Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has lowered their seat
by lowering the floor. I have head clearance, but
would feel more comfortable with another 1" or so.
Is this legal? Pain to do?

Thanks
Sid

The way to get the seat as low as possible.

1) bolt to the floor (I use sparco pro2000 wiht side mounts and side mounts are bolted to the floor). No sliders.
2) remove the seat pad.

I am 5' 7" and can't see over the wipers if I run them (bolted to the floor and . That is how low I can sit. The rear of the seat is just about flat on the tub. The front maybe 1/2" up as determined by the sparco side mounts.

Any modifications to the tub to lower the floor are not expressly allowed in the rules and therefore are not legal. You can mod the pan area inside the car to provide for a strong mounting. This can get you a little space to work with, but that is all.

Sorry to be the "safety" guy, Joe but!!!!!!

DO NOT MOUNT THE SEAT ON THE FLOOR. PERIOD!

In every heavy crash (and some light ones, too) I have seen the floor buckle to some extent. In many, it buckled enough to allow the top of the seat to move several inches due to the distance of the seat top from the bottom. This has resulted in helmet to roll bar contact in those cases.

I mounted my seat very low by removing the seat slider stuff, cutting the raised sheet metal that supports the lower slider track piece out of the car and welding a piece of steel tube, with plates on each end, to the tunnel and side rail. I then attached the seat to that. Of course, the seat does not move but it gives me substancially more head room in the car. A side mount seat can also be attached to the tunnel and side rail. It requires a bit more fabrication to do it but is well worth the effort to minimise any issue of the floor deforming and allowing the seat to move.

I also move the seat back to the point that I have to put spacers on all three pedals to be able to reach them. Having the seat back more allows more room to the front halo hoop and allows easier egress from the car in an emergency with helmut and hans on.

Big Dog

Jim,
The seat must be mounted to the floor. There is no other way. However you may rienforce the floor in any way you see fit. This means it can be tied to the outer frame rail and the center tunnel. What you did was infact to fab in floor reienforcements and the mounted to that. Which in effect is just a stong floor pan.

However cutting out the floor pan and fabbing some other floor to lower the seat more than existing floor pan is not allowed. The reason it is not allowed is that the rules don't say it. You also may not tie to the cage (other than the seat back brace) since that would violate the number points allowed in the cage.

So I have no issues with modding the floor area to provide a strong mounting. Using this you can create a strong seat mounting.

Joe, my seat does not touch the floor pan in any way at all. My seat is an al. seat so I welded a 1/2 X 1 inch steel tube between the side rail and the tunnel. The seat is bolted to that.

With a fiberglass or similar seat with side mounts, the side mount can have a tube welded (or attached in another way) that runs front to back and can then be attached to a cross bar that is attached to the side and tunnel to keep the seat and the mounting system from being in contact with the floor pan.

My seat is about 1/2 inch above the floor plan so the floor has room to buckle without touching the seat bottom at it's closest point.

Any flat metal attached to the floor pan will, perhaps, help some but will not be very strong because it is flat.

The floor pan buckled in every significant crash I have looked at. Mounting the seat on the floor pan is , simply, not the best way to mount it. Any movement of the floor pan allows the top of the seat to move several inches and can allow an impact with the roll cage.

My 2 cents for what it is worth. Of course, remember, you always get what you pay for.

Jim