances, EVERYONE will hit their header tube. It's just one of those tubes that is close by default. However, in most cases, your torso will "shape change" by rolling into a ball with your head and shoulders travelling forward while rotating downward. This will happen with an H&N device employed as well. The idea in laying out a cockpit is to try and leave enough room from the static position of the helmet to the header tube so that this rotation will see you clear of the tube without impact. It can be done. Yours really scares me quite a lot.

I would assume you are someone with a long torso and short legs. That or your preparer (?) needs a new career! Without really being able to see anything other than the obvious, I'd hope that your seat could go a bit lower. I'd also take a guess and say that it is not reclined quite enough. Do you ever feel like you are sliding out of the seat? I would also wager that your header tube is utterly in the wrong place for you.

1) Get the seat lower if you can.
2) You may have to tip it back a little to get some breathing room. You can keep your leg length the same, and then adjust your steering wheel hub length to compensate for the change in reach.
3) Strongly consider having a properly positioned header tube fabricated and welded in. Most cages I see suffer from this.

Every cockpit I do is custom to the driver. I've done this for everyone from myself (6'5") to people a foot shorter. As I said, it can be done. There's really no excuse for it NOT to be done!

Professor Helmüt Tester

Saw the foam out of the bottom of the seat.

(I can hear all the whining and moaning...tough noogies)

Even with the seat slammed down on the floor, the bottom padding can raise you up 4-6". Cut that crap right out, and throw it away. Tip the seat back a bit, too....get a steering wheel extension...you'll maintain your feet-pedals relationship, and get your upper body and head further away from hard stuff.

Hacksaw blade, with a rag rapped around it, works great for removing seat-bottom foam.

It's a race car, right ? Quit your bitchin.

mark kibort

that is not safe! what kind of car is this? 1/3 scale model of a real car?

Lemming

Something is amiss. I'm assuming that the video is from you 944? I'm 5" shorter than you and my head is a good 5-6 inches behind my header bar. So, unless you have some really short legs (as suggested by John), I can't see why your head is that far forward?

PPo

Short legs... long torso... you must be Italian!

Me too... don't worry... at 6 feet tall, in my 924S, I have plenty of space. Kirkey anchored to the floor with a lot of thought... but plenty of space.

I have seen a 944 with lowered floors, only to see a lot of seat foam and seat mounts that add many inches... I was always confused as to why they would take this approach.

A930Rocket

Get an aluminum seat bolted to the floor. Here's a couple of goof ***** in my car.