State of the art seats

[Ratliff]

State of the art dragster seat.

[Ratliff]

State of the art stock car seat.

[1212FBGS]

is that dragster frame representative of what the chassis design actually looks like?
Kent

[Ratliff]

is that dragster frame representative of what the chassis design actually looks like?
Kent

The manufacturer is showing the seat at the PRI show. The rollcage is just to show how it would fit in a typical dragster chassis.

[maguromic]

Who is the manufacture of the seat in the dragster?

[roygoodwin]

It looks like its Aerodine Composites Group < http://www.aerodinecomposites.com/main.html >

You can see pictures of the seat in the "Photo Gallery" -- I couldn't find much else.

HTH

roy

[maguromic]

Roy, Thanks, I wasn't sure if it was them.  Thats a concept seat they did with McKinney race cars for the NHRA.
Tony

[saltfever]

After John Force had his accident he did a lot of upgrades to the frame and presented it to NHRA for approval. IIRC, NHRA had a weight increase after Force's accident? I believe McKinney worked closely (or maybe was commissioned) by Force to come up with a better concept. The idea is nothing new. It is a "break-away" concept designed to separate the driver pod completely away from the crashing vehicle. In the case of IRL the pod stays intact while the car sheds mass all around the pod. In unlimited hydroplanes the self-contained cockpit separates.

[maguromic]

The original seat design was done by Reynard when Robby Gordon wanted to bring Indy technology to NASCAR.  Because of the seating position only Robby Gordon and  the Petty's ran that style.  When Reynard went bankrupt Hendrick took over the project and redesigned it with a NASCAR style seating position.  Now they sell this to many of the NASCAR teams. But all the testing  done by Reynard proved that the Indy style sitting position was the best for a crash. The picture that Ratliff posted was from Race Car Engineering and was the old Indy style seat that  is being redeveloped with McKinney for possible approval be NHRA.  I have one of the original Reynard seats, and my roadster was designed around it. The original seat was designed to be used only with the HANS device. For those of you that might be interested in a seat the original Reynard tolling is with Aerodine Engineeing. You can buy the NASCAR style from Hendrick.  They are VERY expensive but I cant put a price on my life.

[A2WindTunnel]

A few years back one of the race engineers at Robby Gordon's (cup team) told me they were around $15K for the seat.  Like maguromic said... you can't put a price on your life. 

Here is a link to another very popular seat used in NASCAR right now.  My old roomate ran in the Craftsman Truck series and when he switched to this seat, he said he would never sit in anything else.  It was a night and day difference from the "old" style seats in comfort and safety.

http://www.joieofseating.net/full-custom_race-seat.html

[jl222]

  15,000$ for a seat? What a bunch of crap for a one minute ride.
  You guys would wet your pants just considering getting on a motorcycle.
  Theres a lot of other safe seats for a lot less, 14,750$ less.

                  JL222
 

[maguromic]

I didn't pay 15k, I don't have that kind of money. I bought mine at the Reynard liquidation.  Its not a seat, its a composite tub that has the shape of a seat and is built in a autoclave. Thats where the expense comes from, not too many composite shops have a big autoclave.  It is very similar to the tub in the Ohio State stream liner.

Unfortunately everything in racing is gotten out of hand. when we were racing Trans-Am in the stone age an engine was about 25K-30K, now from the same builder a  NASCAR engine is about 75K today.  A liberty trans, that a lot of guys on the salt are running 8K new used about 6K. Maybe  the pricing will reflect the economics of the day soon.

As for motorcycle those guys and gals are just plane crazy!

[maguromic]

.

[maguromic]

.

[maguromic]

Now thats weird, my last post showed up twice.