Why is the Driver's seat in a race car so far back?

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Jim Prower

Jim Prower

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I've been watching a few In-car videos on YouTube, and I've begun to notice that the steering wheel on some cars is pretty far back from the (often production-based) dashboard, and that the driver's seat has often been moved back, too. What's the purpose behind this?
 
In Stock Cars (NASCAR) the seat actually tends to be closer to the wheel. I imagine that's for leverage.

But if the seat is "way" back it's likely for driver comfort. It's bad enough to have to endure extreme heat, being bounced around on taut suspension, etc. AND then being in a "cramped" cockpit for several hours.
 
I haven't really noticed it, but I'm guessing something to do with weight distribution and safety.

I have noticed them being closer a few times though, so I dunno.
 
Might be for balance, put weight on the back of the car, especially if it's a FWD unit. Also, there may be some effort to bring the driver's feet inside the cage. You'll find a lot of times that the seat is lower than production, and maybe offset towards the car's center. Again, weight ditribution.
 
First time I noticed that was watching DTM races in early 90's, some had the seats pulled way back and a huge extension of the steering wheel's bar so the driver had it in reach.
It just wasn't so apparent because of the huge racing seats, but if if had standard seats it would be almost ridiculous.



EDIT: Take a look at this one, for example: (more modern, but they still do it)

20070421044c61a4a8td4.jpg
 
The answer is weight distribution.

In a race car you want as much of the weight as near to the centre of the car and as low as you can, as it has a significant effect on the cars polar moment of inertia (fancy way of saying how 'willing' the car is to turn).

If you consider that an 'average' adult will weight around 75kgs, getting that much weight as low and near the centre of a car is a big deal and can make a massive difference.

You also see a similar thing with rally cars, the co-drivers seat is always set about 2-3 inches lower than the driver, the such a degree that they struggle to see out easily, but it lowers the centre of gravity.


Regards

Scaff
 
The seats in DTM cars are also nearly in the centre of the car, mostly for safety reasons - if you're T-boned you're less likely to get hurt. Almost all the recent high-profile fatalities in motorsport have been as a result of a driver in a saloon car being hit in the driver's/co-driver's side at high speed - Dale Earnhart, Michael Park, Peter Brock, Mark Porter, Rafael Sperafico - so the more central in the car you are, logically you're less likely to get hurt.

That, and as has already been said, weight distribution.
 

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