When we last left off regarding #TrashTeg, we discussed safety upgrades before an HPDE event. In this blog post, we're going to narrow the scope a bit and talk about some specifics-- specifically regarding the seats.
Recall that the seats we used in this budget, to-be, Honda Challenge H4 race car, were found on Craigslist for an extremely cheap price due to their condition and age. We paid ~$150 picked up ~30 minutes from home.
While the condition of the seats won't win any car shows, we don't care because we're racing the car. However because the seats are old, their FIA certification has expired.
When doing HPDE or track days with the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) or other clubs, this may be okay as long as the car passes other safety rules. However, wheel-to-wheel racing is a different story. If the FIA certification is expired, the seat must be reinforced to ensure the seat back doesn't snap on impact. To solve this problem, enter the back brace.
A seat back brace is intended to prevent excess movement of the seat forward or backward in a crash. This ensures that the driver stays in the same spot, the harnesses do their job, and the driver is unharmed due to whiplash or other injury caused by sudden, harsh movement. To read more about seat back braces and why they're useful, see this article by IO Port Racing.
Since our Integra was being converted from an HPDE car with a roll bar to a race car, one thing (among many) we needed to add was this seat back brace.
The IO Port back brace is what we used, not because we're sponsored by them (I wish), but just because it's what we happened to order from them. The kit comes with everything you'll need. The picture below shows the contents of the kit and what purpose the components serve:
To begin installing our new brace, we first stripped the pristine fabric off of our God-knows-how-old years-old seats.
Lifting back the foam, it was easy to see where we could drill into for our new brace.
Next we began bolting things together. In the labeled picture of the seat back brace above, you'll notice that the tube that transfers load from the seat to the cage in the event of a crash is secured to the cage with a two-piece, machined block of metal. The top half of this block bolts to the cage and the bottom half bolts to the tube that transfers load.
We loosely bolted this onto the cage first.
Next, we grabbed our load transfer tube shown below:
And we inserted it into the bottom part of the machined block which we had loosely attached to the cage. After doing this, we tried our best to center the bracket on the middle of the seat.
You'll notice that seat-back bracket was flat but the seat was curved.
To remedy this we needed to intervene, bending the soft aluminum with a vise and a hammer. While in the vise, we also drilled the holes for the seat-to-bracket mounting hardware.
Note that in the NASA Club Codes and Regulations (CCR), the mounting hardware facing the back of the car's driver must be flush with the seat, not protruding. IO Port includes allen bolts which preclude any potential conflict with this rule and also provide for additional safety.
With the bracket bent to the profile of the seat, we centered the bracket with a whiteout marker and marked where the seat needed to be drilled.
Then, we secured the bracket to the seat using the provided hardware from IO Port. On the side of the seat facing the racer's back, we used allen bolts with rounded heads as previously mentioned. On the side opposite the racer's back, IO Port provided us locking nuts to use.
With the seat back brace secured to the seat and all other components loose, we finally began securing all other components which would bring us near completion.
The diagram below shows the order of final installation. First, tighten the back brace-to-load transfer tube bolts. Second, tighten the allen bolts securing the main block to the cage. Third, drill a hole in the load transfer tube and insert your cotter pin:
With the back brace fully installed, we finally put the fabric back on our seat and concluded our install. The fabric is easy to install back onto the old Corbeaus. It has an elastic band that allows the fabric to stretch around the contours of the seat and tighten once past the edges.
Detailed photos of the installation are shown below:
On May 3rd, my friend Alex is going to New Jersey Motorsports Park with NASA Northeast to participate in Competition School for his provisional license and hopefully begin racing with the Honda Challenge H4 crew.
If you wish to attend one of our events, reach out to me in the comments section and I can get back to you ASAP!
Thanks for reading! --Track Rat
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