Lowering the floor pan !

[Jonathan]

I have a few ideas but I do like to bounce them around incase (and usually) someone has better clues.

Basically the Cobra seat I have for the SE seats me about 1" too high, I haven't fitted the GT3 seat to the SE yet but I am pretty sure it's the floor pan which is the problem, anyone in the know agree ?

In the GT3 I can move my head side to side and my bonse goes under the door beams, in the SE it clouts the door beam on the side of my head even with the original SE seats, so they're definatly higher.

I've tried mounting the seat a few different ways but even with the seat on the pan it only just about works....yet in the GT3 you can fit your hand under the seat and you still have a substantial amount of head room (I'm 5'11" tall) - also taking into account I have to get a helmet into that as well.

The forward part of the seat is fine - it's the bit where ones arse goes which is too high.

I have another mount on order which should drop it a little more but failing that the options are to modify the floor pan to allow the seat to sit back more but considering this is the thing that stops you falling through to virtually certain death I'm wondering what alternatives I have.

If I could scollop out the area for the arse of the seat that would do grand but this would undoubtedly weaken the floor pan.

The other semi crazy idea was to remove the pan altogether and fit a aluminium / steel pan to specification in and have it all bolted and re-inforced....obviously I wouldn't do this in Sunday evening after coming home from the pub....it's be done 100% propperly.

Any ideas ?

[bigsi]

or you could do what myself and another tall guy did and get some elise/exige skinny profile seats and fit them in there, im 6ft 7 1/2" inches tall and quite wide, but with the skinny seats im in there a treat, ok its a g-car but its damn tight with a normal seat, with the skinny seat no problmes at all.

[Vulcan Grey]

#1 Can I have your GT3 seats?

I'm 6'2" but skinny and all legs. I actually have 3" headroom with the SE seats, but not with a helmet...

I know Johan http://www.extremeesprit.com cut out his V8 floor pan and remolded in a new reinforced floorpan about 2" lower.

Even with the roll cage, his car is pretty comfy.

Check his website for details.

I would think a seat mounted to the floor (rails removed) should give you enough room, as my friend did that with the Recaro's in his X180-R and he's 6'3"ish. I can barely see over the binacle in his car.

[Simon350S]

Could you post pics of the seat and mounts, cant see any reason why you shouldnt be able to re-hole the mounts, if they are side mount seats, which I'm assuming they are, to lower them yet further....

If the seat bases are already touching the floor pan then another option would be to reduce the foam thickness in the base of the seat, the shell of the cobra seats shouldnt be more than about 6-7mm thick, and the rest is foam. I believe you can get replacment foams to compensate for this...

Also have you got the seat mounted too vertical??? this will obviously reduce the headroom due to te more upright position...... there is no logical reason whjy the seating position with propper competion seats would be higher compared to a standard OE seat....

think you may have some unresolved issues to deal with before you go cutting the foor pan out...

As Simon said <--- LOL (put your hands on your head!!) he's a big bloke and so am I.... we both now fit into G cars which are smaller internally than the SE so you shouldnt have any probs at all!!!!

Simon

Edited January 19, 2007 by Simon350S

[Jonathan]

No, I need the GT3 seats in the GT3

Simon - any lower and you wont be able to bolt them to the floor !! The bracket comes under the seat, I just re-ordered some OMP mounts that come outwards of the seat to see if they fit. Yup cutting the pan is the last thing I want to do ! Cost is certainly approaching the budget cap I wanted to spend on this car.

I'll do some pictures to help explain over the weekend.

I don't quite understand it myself but the seat, even when sitting on the pan without carpet etc is only marginally low enough, the moment you fit a mount it's too high and really doesn't suit my driving position.

Max headroom is not altogether a major concern as the roof panel is going to be very thin, it's the helmet bounding on the door beam and the fact at a later date the roll cage might need to be put in...it'll be like getting in and out of an Exige !

I've seen and read Johans site and got some ideas, the end result is pretty much the same where I want to use the car for road use as well as track (this is the SE project car we're talking about here).

Elise seats I don't think are FIA / 4 point harness compliant, it's possible they fit and work but they're not much different than these I have here with respect to clearance.

[Simon350S]

Youve got the mounts that are a length of aluminium (aluminum for our yanky friends) angle with some holed plates off them I take it, where as the OMP ones kink out at the bottom and allow you to get the seats virtually touching the floor pan. You may still need to re hole the mounts to get max lowering.....

