Racing seats and cages

[tipo158]

For those of you with racing seats and roll cages in your TR7/8 ...

Are there any clearance issues with fitting a homologated racing seat and a current MSA/Art. 253 roll cage?

I have been mocking up where the cage elements will be (based on the Custom Cages TR7 cage photos) and where the seats will be and it looks like it will close enough that I need to precisely mock things up to make sure everything will fit.

I am hoping that someone else has been down this road. There is so much more to seats and cages compared to when the works cars ran.

alan

[V8Wedgehead]

tipo-
The works rally cars had the floors recessed so the seats are lower. Anyone tall will hit their head on the rollcage bar. I have a bolt in cage and even the weld in types have issues in this area. Unless you sink the bars into the roof framing. Side impact is also important as a Rally TR7V8 in Austraila just got wiped out with some side impact damage! See pictures below (some are from Chunk):









Michael
1980 TR8 FHC/Works Rally Project

If it is broken then fix it....if it is not then make it faster!"

[tipo158]

Thanks for the photos, Michael.

I don't have links to photos for the Custom Cages cage, but I thought that I gave you a link to their TR7 cage info before. They do a full 'X' in the backstays and take the backstays all of the way back to the shock mount. They also have a full 'X' in the doors and a full-width dash bar (which, uh, runs through the top of the heater box).

My primary concern is between the main hoop and the top of the seat back. I am borrowing a seat to mock things up and see how it looks.

I am also thinking using the Race Tech RT Saker seat. It is based on the RT 4000 line, which is a FIA seat, but it is a layback design, so the seatback is like 10" shorter. One problem with that is a standard HANS device won't work with it. Also, FIA seats are required by one US rally sanction body and may be required by the other soon.

alan

[Troy ODoherty]

Hi Allan
In my TR I have a Momo race seat which has only a very thin cushion under the driver. not many seats are like this, most have a thick cushion which raises you up in the car. My cage has a cross in the roof for added strenght and my helmet fits inside the triangle between the front leg and the center of the cross. I am 173 cm tall, 5'7".
I will try to get a couple of pics for you
Cheers Troy

[Beans]

Some more info on [url="http://club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/forum10/Blah.pl/Blah.pl?m-1113905762/"]<u><b><font size="2"><font color="red">seats</font id="red"></font id="size2"></b></u>[/url] and [url="http://club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/forum10/Blah.pl/Blah.pl?m-1135845120/"]<u><b><font size="2"><font color="red">roll cages</font id="red"></font id="size2"></b></u>[/url]

<center>
<font color="blue"><i>1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)
1981 TR7 DHC (now completely dismantled)
Also a 1980 TR7 DHC, 1980 TR7 DHC FI, 1981 TR7 FHC</font id="blue">
<font color="red">http://tr7beans.blogspot.com/</i></font id="red"></center>

[tipo158]

Here are some photos from Custom Cages of their TR7 cage.

[nadg63]

I'd advise getting the floors/seat rail mod done, I had it done in my car to get more room and was a must have. Clearance was good with the cage alone, but you lose more when it has to be wrapped in cage foam.

[tipo158]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nadg63</i>

I'd advise getting the floors/seat rail mod done, I had it done in my car to get more room and was a must have. Clearance was good with the cage alone, but you lose more when it has to be wrapped in cage foam.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

What happens with the exhaust routing? Doesn't it run in the space underneath the inner LH seat rail?

alan