We’re quickly approaching the end of the month, when we go to the Buccaneer Region’s Double Driver’s School and get our competition license. Before we do that, we need to fit our recently-caged car with all the necessary safety equipment. Out go the seat and stock belts; in go a proper seat and good restraints.
We called HMS Motorsport for an FIA-approved Cobra Evolution GT racing seat and side plates to mount to the car. We drilled holes in our old Ultra Shield seat to attach it to the robust Planted Technology seat bracket, but while the Planted bracket gives us a nice, flat surface to work with, we didn’t want to drill into a high-end Cobra seat—not to mention the proper side plates will be more secure. The Cobra side plates will bolt to the Planted bracket, which attaches to the OE seat bosses. 425 Motorsports has a wide variety of these brackets.
To hold us in place, we have a Schroth six-point harness, but for now we’re a Safecraft unit while the Schroth is on loan to our yellow Mazda Miata project as it goes to some track days (the yellow Schroth lettering matches the Miata nicely). That harness came from HMS Motorsport along with a Schroth window net, which will keep our limbs inside the Fiesta should it have an unfortunate rollover event.
Another item we got from Safecraft was a center net. At the time, it was the only net approved for Grand-Am racing, but the series is no longer running B-Spec; center nets are not required by World Challenge, though they are strongly recommended. HMS Motorsport has an illustrative video showing why center nets are a good thing. Click the link around halfway down this page on the right: http://www.hmsmotorsport.com/store/safety-equipment/window-cage-nets/cage-nets.
We’re going to finish installing these pieces later this week, along with some padding for our Sbox Engineering roll cage. Look for an update later on detailing our final safety prep.
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