Learn me racing seats

After much hemming and hawing and thread starting about what to do with my car, I finally have an appointment with a fabricator to get a roll cage put in. Full cage built to SCCA specs in the off chance that I do ITA in a year or two. It's strictly a DE car at this point but I only ever drive it to and from track days so I'm fine with the full halo bar in a "street car." The decision has been made, time to move onto seats.

The rulebook says this:

SCCA said: The driver’s seat shall be a one-piece bucket-type seat and shall be securely mounted. The back of the seat shall be firmly attached to the main roll hoop, or its cross bracing, so as to provide aft and lateral support. Seats homologated to and mounted in accordance with FIA standard 8855-1999, or FIA.Standard.8862-2009 or higher need not have the seat back attached to the roll structure. Seats with a back not attached to the main roll hoop or its cross bracing may be mounted on runners only if they were part of the FIA homologated seats assembly specified in an FIA homologated race car.

I had a Sparco Pro2000 for a little while (comfortable enough for a fixed back) and I have a tube frame Corbeau in my ChumpCar (torture device), so I have some experience with seats but not much.

The first concern is that the seat must be either FIA rated or bolted to the roll bar. Seats expire, and you're not supposed to bolt through fiberglass. I know some sanctioning bodies say the seat back just needs to be touching a back support, but the rule clearly states that it needs to be firmly attached to provide lateral support, which means bolting as far as I'm concerned. That means I either replace the seats every 5 years or go aluminum.

I also see everyone saying in true "safer than thou" fashion that you'd be a fool not to pony up for a seat with head restraints. For fiberglass, that means $1000+ every five years for an entry level seat with head restraints. This is perhaps another vote for aluminum.

Lastly, I let other people drive my car and I'd like to put the driver's seat on sliders. I have some Sparco sliders from another project and I can get the I/O Port adjustable seat back brace, bolt it to the seat and still have it be slideable. Does anyone see a problem with that? The rules state that sliders are only allowed if they're in an FIA homologated car. I'm assuming that the Sparco sliders are FIA approved for use with Sparco seats but I'd most likely be mixing brands, and I may also be making a bad assumption.

There's a Jegs down the street from me, I can see if they have any Kirkey seats to try out. I know everyone poo poos aluminum seats from a comfort perspective but they look pretty nice to me. I can get a full containment seat with cover for $830 and it will never expire.

For what it's worth, 3 hours is a typical drive to the track for me, 6 hours is still common. If I had to go beyond VIR (7.5 hours) I'd rent a truck a trailer.

I've run the seat back brace on a non fia seat, in hopes of keeping it adjustable.......it's a total pain in the arse. So much so, that I never adjusted it. You need to get the seat back brace to move in the same plane as the lower sliders which isn't as easy as it sounds. I've since hard mounted it. I really don't like halo seats. Hard to get in and out with a cage also in place. I run a hybrid pro rage head and neck restraint, and they seem to imply that the halo seats are less necessary with them compared to Hans. For side protection, I'd prefer the side nets that some folks run.

I like the kirkeys personally. If you fit them, they'll be the most comfortable seat you'll ever sit in. Its like being hugged by a beautiful woman while you're driving. I have yet to ever find an FIA seat I find even remotely comfortable, mainly because I despise shoulder wings with a passion. If a seat has shoulder wings I hate it because I feel like I'm sitting on the seat rather than in it.

If you need to do fast driver changes then sliders are needed. But if you have like 10 minutes to change drivers you can easily just get a seat mount with multiple seating positions and setup the back brace to work with all of them. Unbolt and re-bolt the seat. Just remember to keep serviceability in mind when you install everything.

I have seat sliders on my Sparco (not FIA...shhhhh...) coupled with the back brace (not bolted; not required in my rule book). It is a moderate PITA to change the adjustment. It takes several minutes to change the adjustment for another driver. If it weren't such a PITA to take the damn thing out I'd just go back to solid mounts and be an inch lower in the car.

I've thought about replacing the seat. A halo would be nice, but ingress/egress in my tin top car would be nigh impossible with one. Lots of people seem to like the Kirkeys; I just have a hard time trusting my body to a flexible aluminum seat vs a rigid fiberglass one. But, I will probably consider one if ever I change.

I have the tube frame Corbeau also and pretty much hate it. I use it as a student seat now. It's really heavy, for one thing. With an extra foam pad in the butt area it's not terribly uncomfortable for race stints, and it was easy to weld in an additional piece where I needed it for the seat brace. The only thing it has going for it is price.