what is the proper seating height fro the track ? eyes as high as possible ?

what is the proper seating height for the track Should I try to seat as high as possible, with just 1/2 inch above my helmet or the lower the better as far as I can see above the steering wheels What do you guys see ahead when you are driving: - you can see the road ahead but not the car at all ? - you can see the top fenders ? - you can see the top fender and also a little bit of the hood ? I will try different configuration and see what fit bests, but I feel like the higher the better, in terms of where my eyes are located, am I right ? Also I see that if you lower too much your seats, the harness would be really angled down if you tie them up on the rollbar, no ?

Ever watched WRC? <think low center of gravity>

LOW CG = mo betta I only see tree tops

Lol, I have a set of BK mount that suppress the sliders and they are quite low. I am 6 feet and I was used to see the fenders and even a piece of the hood since I installed my gt3 seats with the sliders. but now I wonder if I am not too low...

Low sounds like the way to go.

HEY!!! where are the pics of these seats!!! I seem to recall asking several times

OR ELSE!!!!

they have been in but out right away for the BK mount install and also traqmate and chasecam install under the passenger seat. And in the meantime I received my PSS9 ! too much to debrief chiefs Here is a pic of my traqmate + chasecam install, I bought a neat piece of plexiglass at homedepot and mounted the hardware on it, then put the whoel thing under the passenger seat. the plexi helps because the chassis under the seat is not flat and little to attach aside of velcro and I wanted it all to be secure. Bonus is that i can see the screen of th chasecam via the hole under the cushion of the gt3 seats Anyways I have a couple of project to debrief. but pss9 and rennline pedals needs to get mounted first

someone got the bug

my guess is it really doesn't matter ....since you aren't a pro. just enjoy the track and relax guys, these are just cars. no one really cares about your seat height.

I'd rather get it right instead of learning two years down the line that I have been sitting wrong all along

if you really are serious, seat low, eyes high. but when you consider the change in CG of the car made by lowering your body and the seat (5 to 7 percent of the total vehicle weight), not a factor for a track day.

Thanks Lee, My main concern is where the eye should stand indeed, I don't think lower center gravity plays for me... my car is not even lowered yet

lowering will help the CG... but what I meant was... irrespective of the actual seat height, and eye line height, "low eyes" on the track is a bad thing. By "eyes high" I meant looking way ahead. Happy Tracking!!

I would say as high as you need to be to see clearly without risk of hitting your head on the roof. The CoG difference won't make nearly as much difference as being able to see the corners of your car, track edges and apexes clearly.

Phil, If your 6' tall I would hop in the car with the helmet you intend to use first, then decide how much clearance you need to be safe. I cannot sit straight up in my car otherwise my helmet is pinned to the headliner.

with the standard rails and the gt3 seats I do have to remove the cushion to fit, and I think I have 1/2 an inch above my head. I think I need an additional inch of clearance. I did purchase a set of bk mount that suppress the rails but now I think I might be too low I think I'll have to see them and buy the bk mounts that go with the slider and I should be right where I want to be.

One of the first things you learn at the track is to keep your eyes up off of the road surface and focused way further ahead than you are used to. Having a high seating position that allows you to see the corners of the car better does nothing for this. Sitting lower in the car tends to encourage you to look further out since you can no longer see the stuff you are used to looking at when you drive on the street. Lower is better imho.

gr888 now I see there are different opinions

do you guys wear racing uniforms too? What about your pre-race meal, that must be super important too. See you on the roads someday.

I understand that you are joking but you would be amazed how the right technique can help you in a minute if you know it or it can take you years to acquire on your own. For example would you go skiing for the first time without a basic lesson ? of course you can, but why skipping the 4 hour training that will save you weeks of learning.

yea I wear a race uniform..its called jeans and a light cotton shirt, special shoes (merrell moc jungle's I wear to work and am comfortable in) and eat fried grits before every race! (well maybe not the grits but i drink a LOT of juice and Gatorade at the track and no alcohol/beer 3 days before any event. Good nights sleep...maybe a few other things......... now I miss being at the track, but i had a long dry spell with the way my year ended due to a private event being cancelled and then car repairs and kids schedule's - I get the 15th and the 30th of this month in the passenger seat at the baby track and that rounds out my year.... Think i'll go shopping for brake pads or something, now I am depressed

Quotes source post: 8920701

As I said, seeing the corner of your car better does allow you to place the car with more accuracy at entry, mid corner and exit. Looking ahead is a habit anyone can develop regardless of seating position. Sitting too low in the car just to block out stuff you look at on the street is just dumb? I don't know what distracts you on the street, but all the tracks I race on don't generally have pedestrians, dogs and shop hoardings to look at. Even on the street you need to look well ahead to drive properly.

so how does one go about getting track time? I'd love to go on a track just to have some fun, but it must be pretty costly, no? Yes I was kidding but also do respect that there must be technique beyond what I can appreciate. Just giving a hard time about the uniform and breakfast comment.

