FIA approved competion seat - fitting in baby elan

[sebring]

further to previous discussions re. FIA approved seats - the suggested use of a Cobra Imola seat is now not viable as they have changed the design and now have a seat base at 505mm i.e. wider than the cockpit - in fact i cannot find any FIA approved seat on the market that has a base narrow enough to fit - let alone the side shoulder supports - has anyone solved this problem lately?

[batfish]

Hi

Although the FIA regs state the seat should be either the original standard seat or FIA approved modern seats I have seen many Elans in FIA spec races with non FIA approved modern seats. Often they are Elise/ Caterham type seats, TTR now sells a high backed fiberglass seat to modern design but again it is not FIA approved. If you ever see pictures of the recreated Goldbug Elan that has raced all over europe you will see it has a not FIA approved carbon fibre seat .

regards

Batfish

[Dag-Henning]

True. It seems there is an agreement to accept this for Elans all over Europe. I race with the TT "original" 26R seat, but will change for the new high-backed fiberglass seat for safety reasons. As far as I know, no modern FIA approved seat will fit for the shoulder supports ! ( - with cage and side-intruder protection fitted.....!)

Dag

[sebring]

the main issues are that if you want to race at Spa the Belgian authorities require either the original seat for the car or an FIA approved one - at last years '6 hours' many people were caught out and the paddock was awry with cars having seats swapped over - i don't want to get into that situation and i'm sure taht in the not too distant future the regulations will be tightenend up for all catagories - e.g. next years requirement for FIA approved dry break coupling for fuel testing

[Dag-Henning]

Hm...a pity that all of a sudden some scrutineers descide to make a statement....! How was security taken care of with all these hastly fitted seats ??
If this is the case at Spa, I would go for the TT 26R seat. You sit quite well, but the back is kind of low.......
Pls, what do you mean by fuel testing ? Sorry I don't follow you....?

Dag

[sebring]

there has been a recent announcement by UK MSA for all competition cars (incl. hillclimbs, sprints etc) next year to be fitted with an FIA approved dry break fitment to allow scrutineers to take fuel samples -more details to follow from MSA - i was using it as an example really as to the way the regulations are changing more and more to come into line with those of FIA.

[cabc26b]

Typical missing the point move by a legislative body.....

making HANS a requirement has more merit - on this forum we know , that in the case of our cars, an FIA approved seat will have no benefit if it is not propeller mounted /integrated to/with the car . we also know the upholstered "stock seat" is NOT properly mounted for racing -

[batfish]

The John Sheldon Elan advertised on the link appears to have got around the problem of a modern racing seat in an Elan by putting the FIA sticker from a Sparco homologated seat onto an nonhomologated seat.

http://www.classicdriver.de/uk/find/410 ... lerid=1337
I do not think you are supposed to do that ! makes you wonder what else may be suspect about the car.
Regards
Andy

[Vanden Perre]

Sebring,
In 2007, at the Spa 6h meeting, I saw and photographed an Elan who was again there in 2008. It had a "Reverie" racing seat and some of them are FIA approved (as seen in Demon Tweeks catalogue).
This car is now for sale at http://www.mroks.com.
If you like I can look for the picture and send it to you. (or post it on the forum).
Olivier.

[batfish]

Unforunately the Reverie homologated seats are ?1600 each which is a ridiculous price to pay for a seat, no wonder Sheldon just stuck a sticker from a Sparco seat onto his non homologated seats.

regards

Andy

[sebring]

expensive! and i hear there are new FIA seat standards on the way - so already nearly out of date. hence even more reason to cheat. But
on the plus side, i have found in the new demon tweeks catalogue a new narrow Cobra design FIA homologated which they say is designed to fit '7's' and Elises and from the dimensions given it looks v. promising.
Unfortunately it looks as if it is only available in vinyl but i am contacting the manufacturer to see if cloth coverings will become available.
watch this space

[sebring]

Update from previous discussions:
Demon Tweeks have just got in a showroom display model of the new Cobra Racer 7 seat which looks v. promising - tried it at the w/end and took the following dimensions:- width at seat base= 420mm (widest point); width at shoulder 'pads' = 510mm.
Available in cloth or vinyl and FIA approved, on the 'down side' it has lower sides so doesn't offer the same support as 'normal' / wider models and they couldn't confirm the cost; but if anyone is interested it could be worth a visit to try.
Sparco also do a steel framed seat with slightly wider base but similar width at shoulder pad. D/Tweeks have let me have one of these to try - i will let you know how i get on.

[batfish]

I spoke to Pat Thomas at the recent Race Retro about the situation regarding homologated race seats for Elans and he expressed interest in looking into getting homologation for a modern race seat which would fit the Elan.

Regards

Andy

[Old English White]

Nobody has news from the tillett carbon seat that TTR wanted to go for FIA approval !?!

I personnaly saw this nicely made seat last year but didn't hear about so far...
Christian.

[sebring]

I visited Pat's stand at the Lotus show at Donnington and spoke to them about FIA seats, but they made no mention of any proposals - the only one they do is described as a 'period' seat - low backed similar to TTR's but mounted to the roll cage.
I have seen the Tillet seat before - but it is not FIA approved so I'm afraid it's no use to me.
Sparco seat didn't fit either - pretty close though - but still too wide at shoulder 'pads' - I am picking up the 'narrow' Cobra seat next weekend to try, so will report back again - fingers crossed.