Different seat?

The best way to get the seat to fit you is to do a "Poured foam" or "Bead" Seat.  These do a  great job of making the existing seat fit you perfectly.

Here is a video of how the poured foam process works.  You can buy these as kit's or go to a race shop to pour it for you.

And a few pictures of poured / bead seats in Radicals:

Charley

I am thinking about a Tillett seat, it would have to have custom mounts made, but imagine how much lighter it should be!

Tillett W5

Posted by: Richard Kosar

Has anyone looked into putting a racing seat into a Radical chassis?

I'm wondering how hard it would be to fabricate mounts for something like a Sparco, of which I've used in many vehicles and like.

And just how does the seat come out?  The top studs don't move and I've not figured out how to get to them (yet).

Is there anything in the center, under the seat pan, to attach a mounting plate for a single shell seat?

I think you will find it difficult to find a seat with enough angle to fit into the car. I did. Plus, I am shaped like a beach ball so I ended up modifying the stock seat using epoxy and carbon fiber. It has taken a couple of iterations but the seat now holds me in during high G cornering.

Poured sets are really comfortable but you need to support the foam/beads in some kind of structural shell.

Richard, I have been thinking about this a little more and realized I didn't ask the most important question.  What is your goal for a new seat?  In a previous post you mentioned wanting to be a bit higher and a bit further forward.  If those are your goals I would recommend doing a poured foam or bead seat within your current seat.  It takes a little while to get comfortable with the reclined position in the Radical, but once you have adjusted to it you will find it is really nice.  When you are making adjustments to your position make sure you don't get your head too high into the air stream or you will experience helmet buffeting and helmet lift.

You asked what is involved with removing the seat.  There are two screws at the front of the seat that tie into sliders on the floor.  And there are two screws located near where the driver and passengers hips would be.  And then there are the two studs at the rear of the seat where the driver and passenger shoulders would be.  To adjust the seat you loosen all of these fasteners and the seat can be moved a few inches front to back.  If you want to remove the seat you remove the front and hip level screws.  The back studs are actually a bolt that is going through a threaded bushing in the seat.  you should be able to  remove the nuts from the studs without the bolts / stud rotating.  I also removed (but you could also just loosen) the metal tabs from the firewall.  Once the stud is out of the bracket you can fit a wrench or socket behind the seat and rotate it until it isn't sticking out of the seat any more.  Once all of the fasteners are removed you can very carefully manipulate the seat to get it out.....It is a challenge and it is helpful to have a second set of hands.  Take your time so you don't scratch anything in the cockpit while you are manipulating the seat for removal.

Here is a picture of the screw on the side 

Here is a picture of the rear bolt / stud

You also asked what the structure under the seat looks like. Here is a picture that shows you what is there.  The floor is made from an aluminum honeycomb material that would not be strong enough to mount a seat.  However the is some structure that some people mount a single seat that Radical offers. Here are a couple of pictures of what the single seat (side) installation looks like in SR3 chassis 580.

Let me know if you need anymore information,

Charley

I went through this same thought exercise. Looked into various race seats, talked to a couple seat manufacturers.

In the end I made my own poured foam seat. Actually, I made two. 🙂 The first one was ... unsuitable, lol.

I had my local interior guy put a 3mm foam cover over the firmly set poured foam insert, and then he covered that with the included fire-retardant cloth. The result looks great, and holds my ass firmly in place. 

Thanks for all the info.  I watched a few "how to" videos on the poured seats yesterday.

Goal for the seat:  Hold me in a place that I'm happy.  I can't see over the dash well at all, I need to move forward, up and want more support all around.  While I don't mind being 5'6", sometimes I don't quite fit in stuff built for the masses.  To get my head up into the wind will take a bit of vertical change in seating.

I played around with some padding this afternoon and my happy place still has my feet 3" back from where the pedals are.  The moment I start laying back to meet them, I loose sight over the dash.

I've looked at the pedal box again and if I move the seat I won't have to move the pedals.  The brake and clutch are already about as far out as they can go and the throttle needs at least a 1.5" riser to make it even with them.