You want your butt as low as you can go. The biggest comunicator in what the car is doing is your butt with the seat its in. By sitting high its like sitting on top of a ball sitting in your seat, you'll be thrown around by the rotation of the car about the roll axis rather than feeling the lateral motion of the car around the corner. Its good to see your marks and the corner of your car early on. but you should quickly develop a feel for where your car is without the need to look at it. It will become second nature, after all how often can you pull into a parking lot and not hit the wheelstop or the curb? thats the feel you need, you don't even want to think about it, its automatic. So IMHO its way more important than you would think. Try lowering your seat all the way down at your next event....you'll feel the difference. PS, if you want to start getting some seat time, get a membership at your local PCA or NASA, and sign up for a DE or autocross, each is set up to start from zero.

Presumably you would still want to see over the dash in your quest to be as low as possible.... otherwise remove the seat, put in a shell and sit on the floor.... Unless you are a real shorty and weigh a ton the difference between sitting as high as you can and as as low as you can is probably only a couple inches at most and we are only talking about very subtle and negligable differences in overall CoG . Yet an inch of extra height can make an appreciable difference to visibility. The idea that you will be thrown about and loose feel through your butt just by being an inch or so higher is a bit of an exageration particularly if you have a good seat and harness. Most important is you feel secure and comfortable in the car, that your arms and legs are positioned correctly to control the car and you can see clearly. If you can sit as low as possible and still achieve that then well and good, but if you are starting to limit your visibility and driving position just in the name of the lowest CoG I would personally move the seat higher and enjoy better visibility, but thats just me. I like to see whats going on around me with other cars as well as down the track. Best advice is probably to ignore the debate and try different seat height positions for yourself and see what works best for you.

I think I will sacrifice one track day using the lowest position and see how it feels and I will bring my seat sliders with me in case I feel I am really too low to the ground and I'll make the switch over there. It is rather quick to change the setup. The cool thing with the low seat is that you can have your legs a bit straighter also but then the steering wheels gets a bit high up, I wish the steering column would adjust vertically, can't believe it doesn't on a car this expensive ...

Give it a try, as you drop the seat roll the seat bottom back to support your thighs, I think you'll find it much more comfortable and connected. Actually this does make a huge difference. 1" is a lot and 2" is huge. What I'm talking about has nothing to do with the cg of the car or weight dist. but where your primary point of feedback (your butt) is in relationship to the roll center (not CG) of the car. Most properly set up racecars the factory seat rails are cut out and new pan mounted to allow the shell to sit practically on the floor. It has as much to do with getting the driver in the correct position and feel as it does lowering the CG and headroom for the cage. In all my race/track cars my eye level is about the top of the dash, including factory race cars. Under no circumstances should you be driving a racecar in traffic visually gauging your distance to other cars off your fender, you have to come to know the limits with only peripheral vision, as mike said above you need to be heads and eyes up, you don't want to be fixated on the fender but looking out to the track out or apex a turn or more ahead...that will come with seat time....just my .02...

Quotes source posts: 8921181, 8922136

This ^^^ And this ^^^ There's lots of stuff in driving that's debatable. Honestly, low vs high seating position on the track is just not one of them.

Mike how's the rebuild coming?

Funny you should ask. We just got the car back from the body guy yesterday. Here's a shot of the corner that took the big hit. We've made some improvements along the way. Notice the roof?

Nice! that's a proper race car roof!

I am disappointed from the BK seat mount quality, I tried to installed. I tried to install them today and I had to cancel because they are not a plug and play fit. They are the version that mount directly to the floor and I will have to grind the floor hole a little bit, if not in their current size I am missing like 2mm of lenght. So the bolt don't go in properly. I though that BK were doing their homework a little better. Anyways I assume the low seating position will only come for my next track days. For this weekend I will simply remove the cushion on my euro seats.

Quotes source post: 8923384

I completely forgot about this until I saw this phrase. Patrick Long comes down to Texas typically once a year to do a driving school. Quite a few of my friends have attended. As part of the clinic, he takes everyone out for a ride in their car with him driving. From what I've been told, he almost always takes the the bottom cushion out of their drivers seat when he gets in (nearly all the cars are track prepared). He does this to sit lower, and to provide a better connection between his rear end and the car. He's not a real tall guy, so you can imagine how low this makes his seating position.

How low is too low...