Upholstered Seat ??

I am very curious why it would be a NHRA "requirement" to have a fire retardant, upholstered seat in a blown alcohol altered.
I can certainly understand "if you have an upholstered seat, it must be made with fire retardant material"!

My seat is presently a form fitted metal seat. If I am reading the rule correctly, I "have" to have it upholstered. Am I reading this rule correctly?
Again, I'm just trying to figure out the rules and comply. I'm just not understanding the "mandatory upholstery thing".

Any help here would certainly be appreciated!

 

i think their reasoning for a fire retardant upholstered seat in an altered/fc is due to 'how you get burned'

nomex/carbon-x is used to create 'air spaces'. the material doesn't burn and traps small layers of 'air spaces' (-20 suit is many layers thick). air is a very poor conductor of heat so this this your insulation. drivers get burned anywhere that those layers are compromised or crushed down (and made smaller) such as hands-from gripping the wheel/brake/etc, sides/back of arms-from being compressed against the seat and back of the legs-from being compressed against the seat. so the upholstery provides a little more insulation for those areas.

the outside of a drivers suit may reach some crazy temps... but if the material can withstand the temp, not degrade, and maintain the 'air spaces' between the layers the amount of heat transferred is minimal.

 

Upholstered Seat

Altered Boy your responce is correct. I had a fire in a funny car in 1988 and was serverly burned. The burns on my back, hips and back of legs were due mostly to not having an upholstered seat. This incident resulted in two saftey inprovements in funny cars , the flame retardant upholstered seat and the the hole in the side windows to help extinguish the fire in the event the body can not be raised or removed from the car.

 

Very good information!!! Now it makes sense to me. I was just thinking about items that could actually catch fire and burn, not how it affects the fire suit!

Thanks so much for the comments!

 

does anybody know of a flame retardent material for a seat that is thin? i fit my car tight as it is, anything thick and i might have some "issues".

 

Try THIS, it's only 3/8" thick.

 

I have the same problem, was looking at Dennis Taylors website at his carbonex cover, was actually calling him about a 20# fire system and mentioned the seat deal in passing, he told me they are also doing some kind of process where he applies the cover material directly to each seat half, not sure if its adhesive or some type of spray on material, he did say it's a permanent process, but it is supposed to pass tech for the new ruling. Only adds 1/4 to 3/8" and the cost is around $300. A bit cheaper than the nomex or carbonex covers.

 

thanks for the tip guys, are both of these systems sfi rated to your knowledge?

 

If compression of a suit or upholstery minimises its effectiveness and seats are already tight. Would'nt it be better to put upholstery on the OUTSIDE of the seat? The spec. doesn't say the upholstery has to be on the inside.

 

I've given that idea a lot of thought, in all liklihood, heat from the fire is going to be coming from the outside of the tin and it does seem like it would make as much sense to have some kind of covering on the outside, since a -20 suit is covering most if not all of the inside,at least in my case. Maybe something like the fire-retardant paint the F/C guys have to use on the inside of the bodies, although I don't know if that paint has any insulating properties or not.

ECG, when I was talking to Taylor the other day, he did say there isn't a lot of clarity about a specific SFI rating on the seat covers, it just appears that they want to see some sort of proof that the covers are either made by a recognized company such as his or at least upholstered by someone who has purchased the material, Nomex/Carbonex,etc. and has a bill of sale to identify it as being fireproof material. At least that is the way I understood him. I just shipped my seat out to him yesterday, so I will be talking to him again toward the end of next week, although he posts on here on occasion and maybe if he sees this, he can explain better than I can.

 

does anybody know if there is a paint (like the inside the funny car body paint) that will meet this rule and be legal?

 

I remember Dave Benjamin writing about skin grafts due to his seat turning into a griddle. I've heard it's no fun to be trying to stand up in a car and stop it at the same time! He also talked about how the angled seat back basically makes a vacuume chamber for fire coming out from under the back of a car to channel up into, which is why I plan on having extra tin along the sides and bottom as he's strongly suggested. He said he had a car badly on fire and the driver didn't know it was as bad as it was because they did such a good job with the tin.

 

Hey guys,
Just got my seat back from Dennis Taylor this morning, as I mentioned earlier, he has a 3rd process besides the nomex or carbonex snap-in covers, which is a permanent process using some type of adhesive to glue the carbonex directly to the tin. Seat turned out really, really nice, added very little thickness at all, which was an issue for me personally as I have expanded a little and the car is tight anyway. Can heartily recommend this deal for all of you robust guys that fit tight in your car. Hats off, once again to Taylor Motorsports, thanks Dennis and Justin!!!

 

How much does he get for the process?

 

Greg,
$300 for a 2-piece seat, I don't know if a 1-piece is any different. I think the Nomex snap-in covers are $375 and Carbonex is $415 according to Taylors site.

 

How about a couple of pictures or your seat! I am really interested in meeting this requirement but would also like to see the outcome of it!

 

i'd also like to see how it came out, please post some pics...

 

i had Don Gerardot do our seat about 4 years ago, and it has held up really well. it is basically a thin layer of Nomex, that is fastened on with velcro.
www.gerardot.com

 

For some reason I can't post attachments, used to think it was just a minimum post thing. Darren, I used to have your e-mail, can't find it now, but it looks like you can post pics, if I send you a couple. Or if any body else can, my e-mail is:

Chickenlegs777@aol.com

 

here are some pics of Ronny's seat