|
There are 3 main ways of mounting a racing seat to your Volkswagen race car.
Best Method: Welded in seat base rails, slider rails and and side mounts.
Pros: Strength, Safety, Positioning.
Cons: Requires welding, non-removable.
This method is the most useful as it allows for a perfectly positioned seat in addition to being the most secure mounting method. To achive this type of installation you should have your cage builder weld in 2 round or square tubes across the floor in such a position that when the seat bottom is laid across the bars the driver position is acceptable. Square tubes allow direct attachment, round bars will require flat tabs to be added for the seat mounts to attach. A bottom or side mount seat can be bolted directly to the welded in bars. In addition, seat sliders may be bolted across these bars to give some for-aft adjustability. By spacing the sliders far enough apart, you can bolt the side mounts from a 'side mount seat' to the sliders. Care must be taken that the welded in bars are not installed in a location that will interfere with either the slide adjusters or the sub belts or their attachments.
The photos below illustrate a basic welded in solution. The seat on the left has a side mount already bolted to it. The next photo shows a clean floor ready for tubes to be welded in as are shown in the 3rd phtoograph. The last photo shows one side mount bolted to the cross bars.
   
Pre-Fabbed Adapter Method: Bolt in solution using off the shelf seat-to-chassis adapters.
Pros: Ease of installation, removeable.
Cons: Seat sits higher, slightly more flexible, requires a bottom mount seat to prevent fabrication.
This is probably the most common mounting method as it requires no welding and can be done completly with purchased components and no custom fabrication. This method works best with bottom mount seats like the Sparco Pro2000. It is possible to acheive this setup with a side mount seat however you will usually have to fabricate your own fixture to attach the seat sliders (if used) to the side mounts. This is due to the adjuster bar requiring the sliders to be located a specific distance apart from each other.
The photos below show an installation on a Bildon Motorsport Golf GTI using the Sparco Pro2000 seat, Sparco sliders and the Sparco 499071 VW A1/A2 seat base. The first photo shows the bottom mount holes required for an "off the shelf" install. The next photos show the slider and base assembly bolted to the seat. The bottom photos show the slider/base assembly (off the seat) installed into the OEM seat mounting brackets.
  
  
Floor Mount Method: For taller drivers or where the lowest CG is required.
Pros: Strength, Safety, Removable, Lowest CG, Ease of installation.
Cons: Only for taller drivers, Non-adjustable.
Seats can be mounted directly to the floor if the driver is tall enough to see over the dash. Using this method the seat bottom can actually touch the floor giveng the absolute lowest possible center of gravity for the driver. The side mounts can be used by themselves for a very simple installtion. The side mounts should be bolted directly to the floor however the use of flat steel bars under the floor must be used to prevent the seat from pulling through the floor's thin sheet metal in the event of a crash.
 
Note: We are not responsible for any injury or death that results from improper mounting of your racing seat. If you are not experienced in preparing race cars, please seek out the advice of someone who is before you install your seat.
Contact us to discuss specific seat mounting applications.
|
