Ted Cahall’s Racing Blog

I remeber back to my days at the University of Illinois at Chicago computer center where I was a consultant to the student popluation regarding all of our computer systems.  As I learned more and more, I realized just how much I did not know.  In other words, the more I knew, the more I realized how little I actually knew out of the vast world of computer science, programming languages, operating systems, etc.  I became curious as to if I would close this knowledge gap or see it widen as more technology was developed.  It was another type of race – a race into the information age.

I had the same feeling for a while as I attempted to figure out how to begin wheel-to-wheel competition racing with the SCCA.  Getting my Novice License and being signed off to race was one hurdle.  This was complicated by a coast-to-coast move from Seattle to Northern Virginia.  The next hurdle was getting my 2001 Z06 Corvette prepared to race.  I have e-mailed a number of people and talked with some as well.  Most of those people were involved in the SCCA as Time Trials, Solo or PDX participants.  As I have now learned, they might as well be from some other racing program or another planet.  The rules for “club racing” are the most stringent and complex.

On Monday morning I was fortunate enough to have the SCCA TCS T1 class driver sponsor call me.  She was very patient and polite (thank you Pam).  She let me know I should have started with the program office and found my way to her first.  Needless to say, between her and the head of tech inspection, it is very clear to me that I need a full roll cage.  So onto PiperMotorsport to have that done when they can schedule me in.

I also learned that I need to have the full roll cage for the SCCA driving school I am registered for on March 27th.  There is no way it will be done then – so I am going try to rent a car with a roll cage for that event.  It hopefully will be a Mazda Miata – or what they call a “spec” Miata.

One other somewhat interesting factoid I learned was that my “lowly” TCS T1 class runs simultaneously with all othe other “big bore” classes (ie. on the track at the same time).  I had heard I would likely be the only T1 car in my class.  I had thought I would have the track to myself!  This was a bit of a suprise to me since I thought at worse I would only be out there with other cars from my T1 class.  Pam informed me that I would be out there with GT1 class cars and some cars with over 700 HP.  How ironic – I will probably finish last in the actual race and get a trophy for 1st place in the T1 class (and 2nd place, and last place).

I definitely do not want to be driving a car with 700 HP yet – so I need to be ready to passed a whole lot by all the other cars on the track.  No pride here.  Just glad to be able to learn and rub elbows with these highly experienced die-hard racers.

Live and learn (carefully)…

Ted Cahall

While continuing my saga of preparing for my 2009 MARRS/SCCA season, I have completed another step of transforming my 2001 Z06 Corvette to meet the SCCA GCRs.  I now actually have put the passenger side Corbeau Racing Seat into the car along with the fire extinguisher.  While none of this applies to my future attempt to drive over 200 MPH, it is all required if I am going to race my own car this summer while attempting to maintain that precious “work / race” balance.

There were nine (9) basic steps to this procedure:

1. Remove the old seat
2. Attach the bracket to the new seat
3. Attach the safety harness connectors to the seat
4. Connect the harness under the seat
5. Install the seat into the car on the four bolts in the floor
6. Install the fire extinguisher on top of the front bolts
7. Install the “harness bar” between the seat bolt and the harness bar
8. Bolt down the four bolts
9. Connect the remaining harness belts

Please note that the “harness bar” that runs behind the seats for the top two belts of the 5 point belt was already installed for me at Tony’s Corvettes.  Similarly, the harness connections down by the lap belt connectors was also installed there.

I decided to capture some of this work here in the blog with a few pictures.  I was considering bottling some of the sweat as well just to show I actually do some of these things myself…

Step 1: Remove the old seat
I do not have any pictures of me removing the old seat. It was done long ago on the previous attempts of installing Sparco seats into the car.  Below is a shot of the car without the seat in it.  Note the four bolts sticking up from the floor.  These are the bolts that the new seat will bolt down on.  The fire extinguisher is attached to the two front bolts in this picture.

I do have a shot of the old seat next to the new seat before it went in though. This allows some comparison of height, width, etc.

Step 2: Attach the bracket to the new  seat
I ordered two different brackets (driver and passenger) for the identical seats.  The main difference between the brackets is a connector for the “inside” lap belt connector.  Clearly the inside of the bracket is different for a driver or passenger seat (left or right).  In this case “inside” means towards the middle of the car versus the lap belt connector out near the door.  The bracket simply bolts onto the bottom of the seat with four bolts that come with the seat.  Below is a picture of the seat after the bracket was bolted onto it.

Step 3: Attach the safety harness connector  to the  seat
The lapbelt and inside belt connector need to be attached to the seat.  They can be seen on the side of the seat below.  The new safety harness connector is the solid metal part and the block part is to the old lap belt.

Step 4: Connect the harness under the seat

The photo below shows the connector for the leg belts being connected to the interior side of the seat.  This has to be done before you install the seat or you will never be able to connect it.

The result below shows that the leg belts are now sticking out of the middle of the seat.  This is the main part of the 5-point harness system as it contains the buckle that all of the 4 other belts (2 shoulder, 2 waist) will connect into.

Step 5: Install the seat into the car on the four bolts in the floor

and Step 6: Install the fire extinguisher on top of the front bolts

and Step 7: Install the “harness bar” between the seat bolt and the harness bar

Bolting the system to the floor all happens at once.  The seat is installed onto the bolts.  The fire extinguisher is bolted to the front seat bolts and the harness bar support is connected between the outside rear seat bolt and the harness bar above the seats.

Step 8: Bolt down the four bolts

From there it is as simple as tightening the four bolts.

Step 9: Connect the remaining harness belts

This is as simple as taking the belts and attaching them to the connectors on the harness bar and the other connectors.

Finally! Sit down, buckle up, and hold on! Or at least pretend to since I am in the passenger seat and no one is driving.

Most of this was extremely straight forward – aside from the fact that the lapbelt connectors and harness bar were already done by Tony’s Corvettes.

Ted Cahall