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How important is your connection to the car? Can you drive for hours without aches and pains? Can you take a nap on the starting grid because your racing seat is so comfy that it feels like home?
Your body has three points to connect to the car: Hands on the steering wheel, feet on the pedals and body in the seat. Many think if the hips fit they are done but proper seat fitment is worth the extra time and effort. Some experienced racers and crew chiefs will tell you that it can mean up to 1/2 a second a lap.
You get most of the feedback from your car through the seat. If you're not properly fitted to the seat, you can not receive those g-forces and vibrations that tell you what the car is doing. Let's look at how to improve your connection to your car.
Seat choice. There should be no pressure points that cause discomfort or pain. They will detract from your ability to focus and concentrate on driving fast. This is where custom fitted seats or custom inserts come into play.
Seat inserts. You’ve probably seen endurance drivers climb in and out with their personal seat insert. No matter what kind of seat you have, you can tailor it to fit your body shape. Using things like 2 part expandable foam, stiff seat foam of aircraft or military grade (as thin as possible) or even the latest bead seat kits, you can fit yourself to any seat like it was made just for you.
Proper fitment. We know of drivers/teams that will easily spend 10 hours designing and tuning a proper fitment. Yes, 10 hours! We know of one case where the team invested 40 hours in a bead seat to get it just right. The end result is what counts, as a driver can then do his or her job for hours on end, focused and comfortable.
Layout and Positioning. Once you've been properly fitted to your seat, it's time to look at steering wheel placement, pedals, and shifter placement. In addition, we shouldn't forget about the other controls, such as switches, radio, fire extinguisher and so on.
The seat should be placed first, then everything else moved to fit the driver. Yes, it sounds backwards, but this is the right way to optimize the interior layout for the driver.
1. Arms should be slightly bent at the elbow with the wheel turned 180 degrees.
2. You should be able to shift into the hardest to reach gear without lifting your shoulder off/out of the seat. Can’t do that? Then its time to get out the tools and fabricate/modify the shift lever.
3. Your switches, radio, and fire extinguisher should be placed within reach so the driver does not have to move out of the seat. How many times have you seen a driver that can’t reach the fire extinguisher while belted in? We have seen this many times.
Note: Please remember not to place anything in an area that can be bumped by your hands as you move through the normal actions of driving. We have personal experience thinking the engine had failed when in fact it was just a hand flying around the steering wheel to save a slide that hit the ignition switch off.
4. The knees should be slightly bent as well with all the pedals fully depressed. This allows for the best modulation. In many cars the pedals can be operated by flexing the ankle, instead of lifting and moving your entire leg.
Think of the seat, pedals and steering wheel as the most important tools you have and take the time to properly design and modify your cockpit layout.