Project Time Attack Part 1 - Project Miata Is Dead

Equally important is proper mounting. We've seen a driver seriously injure his legs when the rails give out in an accident. You should not use stock rails to mount a race seat. They're not secure and often raise the driver's center of gravity. AWR makes a proper mount for the Racetech seat.

Our custom seat bracket not only dropped the seat low, but also moved it inboard, placing the driver's head further from the cage bars.

We used a plasma cutter to remove the stock mounting pedestals and built a mounting bracket to bolt onto the floor. In order to get the lowest possible seating position, we also heated the transmission tunnel and hammered it out of the way in a couple spots to orient the seat properly. This lower seating position not only helps lower the center of gravity, but more importantly moves the driver's head away from the roll cage. NASA's rule book has additional requirements regarding seat safety. In case of an accident, unsupported seats can break, causing severe injury. There are two ways to address this. One is to have a seatback support to help distribute the load. Proper installation will include secure attachments directly to seat and cage. The alternative, which we chose, is to select a seat that is homologated to, and is mounted in accordance with, FIA 8855-1999 standards.

Harnesses

Before we started, not much thought had gone into the difference between various harnesses. Obviously, you shouldn't use four-point belts for risk of submarining, but all five- and six-point harnesses are largely created equal, right?

A conversation with the folks at HMS Motorsports quickly answered that question. Until recently in the USA, three-inch belts were considered the safest and only legal belts to race with. In Europe, however, Schroth Harnesses (one of the leaders in safety harness technology) has been recommending two-inch lap and substrap belts, as they allow a tight and more ccurate fit.

Through the efforts of HMS (Schroth's North American distributor), many racing series are beginning to allow and endorse the smaller lap belts and substraps. HMS recommended Schroth Profi II-6 six-point belts for us.

We'll be addressing weight in the next installment. But we removed the seatbelts as well as the mounting assemblies to lessen weight as well as move the roll hoop rearward.

Once again, proper mounting of the harness is as important as selecting the right one. AWR added harness tabs behind our seat to keep the shoulder straps from moving. If you don't have this luxury, you should cross your harnesses behind the seat. This will keep them from sliding around and possibly loosening or sliding off your shoulder.

Fire Suppression And Prevention

It is important to note that NASA's safety rules for their High Performance Driving Experience (HPDE) and TT events do not require this much prep for most vehicles. In fact, in order to take your daily driver to the track and compete, there are only two things you will likely need to do. One is a safety inspection which goes over things you should care about on the street, like tire tread depth, brake pad thickness, and how securely the hubs are holding the wheels.

The other is a fire extinguisher, securely mounted to the metal of the car and within reach of the driver. No plastic or aerosol type cans are allowed, although there don't seem to be any provisions against chromed extinguishers. See NASA's website for allowed chemical compounds. When our car is eventually finished, we will want an integrated fire suppression system. However, NASA does not allow this system to replace a hand-held unit mounted in a location that's readily accessible to a belted-in driver.

At this point, we haven't had a chance to turn the engine bay into a rats' nest of fire hazards, so we're just using a fire extinguisher in the cabin. With all this safety work completed, we can soon get on with the serious work of going faster.