Seat installation

The Rules

The rules are pretty much the same across sanctioning bodies (ARA/CARS/NASA/SCCA), an FIA homologated seat must be used. CARS is the only sanctioning body currently enforcing expiration dates on seats (5 years recommended but they allow up to 10 years from date of manufacture).

Seat sliders are pretty much banned across the board even though FIA allows them (if they are FIA homologated which pretty much none of the available sliders on the market are).

ARA rules are below but the FIA Article 253 rules have much more details about installation instructions.

Choosing a seat

You can base your choice by doing careful measurements (most manufacturers will give you exact dimensions inside and outside). The seat must be able to fit in the car but most importantly you must fit comfortably in the seat. You won't really know how the seat fits you until you really try it. Some shops carry some seats that you can try out, you can also go to a local event and ask competitors if you can try out their seat if they have a model you are considering, most of them will let you try them out and give you feedback on their experience with the seat.

The FIA standards for seats:

FIA 8855-1999: Very old standard, does not require head or shoulder protection, no minimum padding, tested for a 20g rearward deceleration, followed by a 15g side impact and a final 10g rearward impact (all with a dummy on a sled ), can be tested with a 4 point harness. Seats are valid for 5 years from date of manufacture.
FIA 8855-2021: New standard that imposes a side head support (aka halo) with minimum padding, resistance to 42g impacts, impact testing at the head, shoulder and pelvis areas, crush testing and seat mount testing. Crotch belts are required with all belts angle and routing through the seat specified. Note that seats homologated to this standard must be used with the seat mount they have been homologated with. Seats are valid for 10 years from date of manufacture.
FIA 8862-2009: Highest standard, similar to 8855-2021 with minimum padding mandated in the shoulder and pelvis area and a resistance up to 70g, and materials that have a higher fire resistance requirement.

There is also a good guide here: https://blog.demon-tweeks.com/motorsport/competition-seat-standards-guide/

Here is a summary of what tests seats are submitted to depending on the standard:

Even if you get an FIA 8855-1999 homologated seat, consider a seat with a Halo (side head support) as the Hans device is only a Frontal Head Restraint (FHR) and the keyword here is 'Frontal'. This means that it does not protect you from a lateral impact (like hitting something sideways). Only a Halo in the seat will stop your head from moving laterally and hitting the side of the car.

If you want to upgrade your padding in your seat, FIA technical list 17 contains the list ofr approved padding. In the US., BSCI Inc and Fiberworks LLC (both in Mooresville, NC) provides Ener-Core EC50 (orange) as the only FIA approved padding.

The position of the driver is important as shown by the FIA Article 253 diagram below:

Here are some additional safety aspects highlighted during the FIA Safety Week seminar on safety equipment:

Installation

The seat must be secured to the car by at least 4 mounting points. It can be bolted directly to the chassis (see below left) or another popular option is to use a seat mount that re-uses the factory mounting points (picture below right). The depicted Planted seat brackets are a low cost popular option: https://www.plantedtechnology.com/products/seat-brackets.html

An alternative is to have new crossmembers to support the seats. They must be secured to the chassis using end plates. The pictures below show example of seat support crossmembers. Note that the bar can be a square or round tube but it has to be secured to the chassis and cannot be welded to the cage by FIA standards (it should also be straight and not be bent).

The FIA specifications for new seat mount bars can be found in Appendix J Article 253 with diagram 253-65B detailing the specs of the different components:

Be very careful if you use mounting tabs, here is the warning issued by MSUK:

'There are concerns over the quality of some ‘transverse rail with tab’ type mounting, and failure of such mountings, where the seat is held in position by only the overlap of a nut in a slotted tab, have been seen. Example of the type of failures can be seen in the images below, where the nut has torn through the slotted tab in an accident. This is of particular relevance in the case of rearward impact, where the harness offers less support to the occupants and the weight of the occupant’s body acts as a levering force on the seat backrest. Pulling up on the seat mounts. '

Link to full MSUK document: https://www.motorsportuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Seat-Installation-Guidance-v4.pdf

Remember that the seat angle must match the angle of your Hans model. If you have a Hans model 20, the seat back rest should be at a 20 degree angle with the vertical (see diagram below).

The seat should also be installed in front of the main rollbar, there is a minimum distance of 90mm between the rollbar and the inside of the seat backrest.

Some general guidelines to adjust a seat:

Find the height you want first to have a good visibility through the windshield, you don't want to be too low so that you can't see above the dash especially over a crest and you don't want to be too high where your helmet hits the cage.
Adjust the front/rear position so that your legs are at the correct distance to operate the pedals comfortably.
Finally you can fine tune the angle to get your arms in a comfortable position, keeping in mind that the backrest should be at an angle that matches your Hans device.

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