Seats
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The Striker has one of the narrowest passenger compartments there is. In many ways this is ideal as quite frankly you don’t need any more space than you take up in a car like this. The only problem is finding seats to fit into such a small space. The factory seats do this perfectly, offering the most room to the occupant and relying upon the snug fit between the tunnel and chassis side to hold you in place. They are also very comfortable. However I don’t really like bench seats, they look cheap, old fashioned and out of place in the kind of car I am trying to build. There are a few narrow seats designed for se7ens that will fit into the Striker, but like the bench seats are far from light. My focus narrowed on GRP shells. These are definitely en-vogue for a lightweight, track-day oriented car and there are many different ones out there. Finding a GRP shell that is comfortable, that fits into the narrow Striker and is lightweight is no simple matter though.
Initially I liked the look of the seats made specifically for the Striker by Plays-Kool. Paul at Plays-Kool very generously made me up a seat to try for size. I was very impressed with the quality of this seat as, unlike many others I have seen, it was a very complex curvy shape that fitted my body very well, indeed once in the seat stuck to my bum with the vacuum that results when you try and get out again. This is the key to these seats as they must fit you like a second skin and support you all over if they are not to become uncomfortable. However I found this seat to be too narrow across my thighs and it did not make the best use of the space in the Striker in this area. Paul agreed and is intending to make a slightly wider version.
I had always had Tillett in mind as they make perhaps the finest, most comfortable seats for Karts and also the rather nice shell seats found in Caterhams. Unfortunately there was no way that anything other than a very small Kart seat would fit into the Striker because they are all too wide across the front due to the legs-apart driving position in a Kart resulting from having the fuel tank between your knees. Anyway I gave Tillett a call to see if they had anything else and mindful of the fact that the seat they make for Caterham would be an ideal fit. I spoke to Steve Tillett and discovered that they had a mould they used to use to make seats for the old narrow-bodied Westfield, which was subsequently used as the basis of the Caterham seat and that they would be happy to make some more for me (but not the Caterham seat as these were only available from Caterham themselves). The seat was 16.5” maximum across the front, which seemed just right and was essentially the same as the Caterham one, but without a headrest. This was ideal as I had decided that I preferred the cleaner lines of seats without headrests and so ordered a pair in black, half covered in the black fabric they use to make them non-slip. This is some kind of non slip material used in marine applications and is completely waterproof. The bottom of the seats were to be left uncovered so that any water that accumulated there can be wiped off. Being a bit of a tart I enquired about the carbon or carbon/kevlar construction used for the Caterham seats and was pleased to hear this was possible too. In the end I ordered a pair of seats half-covered with just the upper surface in carbon to keep the costs down a bit at the expense of a little weight and strength.
These arrived promptly and I was very impressed. An absolutely top class construction and very comfortable indeed. They just fit into the Striker with the bum bit touching the floor panel and tilted back a little, which is perfect for maximising the space and getting a comfortable driving position. Best of all, they are amazingly light at 1.9Kg each.
Tillett recommended fitting the seats by bolting to the floor about 2" back from the front of the seat and through the sides just above waist height. The seats were supplied with all the fittings necessary to fit them like this in a kart, but it was necessary to get some longer M8 countersunk screws to fix them in the Striker as I wanted to fit them tipped back a little with the front of the seat about 3.5" up from the floor with the base of the seat touching the floor. This I found was the most comfortable and gave the ideal driving position. In order to space the seats on the fixing screws I used a length of 1" diameter aluminium rod, from which I cut spacers and drilled out a hole through the centre for the screw. This was as ever a little time consuming, but the mounts were very light and very strong and secure. Note in the picture above that due to tipping the seats back this meant that the seat base was no longer parallel to the floor panel. It was necessary to cut the spacer with an angled end on it and make a matching angled washer to go on the underside of the floor under the nyloc. The seats were also mounted at the sides in the same way through the upper chassis rail and upper tunnel rail. By using spacers that were a few mm shorter than required I was also able to stretch the seats a little and by trial and error I had a drivers seat that was just the right width for my hips, snug but not too tight, and a passenger seat that was as wide as possible within the confines of the striker chassis. The harnesses were fixed in place before the seats were bolted down.