I guess if you did need to lower the floor pan.... if you cut a hole and then fabricated a plate with raised edges this would be strong enough to hold the seat in place as it would never fall through the hole no matter how badly you fixed it to the shell.....

Just dont go over any rumble strips as you'll be clouting your bum on the road before the floor bottomed out!!!!!

[DanR]

Have you checked how much clearance there is for you by just sitting on the floor without any seat installed and your helmet on. Can give you a good idea of how much clearance you'll have and if a custom seat would work.

I once had a race seat made that sat on the floor. My butt was on the glass with no padding except under my thighs and in the small of my back. Became one of the most comfortable and best body hugging seats I've had.

[Advantage]

Is this a glass sunroof versus composite sunroof issue?

[rens914]

I have bolted my seats directly to the floor (SE)

it gives you about 3 inches more in height

and you can put it about 2 inches further backwords

the extra thing is that my wife doesnt fit in it anymore

her legs are to short

yoepieeee

Edited January 19, 2007 by rens914

[Jonathan]

OK just looked at this again, took the GT3 seat out.

1stly the SE and the GT3's bolt holes offer exactly the same height from the floor to the door pillars, ergo the floor pan is the same height in both cars despite their slightly different moulding.

The GT3 seat fits the SE but the track is slightly too wide, however to sit in it is significantly higher than the GT3 ? Can't understand it.

I've got the cobra seat at full rake back on its mounts and it's too high as well

It's not so much top to bottom clearance as opposed to the fact you have no room to turn your head in the car wearing a crash helmet becuase you hit the door beam running parallel with the removable roof.

The reason why the originals are OK is that the SE seat does not have a floor to it so the cushion goes into the recess in the floor pan so it effectivly lowers you. The fixed bucket seats have a solid floor so you don't get that effect.

At least it's not an issue with the floor, I just cant understand why in the GT3 my head has a lot of clearance, yet in the SE it's totally different WITH the same seat and with the mounting holes being the same distance from the roof.......per'aps I'm asking too much of it ? Looking at Mike Sekingers GT1 the seats in that are no lower than mine by the looks of the shoulder strap holes etc.

[Glyn Harper]

I've actually lowered my seats, which are the Sport 300 type of race seats. We cut a big hole (measured out) and then rebuilt it slightly lower with loads of fibre glass. My pal is an engineer who works on fibre glass hulls of boats, so he did a good job.

I should add a word of caution.. something everyone has forgotten to mention throughout the post.

Spinal injuries.

The closer you sit to the road, the more chance of getting spinal injuries if you and up crashing onto something like a roundabout, where the bottom of the car will smack down onto somthing rather solid.

To be fair, there are a lot of ways you can hurt yourself in any car, but it's worth remembering that you do need some padding in your seat, and your bottom should never be at or below the floor height.

I'm not sure about the MOT situation with regards to this as we don't have them here on the Isle of Man.. thank God!!

Edited January 22, 2007 by Glyn Harper

[Simon350S]

Just dont go over any rumble strips as you'll be clouting your bum on the road before the floor bottomed out!!!!!

LOL yeah, my thoughts exactly!!!!

[Dasar7]

I'm 6 ft 1, and by bolting the seat to the floor in my S4, I can fit it with a helmet just, and move head from side to side 'just'.

I would have thought being 5 ft 11, you should be able to fit there as well. (regardless of body type ).

Wouldn't you also have roadworthy issues by remolding the floor pan - or does it not matter for your race car? (i.e. is it a track car only, not for road).

[th4neuk]

Hi Jon,

DW had the GT3 seats fitted to his Turbo (bolted to the floor) and he fitted in!!!

Being a tad on the shorter side I have no problems with mine.

Cheers

[Jonathan]

It's not a case of fitting in - I have GT3 seats int eh GT3 and it's fine.

For a moment I thought the floor pan was higher than that of the GT3 as the floor design is also different between the 2 cars but it is not.

My concern is with the helmet on, I look a lot when driving with my head as opposed to mirrors becuase I had a very close call in a van once when I passed my test. Other than that I have never had an issue becuase I always check my mirrors with my eyes after if you know what I mean (lots of people ask if I ride bikes becuase of my head movements).

Just worried about having that when the helmet is on, top clearance should be fine but it's the side door beams that are going to do me, plus when/if I get the cage fitted that'll restrict my head movement more.

I'm like this in Karting too, always looking around esp when defending a position.

It cool, the car is fine (thankfully) it's just something I am going to have to learn that wont be able to possibly have that range of movment, its actually a big deal for me but it seems like a restruction of the vehicle of choice !