[DeTomaso] Question about Dropped Floor Pans..

[Matt Merritt]

Hi Chuck:

I had the "Street" seat that had lower sides for easier ingress/egress.  

Here's the seat:  http://www.racetechseatsna.com/race_seats/RTROAD.html

But it really doesn't matter - you can use any fiberglass seat that has a
round, butt-contoured bottom.  Here's a posting I made to the Lotus bulletin
board about how I modified my Exige's seat the same way.  Made it possible
for me to even wear a helmet in the Lotus.  

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33971

Because of its aluminum floor pan you need to retain the stock mounting
points with the Lotus.  That's why I needed to fabricate a bracket for that
car.  I believe any of those Racetech side-mounting brackets would work for
the Pantera or you could easily just fabricate a set yourself, I think.  

Just as I'd done with the Lotus, I suggest you duplicate the angles of the
floor and firewall of the Pantera in your garage with plywood to make sure
you've got the angles right, scribe a line where you want to cut and then
get out the Dremel.  

By having the cut area perfectly flat on the floor pan you're effectively
making the floor a structural part of the seat.  Makes for a sturdy
mounting.

I did this with both my blue street Pantera and the yellow racecar.  Worked
great.  Only catch is that there's only a bit of seat padding, some carpet,
and the stock floor between your butt and the speedbump.  But probably still
better than a dropped floor pan.

I have a cut Racetech Road seat sitting in my garage.  I'm getting tired of
offering it to Mark McWhinney so if you want me to send it to you to try in
your car let me know.

MM

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Engles [mailto:cengles at cox.net] 
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 4:52 PM
To: Matt Merritt
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Question about Dropped Floor Pans..

Dear Matt,

           Found the website.   Do you recall which seat you chose?     The 
brackets you refer to are the Racetech seat specific brackets that needed to
be modified for Pantera fitment and your purposes?

                  Very curious,  Chuck Engles



----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt Merritt" <mmerritt at EventVehicles.com>
To: <littofreakydevil at aol.com>
Cc: "Detomaso at Realbig. Com" <detomaso at realbig.com>
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 5:38 PM
Subject: [DeTomaso] Question about Dropped Floor Pans..


> Larry:
>
> Don't drop your floor pans unless you absolutely have to (a la Mark
> McWhinney).
>
> My blue street pantera had stock floor pans.  I'm 6'5" and my solution
> was to cut out the lowest part (about 14" wide x 4") of a fiberglass
> Racetech racing seat that I then mounted flat on the floor.  I then
> needed to cut down and redrill the holes in the aluminum brackets but
> the end result was enough headroom that I could even fit with a helmet.
> It was also very sturdy.
>
> My racing Pantera had a lowered floor pan.  I had it made with
> heavy-gauge steel but it was still a real attention-getter when "going
> agricultural".  On the big track in Pahrump there's a pretty sudden
> drop-off that you need to take perfectly straight.  Once I landed with a
> little too much weight on the left and just that one hard landing gave
> me a feeling I'll never forget as long as I live.  Afterward I had to
> replace the mounting bolts for the seat too.
>
> Matt Merritt
>
>
>
>
>
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