Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community - FT86CLUB - View Single Post - GSpeed Low-Profile Seat Mounts

GSpeed · 06-24-2016, 03:22 PM

THE NEED

When building a customer's BRZ racecar, we discovered the lack of purpose-built racecar seat mounts for these cars.

Since we have a 3D model of the interior of the car, we were able to design a seat mount that provides as much room for the driver as physically possible.

THE CONCEPT

Starting with two of the largest race seats on the market (Racetech 119-series "Wide and Tall" variant), we moved the seats as low and back as physically possible. From this side profile, you can see there's not much room between the back of the seat and the body of the car:

They're also slid as close to the transmission tunnel as possible to make sure even the widest seats can be centered on the steering wheel:

Since it seems like no two race seat side mounts are the same, we've cut an assortment of slots in the top of the mount to allow for a myriad of mounting locations. It's inevitable some minor trimming may be required to get holes to line up, but it's either a perfect fit with ONE brand of seat, or 90% of the way there for every seat. Because we're a racecar shop, we chose the latter.

This is the most secure mounting style.

However, that doesn't always work. If you're building an endurance car with drivers of various heights, or you've got a street car and need to adjust your seat, you need sliders. These mounts have captive fasteners for, and can be purchased with, Recaro 0.79.9NT double-locking steel sliders. Adding less than an inch of seat height, this mount & slider combination is the perfect package for owners looking to get as much headroom as possible.

THE PROTOTYPE

Here's the first pair we got back from the manufacturer:

You can see we made a few changes, by comparing it to the rendered model above. Those changes were:

-Slot rear bolt hole. Although these bolted up perfectly to our 2015, it was brought to our attention that the earlier chassis had very slightly different rear mount locations. That shouldn't be an issue now.
-Widen seat mounting platform. We added over an inch to the total width on top to allow the seat to get a little closer to the tunnel. Even this wide Racetech is now centered in front of the wheel.
-Remove center "bridge." It limited how low the seat could drop, and we felt it wasn't necessary. As low as this mount is, it's incredibly stiff.
-Remove unnecessary slots in middle. Since these will most likely never be needed, we decided to remove them to cut down on laser time and keep cost low.

Here's how the seat sits in the car.

You can see the roofline in that picture. For a car as small as this, it's incredibly spacious. The owner remarked he's got MUCH more headroom in this car than in any of his previous Viper racecars. The seat could have moved even further back if it wasn't for the roll cage.

PRODUCTION

These seat mounts are made from 11ga (0.12") carbon steel, with a black zinc phosphate finish that's both attractive and durable.

Each mount will be sold for $129.00 by themselves, and $233.11 with Recaro sliders.

Our current lead time for the first batch of 20 is three weeks. They're listed for sale on our website:

https://gspeed.com/product/brzfr-s86...ro-seat-mount/

Thanks!

06-24-2016, 03:22 PM	#1
GSpeed Join Date: Apr 2015 Drives: 2015 BRZ Location: Motorsport Ranch, TX Posts: 619 Thanks: 227 Thanked 1,181 Times in 362 Posts Mentioned: 30 Post(s) Tagged: 1 Thread(s)	GSpeed Low-Profile Seat Mounts THE NEED When building a customer's BRZ racecar, we discovered the lack of purpose-built racecar seat mounts for these cars. Since we have a 3D model of the interior of the car, we were able to design a seat mount that provides as much room for the driver as physically possible. THE CONCEPT Starting with two of the largest race seats on the market (Racetech 119-series "Wide and Tall" variant), we moved the seats as low and back as physically possible. From this side profile, you can see there's not much room between the back of the seat and the body of the car: They're also slid as close to the transmission tunnel as possible to make sure even the widest seats can be centered on the steering wheel: Since it seems like no two race seat side mounts are the same, we've cut an assortment of slots in the top of the mount to allow for a myriad of mounting locations. It's inevitable some minor trimming may be required to get holes to line up, but it's either a perfect fit with ONE brand of seat, or 90% of the way there for every seat. Because we're a racecar shop, we chose the latter. This is the most secure mounting style. However, that doesn't always work. If you're building an endurance car with drivers of various heights, or you've got a street car and need to adjust your seat, you need sliders. These mounts have captive fasteners for, and can be purchased with, Recaro 0.79.9NT double-locking steel sliders. Adding less than an inch of seat height, this mount & slider combination is the perfect package for owners looking to get as much headroom as possible. THE PROTOTYPE Here's the first pair we got back from the manufacturer: You can see we made a few changes, by comparing it to the rendered model above. Those changes were: -Slot rear bolt hole. Although these bolted up perfectly to our 2015, it was brought to our attention that the earlier chassis had very slightly different rear mount locations. That shouldn't be an issue now. -Widen seat mounting platform. We added over an inch to the total width on top to allow the seat to get a little closer to the tunnel. Even this wide Racetech is now centered in front of the wheel. -Remove center "bridge." It limited how low the seat could drop, and we felt it wasn't necessary. As low as this mount is, it's incredibly stiff. -Remove unnecessary slots in middle. Since these will most likely never be needed, we decided to remove them to cut down on laser time and keep cost low. Here's how the seat sits in the car. You can see the roofline in that picture. For a car as small as this, it's incredibly spacious. The owner remarked he's got MUCH more headroom in this car than in any of his previous Viper racecars. The seat could have moved even further back if it wasn't for the roll cage. PRODUCTION These seat mounts are made from 11ga (0.12") carbon steel, with a black zinc phosphate finish that's both attractive and durable. Each mount will be sold for $129.00 by themselves, and $233.11 with Recaro sliders. Our current lead time for the first batch of 20 is three weeks. They're listed for sale on our website: https://gspeed.com/product/brzfr-s86...ro-seat-mount/ Thanks! Last edited by GSpeed; 06-24-2016 at 05:04 PM.