| Re: Securing / Bolting Seats in a Tornado
On the Elise there is a bonded & riveted cross-member that the front of the seat bolts and a similar one by the bulkhead. For the type approval test to allow us to sell the car worldwide, we have to meet a static pull test on the seat (which tests the mounts and the seat frame) and the seat-belt mounts. On the Esprit, the seats are bolted to the fibre-glass, but these are locally reinforced and the body is structural, which contributes to more than 50% of the overall torsional stiffness of the car.
With the occupant in place and correctly adjusted seat belts in an accident, the belts are doing all the work, as others have rightly pointed out. However the point I originally raised was that my 2001 build chassis does meet the wording of the SVA document (Seats are required to be secured firmly to the chassis or other obvious load bearing parts of the vehicle structure) and from what I understand even new chassis from Tornado is not compliant in this area - Andy Sheldon please correct me if this incorrect.
Regards
Andy |