Adjustable seat rails

[116gtv]

What do you racers use for seat rails on race seats?

I need mine to be adjustable so the car can be shared.

Is the factory rail setup deemed unsafe for track work or is it ok to use it, assuming I can get the new seat mounted low enough..

[colcol]

I would assume that adjustable seats are ok for race cars at our level, otherwise all the cars would be non compliant, and for sprints road cars would also be not allowed, the factory rails have been crash tested and have Australian Design Rules compliance,  in V-8 taxi racing, for endurance events the two drivers, regular and part time are always very close to each other build wise, adjustable seats are not allowed, so they put the 'biggest' driver in, get them comfortable, then put the 'smallest' driver in and mould a seat 'insert' to suit, so when the smallest driver gets in they put their 'cushion' in so they can reach all the controls,

[Evan Bottcher]

We run an autotechnica fibreglass fixed seat.  It came with some sturdy brackets, which I fitted to the original sliding seat rails.  That's been fine for scrutiny at Vic club sprints / 6 hours and quite secure.  It's possible I could get it a couple of cm lower if it were bolted to the floor directly, but I need to share the car with someone with shorter legs so the adjustable rails are a requirement.

[Frank Musco]

Brother Joe and I also use the original Alfa Sprint seat runners. We fitted them directly to the seat and floor, they work perfect and don't move around or jam-up.

[aggie57]

The factory setup is fine for track work so long as the replacement seat is mounted securely to the rails using the mounts provided by the seat manufacturer. Any attempt to move or modify the seat or seat mounts will/should be inspected carefully by scrutineers. Rightfully so as the seat forms an integrale and critical part of driver protection, just as important as the seat belts.

I'm sure you know this but just for the record be sure you get or have a seat with bottom rather than side mounts.  If the seat has side mounts then you will need fit side mounts like this: http://www.sparcousa.com/pseats_acc.asp?id=155

The CAMS site is down right now but there are some very good regs around this in the NCR's

[colcol]

And a seat and interior designer told me that some cars get some crashworthyness through the seat runners, and he told me of a Euro car maker, that their car just failed a crash test, strengthened their seat runners, which was relatively easy, rather than strenghten their floor pan which would be difficult, and the car scraped through the crash test and passed, the name of the Euro car maker?, he wouldn't tell me!, the so and so, those seat runners, very important, Colin.

[116gtv]

Great, I'll stick to the factory rails then. Thanks all for chiming in once again.