Whats the general consensus on seats. Beard/mastercraft seem to be the preffered choice of many but i am concerned at the lack of head/neck support in a rollover.A mate of mine uses Velo Apex seats in his sons drift cars and swears by them. Something weatherproof is a bonus given the way they will be treated. Brian Dennerts MK V has speedway seats which though not built for comfort would contain you if things got ugly. I could be swayed either way but would like some advice from the educated.
In our last car we had Velo seats and they were fantastic. Hugged around you and kept you very snug in the seat, and they also had very good head support. The aded bonus was that they were a leather-type material so they were very easy to clean, etc, and you didn't get a wet arse through having wet foam in the seat.
The suspension style seats are getting a bit of abuse on "race desert" they've had a few fail causing back injuries. Although how old are the seats that failed and given thousands are in use. Interesting though i have never heard of a failure here, has anyone else? I'm leaning toward the Velo Apex which would be cool with a wet suit material cover, easy to clean and dont have to be too precious with it.
Another consideration is with Velo you are buying a good local product. I think that most of the argument with suspension seats are that are up to the job so long as they are serviced. This adds one more element to race prep a car ie- how often, and what to do?
talking to a mate who had a relatively small crash in a jimco with suspension seats and new ones at that and blames his shoulder injury on the seats and swears he will never race with those seats again. I value his opinion and when we have to replace our seats we will think twice. But on the other hand we had a massive crash with old susp seats and walked out injury free so i think its a matter of if you want to get out sore every race or only when you crash cos they are comfy... Dont know if i helped but food for thought any way....
__________________
GETTING OFFROAD RACING THE RECOGNITION IT DESERVES
Every little bit helps, if only to get people talking and thinking instead of reflex buying. I was going to go Beard but the freight cost ex US was a bit steep so i put them on hold having just given McKenzies 7 grand (@94c in the dollar) and knowing i was ages from fitting them. Going with a seat like the Velo is still probably going to be dearer but they are made in SA(home for me) and i do like the head support in them as well. Its a subject worthy of a little debate though, with particular emphasis on the opinions of those that have had a crash in them. what does Nev(birthday boy) think?