Charlie - thanks for that shot w/o the seat.  With that center bar I can mount a single seat very easily.  I have a set of Sparcos sitting on a shelf for my off road truck project and may just have to drop one in and see how it feels.

I presently have the car up on stands, wheels and front/rear body work and diffuser off chasing a trans leak coming from under the rear left hand side of the pod, below the oil radiator, cleaning it and getting to know it and making a parts needed list.

Sorry to hear about the transmission leak.  When I have technical problems that stump me I contact Mark Quesada the Service manager at Spring Mountain.  He has always been extremely helpful in diagnosing issues and has often sent me a write up explaining how to fix problems.  I am sure the other dealers would do the same.

Charley

One BSCI seat insert kit on order.  This should make life better.

I've also spent most of the afternoon getting the seating position to my liking.

I removed the two lower seat bolts and the nuts on the ends of the studs at the top of the seat and pushed the seat as far forward in the mounts as possible.  That put the studs in front of the upper rear mounts:

So I made new rear mounts and inverted them so I gained about 1.5" of seat height at the back:

I had to drill new holes for the two bolts down in the bottom of the seat, by your hips, but that's not a big deal at all.

The new position lets me get to the pedals (which are getting messed with next) much better and I can see over the dash much better.  Throw in the moulded seat insert and I should be golden.

So that's checked off the list (at least half way).

Looks like a great modification Richard.  You may need to put a spacer for the headrest because the seat is so far forward.  Radical also sells thicker headrest pads....Or you may want to consider adding a Halo.  The Halo makes it a little harder to get in and out of the car, but it is safer if you hit something sideways.

Keep posting...

Charley

Tell me more about the halo, please. 

I see them in a couple of the pix above.  Is that a bolt in piece that goes where the little head rest thing is?

Does it interfer with a Hans Device? (of which I need thicker pads on - bumpy collarbones make nice bruises.)

Posted by: Richard Kosar

Tell me more about the halo, please. 

I see them in a couple of the pix above.  Is that a bolt in piece that goes where the little head rest thing is?

Does it interfer with a Hans Device? (of which I need thicker pads on - bumpy collarbones make nice bruises.)

The halo is depicted in a couple of the photos above. They are mandatory if you want to race with most of the sanctioning bodies. They replace the normal head rest pad.  Simple installation.

I tried many different head & neck supports. Had a few shipped into my local dealer. I settled on the NecksGen REV2 Lite. Plus they claim it has more side impact protection. It fits under the halo or head pad. 

Does anyone have info on the halo?

All my searches end up directing me to either F1 and their introduction of the halo around the cockpit or medical devices to keep damaged neck/spine immobilized.

I bought mine from Radical 

Richard, as Graeme said, the best place to get one is from your favorite Radical dealer.  Check prices at several dealers because they can be different.  

The Halo has four mounting holes that you can match to several different combinations with the three holes on the headrest mounting bracket.  This mounting method only allow for minimum height adjustments, so Radical also sells a bracket for adjusting the height of the halo.  I made my own bracket.  Here are a few pictures to help.

Here is a link to the Halo on the Radical store...but, buy from one of the dealers if you can.

https://www.radicalonline.co.uk/products/AH0152-%252d-Head-Restraint.html

Here is a close up picture of the Halo. I believe the current halo's don't have the "R" logo, because they switched to a new logo style in 2017.

Here is a picture of a Halo installed on my car.  I am 6' tall and "body tall" so the Halo needed to be raised quite a bit to fit me properly.

Here is an example of the adjustment bracket that you can get from a Radical Dealer.

Here are a few pictures of my installation and the bracket I made.

Here is a picture that shows how the HANS device hits the headrest. In this picture I have on a standard 20 degree HANS.....They will work with a Radical, but the 30 degree HANS works much better.  I upgraded to the 30 degree right away because it is much more comfortable.  As was mentioned by Grahame there are also HANS devises made by other companies that have lower backs. 

Charley