Back Seat Removal

[kramer2125]

I read somewhere that a rollcage, when connected to the frame of the car, stiffens the suspension. I was going to add the RK sport unit mentioned earlier in this dialog. I also have some recaros coming from ebay and the supplier told me that the installation of the seats would leave nearly no room for rear passengers. So i decided why not remove the seats, and install the roll cage. Back to my point, i wanted to begin prepping the car for the recaro's and i thought why not just replace the rear seat area with the RKSport unit above. I've come to realize that i'd be adding weight, but if you add the horsepower that i'm sure we'd all like to add to our birds and camaro's then we'd need things like racing seats (if you are an avid track go-er) and roll cages. If you're going to be running sub 12 second 1/4's. Know what i mean?

[C.O.Jones]

Originally posted by ReodDai:
Removing the seats doesn't get rid of hardly any weight. Leave the seats, just remove the seat belts (thats were all the weight is). The seats themselves may weigh 5 lbs for all 3 pieces.

Actually you're wrong. The back seat alone weighs 13lbs. Once you add all the seatlbelt components and those two chincy foam seats into the mix you're up ~ 20lbs.

http://www.camarov6.com/cgi-bin/ulti...=009664#000000

Still, taking all that out isn't going to noticably improve your 1/4 mile times...

[ September 19, 2004, 03:16 AM: Message edited by: C.O.Jones ]

[V6Bob]

"I read somewhere that a rollcage, when connected to the frame of the car, stiffens the suspension."

They were talking about something more than a 4 point roll bar, which is what the rksport bar is. Bars that go from the main hoop toward the front (6 and more point stuff) are a minimum requirement for good chassis stiffness.

The kind of cage that provides noticeable chassis stiffness is expensive and hard to install. The cage needs to be carefully padded or it's unsafe, because your body can hit the bars in an accident. They generally take up a lot of your interior, both front and rear. The front bars must be climbed over or swung out when you get in the car. The cage may interfere with visibility. There are a lot of tradeoffs here.

This isn't a casual deal. This will give you some rough idea of what the guy you read was talking about when he said "roll cage":

http://www.chassisengineering.com/rollbars.html

[ September 19, 2004, 05:04 AM: Message edited by: V6Bob ]

[kramer2125]

Thanks for all the input guys. I said roll cage when i meant roll bar. In the end, i'll be installing the rksport rollbar, as well as some nice recaros. I did the measuring today, and if i had the recaro's slid all the way back, it would be 1/5 inches into the butt portion of the rear seats. I'm 6'4 and the rails that are being made for me make it so i can have my legs fully flat (in other words, without bending my knees at all). I'm tired of hitting my knees on the underside of my dash. Does anyone have the RKSport rollbar? I have a few questions about installation.

I Appreciate all the help fellas.