Take a seat

The average race duration for a regional at Killarney is less then 11 minutes for Class D. Given the intense focus by the driver during those couple of minutes an uncomfortable seat will not really feature. I have seen some race cars with seats that, at best, give a vague nod towards any hint of comfort. Sitting in the car cruising along for an hour or two on the weekend is a whole different story. Like the stone in the shoe being the thing that wears you down rather than the mountain you are climbing, a small issue with a seat will become a huge issue as time in the car increases. 

Clearly the choice of seat was going to be critical given that this was going to be a road and race car. 

The other challenge to take into account is the space available for the chosen seat. While the Harper is wider than a Lotus 7, its not as wide as a saloon car. Most racing seats like the Cobras, Ricaros etc are designed with saloon cars in mind. This was useful in that it helped to narrow down the potential choices. I had all but settled on a Cobra seat designed for the Lotus 7 when two things happened. Firstly I actually sat in one, but then I discovered Tillett ....

I have always been rather partial to carbon fibre.

After a lot of phoning around I decided I would need to import these myself. I contacted a very friendly and helpful company in the UK and arranged to purchase the GRP version of the their seat (I could not a quite stretch to the carbon version). After payment had been made and shipping organised the chap called me to tell me he had no stock of the particular model I had ordered, but instead of telling me to wait he offered me the carbon fibre version for a nominal fee. He almost lost his arm ...

That was it then, the cockpit was sorted and I was confident it would be a great place to spend time when the car was done.

It was now back to the factory to see how Craig and his team had been getting on. Christmas was fast approaching and Craig had scheduled a "big reveal" during which we would be announcing the car to the gathered crowd.