FIA Approved Seat Mounting Options (CARS)

So, I've been going over the rules again and again trying to wrap my head around them...

Basically, as far as I can tell, the FIA essentially forces you to bolt a seat (in this case, sparco) using the manufacturer supplied "seat supports" to the floor with minimum 3mm thick steel on both sides of the unibody.

The reason I say "force" is because (again, as far as I can tell), it is illegal to make brackets to adapt the sparco "seat supports" to the OEM floor mounts.

Do I have this correct? I don't want to send my fabricator on a wild goose chase, especially after my own dismal attempts at doing this myself! Bolting the seat to the floor is fine on the co-driver side, but Talon's don't really play nice on the driver's side. I was hoping to use the sparco "seat supports", and make an adapter to bolt it into the OEM floor mounts.

If I can't do this and I chop the oem floor mounts out, how am I supposed to raise the seat to the height I need it to be if I can only use the sparco "seat supports"? I think I am missing something blatantly obvious. The ideal situation would be that I am allowed to chop out the oem mounts, and weld in square tubing to mount the sparco "seat supports" to, but I just don't think that's going to happen from the way I am interpreting the rules.

I can't answer for cars, but in the US, that would be fine. Our Tech Gene suggested 3/16 flat bar welded across the floor from the sill to the tunnel, and that is what I did in the last Merkur, and what I will do again.

You can mount seats to the original mounting holes, or mounting homolgated by the car manufacturer or to the universal tunnel system.

Allowances are made due to physiacl constraints i.e the tunnel not being perpendicular on the inside. You need to contact whomever is scrutineer up there and discuss this with him. No one elses opinion matters.

Hey Gene,

Yes, I figured that much However, I was missing some critical information last night when I posted this.



This makes sooooooo much more sense! And should be relatively easy for the fabricator to do *cross fingers*

Yup,
didn't seem so bad to me.

Their diagram kinda sucked. I was trying to think of how to explain what I was thinking for easiest way to implement this. Here's my effort.
Should have Subaru GC mounts available for sale by end of month.

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Grant Hughes

Hey Grant, yes, that is EXACTLY what we came up with.

The dude who is doing it makes beautiful work, but he is used to mounting seats in drag cars so I paid pretty steeply for his work as this was his first FIA install. Oh well!

So.. if one wanted to be lazy and do just like that picture with the square tubing.. Where would one find those M8 inserts in the states?

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Quote

This isn't floor mat anarchy

One other potential thing that MIGHT be possible in some cars would be to have 3 or four weld nuts on the lower bracket allowing a seat to be moved further forwards and backwards by moving the supports forwards or backwards as well.

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Grant Hughes

Quote
alosix
So.. if one wanted to be lazy and do just like that picture with the square tubing.. Where would one find those M8 inserts in the states?

http://www.jhpfasteners.com/documents/JPWF_CD.pdf

Model
Thread

Type
Material
Barrel or Pilot Dia
Barrel or Pilot Ht
Width (Dia)
Length
Thickness* Height

Price
Add Qty.
JPWFM 08015 M8 x 1.25

Flanged
Steel
11.3
14.95
25
N/A
3.8

RFQ


Thank you for your interest in JHP Fasteners, Inc. Please fill out the following form and we will contact you shortly.
1-800-783-0910
616-913-0060
616-913-0085 (fax)
Customer Service: sales@jhpfasteners.com

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Thanks.. I feel 10-12 of those in my future. You know if I just order 8 I'll F at least one of them up. Order 2 extra and everything will go fine

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Quote

This isn't floor mat anarchy

This is probably better-er. Plenty of peeps doing this now, sell off the extra and you'll be fabulously wealthy!
http://www.mcmaster.com/#threaded-inserts/=fs292d


9.5 mm | 15.9 mm
These 2 products match your selections
Barrel Height
9.5 mm 90563A650 $14.90 Per Pack of 100
15.9 mm 90563A660 12.02 Per Pack of 50

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

So are the weld nuts John posted legal? The drawing seems to indicate that the weld nuts pass through the entire tube?

I have some of the McMaster Carr ones that are really nice but they seem kinda short.

I don't think they would be FIA legal. They'd be fine for RA.

For my rails, Bushore just bought some 3/4" rod, cut it to length, then drilled and tapped it on the lathe.

And definitely get extras. He built mine, then when we put the seat on it with the steering wheel, it was 2" off center. Had to make a second set of inserts and weld them in.

Weld nuts are just that, weld nuts. The pics actually show a conventional nut welded to the back of a plate. We call that a captive nut over here. The other picture of the 8mm tube going thru the mounting square tube or round is just to keep it from collapsing when a conventional nut and bolt are used to mount the actual seat.

You can weld a nut on the back of a plate, drill the body large enough to allow the nut and weld to sit into it and then weld the plate to the body.