Lets Discuss Seats and Harnesses.
 

lets discuss seats and harnesses. When we have access to thousands of harness and seat combinations. Does anyone have any questions regarding seats and/or harnesses?

OG Racing Blog: 6 things to consider when buying a harness

LUV my UltraShields. Everybody get some. Keeps the boys in Tyler busy (they're either welding UltraShields or Natural Gas Field Service parts). 'MURICA!

Kirkeys for me. They hold my ass just right.

I'm using latch and link belts that seem to confuse nearly everybody who rides with me. But then again I've seen people fumble with camlock harnesses as well.

Find me a seat comparable to a lotus exige seat or the sparco roadster that is 5 point harness compatible, fits in a miata, and does not cost $800+ each. I have found all of one seat that fits this description and a recent review tells me the cloth cover is not of the best quality. It is the exige repl8ca by infinit fab.

I need something with easy ingress and egress for DD use with the capability of harnesses for the track.

+1 on the kirkey. I have a 41300 with an expanding foam insert. Most comfortable seat ever. You can't easily share the car with other drivers but I have my seat bolted to the floor all the way back anyway.

Kirkey. I stupidly bought the 20° layback and have been wanting the 10° since the day I installed it. BUT it still the most comfortable seat ever with a bit of extra foam under the bump and in the lower back area. I do wish someone made an FIA seat with the same shape, I hate shoulder wings.

The downside to the kirkey is that people made me cut the rib breakers off, and I really liked them. With the rib breakers removed I kind of want to go to a harness but I can stomach the extra 80lbs that entails. Maybe if I get a new seat and keep the rib breakers I'll pull some more weight out going to just lap belts.

It took Ultrashield 11 weeks to ship my seat. If I didn't already have one and wanted to have matching seats I would have gone elsewhere. Their seats are nice but that's way too long to wait.

After fighting with a couple of seats and distributors not understanding a proper 6 point mount, I'd go for a custom Kirkey (or similar) to get everything just right.

Now I have to have a FIA sticker on the seat so that's a no-go, sadly, so I have to be happy with my OMP ARS.

Tall back, but removing the rear humps and the rear bolt of the L's through the floor makes it work.

Have used a Cobra Suzuka (loved it) and now a Sparco Circuit (works but not as comfortable but halo).

For harnesses, best I've used is my Schroth Profi II for HANS. Works great, easy to adjust.

I've had corbeau fx1 pros(comfy but didn't fit well at all), Lotus Elise 05 seats non probax(fit like a glove and looked great! Uncomfortable as shit), NA seats defoamed in my NB(Comfy, just not ideal), Kirkeys, fit my ass like a glove and didn't break the bank. My only complaint is my harness's, I need some padding on them otherwise they like to cut into my neck.

It seems like that's the norm if you order direct from Ultrashield. I ordered my Ultrashield SM seat from Advanced Autosport (after Ultrashield telling me it would be a 10-12 week wait) and had it in a couple days. Looks like OG Racing is an Ultrashield vendor too.

I used to hate on aluminum seats (and pretty much anything that wasn't a Recaro), but after cheaping out and putting a miatacage kit in my car, I've been fighting non-stop to find a seat that doesn't interfere with my main hoop. I finally bit the bullet and bought an Ultrashield SM, and I'm surprised at how well I like it. I do miss the shoulder wings, though. I'm thinking pretty hard about trying an Ultrashield Pro Road Race.

I'm running an Ultrashield Pro Road Race with a Racequip 6 point cam lock Hans harness. No complaints. Seat is very comfortable. Contemplating moving to the passenger and greeting an Ultrashield with Halo

Same experience, bought out of AA stock and had my US SM seats in a couple of days. I find the US seats incredibly comfortable. No big deal to drive the car long distances if needed.

80 pounds?? How in the hell do you figure that. I know you have to have some kind of harness bar, but I have to think you can get it done much lighter than that.

Anyways, I have Ultrashield seats and belts. I purchased one seat at a time, and did not have to wait long for either seat. I purchased them from Race Day Safety.

After doing a Kirkey install for someone and basically bending the seat into the shape to make it fit in their application, I just have a mental block when thinking about using an aluminum seat. Don't like it. If I can bend the thing into shape, forces in impact can do a lot more.. Understand that it's supposed to be safe if installed correctly but there's a lot more ways you can get it wrong with the install for an aluminum seat and have an unsafe setup as a result. And a serious back brace is an absolute must for them.

I like my Sparco Circuit enough, got it for a great deal second-hand that I couldn't pass up. Definitely wouldn't want it for a daily due to the high side bolsters obviously. The seat I'd pick if I switched would be the Cobra Evolution hands down, I've driven in one and it's an awesome seat.

-Ryan

I ordered from Solo Performance Systems and it was drop shipped from US. My first one shipped within a week, 3 or 4 years ago, and I expected the same this time but the ship date kept getting pushed back by US. 4 weeks, then 6 then 8 and finally 12. I was really close to ordering a pair of Kirkey's at the 10 week mark but I'm glad to of held out. The seats really are fantastic and surprisingly comfortable.

Thanks for the tip about Advanced Autosport. I like supporting SPS since they are local but not if it means it takes 11x as long to get something to my door.

What I really want is whatever Emilio had in Crusher circa 2012. Super comfortable and tons of leg and headroom. I'm certain just one costs more than both of my seats combined though.

50lbs worth of roll bar + harnesses are heavy. I guess once you factor in removing the factory bits its probably only 60lbs total.

I shoehorned some used sparco pro2000's in mine and couldn't be happier... till i have to get out.

Pretty sure Emilio uses OMP Grips mostly. Plus, Crusher's roll cage was 100% custom fitted -- lots of room.

I see people running aluminum seats without proper back bracing all the time. Drives me nuts. People who should know better too.

The US mounts and back brace I did on the Red car are really working well so far. I could probably lift the car from the seats. LOL.

Agreed. This was my biggest reason for hating on them for so long. I'm only ok with them now because of my space constraints and because, once you install a right side net, there's really no place for you or the seat to go. I'm going to do a bead seat insert once I make a final decision on seats, and I'll probably have it extend all the way up to my left shoulder. Right now my shoulder will hit sheet metal and/or the main hoop in an impact... ouch.

I still dislike seat back braces, though. Almost all racecar safety devices are designed to stretch/flex/bend/crumple to absorb energy and slowly decelerate the body. The seat should be able to do the same in a rear impact. I get the need for brace with a flexy aluminum seat, but I think there at least needs to be some high density foam between the seat and the metal back brace.