Are sliders that catch only on one side dangerous

[D Hanson]

I am looking for a set of sliders to mount the RS seats and so far they have come up with an older set of sliders that catches only on one side. Would you use this set up.

I spoke to my shop about installtion and they told me about someone who had a seat added by a shop and the slider gave out causing him ton hit his head against the roll bar. This completely severed his spinal chord. They were telling me that their insurance has cracked down on seat installtion because of incidents like this one. I then get offered the slider that catches only on one side and was wondering if that was likely the cause of the spinal chord severe injury I heard about earlier.

Most all of our 911's only catch on one side and I don't recall any talk of it being a problem. Was the guy wearing a helmet? Did the harness fail? Was it an unusually hard crash? Lots of questions and other points of failure to check on. I'd check with your insurance carrier too. The whole thing sounds like an urban myth to me.

[D Hanson]

No myth. My shop guys used to race and they were at the track when it happened. They said the guys spine snapped clean thorugh such that his head was basically hanging supported only by skin.

I really did not pay attention to all of the details or completely how it happened as I was doing to things at one time at work. This was also before Cory told me the only bracket he could find latched on to one side as opposed to two. I will probably go with it if my shop will install it.

From what Mike was making it sound like though was that the seat that failed was not a stock Porsche seat and probably on aftermarket sliders. When I told him my seat was OEM, he sdai they could do the install.

[greglepore]

Well, what did hit, and how hard? Everything has a failure mode. I'm sure there are crappy sliders, but if you're honestly concerned about this, why would you use a sliding seat in the first place? Some little tang(s) of non-rated metal vs 4 grade 8 bolts?

I don't mean thist be a flame, my point only being that everything we do is a compromise, and there are a fair number of myths. Don't generalize, and be responsible for, and accepting of, your own safety.

[jyl]

Why not simply buy sliders that catch on both sides? $50 for Sparcos. http://www.speedwaremotorsports.com/seat/sparcSlide.asp

I'm not worred about one-side-only sliders, since I figure my belts are supposed to do the restraining. But if I was concerned, the cost of different sliders isn't great.

[Eric Coffey]

If the car has a cage, I personally would not use sliding seat mounts. If you're going to run a full cage, I'd use a fixed mount for the seat, 6-point restraints, and a seat back brace. I'd be fine with them (and prefer them) in a non-caged street car though. Just my $.02

It sounds like a seat back brace might have helped/saved the guy mentioned above.

[D Hanson]

If you are really that interested in knowing the details, I would be happy to ask exactly what happened. I would have certainly paid more attention had I known that it would have been such an issue.

Why am I interested, because I have two children that often ride in the back of the convertible on sunny days and I need to keep some adjustability in the seats. This car is not a race car or a deciated track car, but a family sun catcher/weekender.

Can anyone tell me what year they went to sliders that grip both sides. Does anyone track with the older style slider or is something that went out in the 60s or 70s.

Cory at Planet 911 found me a set of "old style" sliders, but he did qualify it with it attaches only on one side and if you are doing track stuff and etc., you may want to get the newer sliders that grip both sides. Candidly, I would like to avoid having to pay $ 495 each for a pair of new sliders if at possible. If the single grip slider was used by Porsche up into the 1980s, it would probably be good enough for my purposes and hopefully my shop would do the install.

I prefer having the seats installed by pros and I believe that as long as it it Porsche products and the sliders are not something discontinued 30 years ago, they probably will do the install. From waht Dr. Wilson indicated, sliders catching on only one side were fairly common in P-Cars and should not be a problem. Am I wrong?

[D Hanson]

Originally posted by jyl
Why not simply buy sliders that catch on both sides? $50 for Sparcos. http://www.speedwaremotorsports.com/seat/sparcSlide.asp

I'm not worred about one-side-only sliders, since I figure my belts are supposed to do the restraining. But if I was concerned, the cost of different sliders isn't great.

Very cool. This is what I am looking for. Not sure if that would fit the RS seats though. FVD had sliders that cost only $ 195 a set, but those would not fit on the RS Recaros. The sliders made for and/or that fit the RS seats were $ 495.00 each. That's insane.

[nostatic]

I just pulled my '79 seats and they catch on one side only.

Are you putting a cage/bar in the car? If so, then I wouldn't put my kids in the back...

[D Hanson]

Originally posted by Eric Coffey
If the car has a cage, I personally would not use sliding seat mounts. If you're going to run a full cage, I'd use a fixed mount for the seat, 6-point restraints, and a seat back brace. I'd be fine with them (and prefer them) in a non-caged street car though. Just my $.02

It sounds like a seat back brace might have helped/saved the guy mentioned above.

Great info and thank you for the responsive post. Cory at P911 had also confirmed that Porsche clubs apparently require the back seat brace to keep the head severing issue from happening at the track.

I have a cage that is never in my car. It is just sitting there collecting dust until the day I finally decide to take it to the track. I am hoping to have a Ruf RCT soon so this car may never even see a track in any form or fashion.

What you are saying is pretty much what Cory indicated, the single grip slider is cool without a roll cage. I may just go this route for now and buy the expensive sliders if one day I decide to put the roll bar in and take it out to a track.

Mucho gracious.

[D Hanson]

Originally posted by nostatic
I just pulled my '79 seats and they catch on one side only.

Are you putting a cage/bar in the car? If so, then I wouldn't put my kids in the back...

I have never had the cage bolted in after I brought it home. I sat it in the car to see what it looked like, but it stays ou so my kids can ride in the back. The cage actually attaches at the floor and at the seat belt posts. I will probably leave cage out and go with the old style sliders for now.

[geof33]

I doubt the slider was the major player in the accident. The force required to do what you said to the spinal cord and spine would be severe. So the crash muxt have been serious. Necks don't just snap like that. That sounds like a crushing force was applied, causing significant vertebral damage. I'll bet that Porsche really looked at this, and I have not heard of this being an issue before.

[greglepore]

Sorry if my prior post came off as a smart a%$. A couple ideas-I have a pair of seats out of an 85 out in the garage, and they use double latching sliders; if you really want them, and the bolt holes don't match up, I suppose it'd be very easy to make an adaptor plate to go between the seats and the sliders, check out the "DAD seat install" thread for an idea of what I'm thinking about (that one goes between sliders and floor, but you'll get the idea).

If you impact something severely enough to worry about the slider giving way, there's plenty of other stuff to worry about as well-that was my point. If the RS seats aren't fixed back (I don't know anything about them, but presume they're not if they allow rear seat access) then you also could fret about the recliner mech giving way-it only secures the seatback on one side. A bolt in seatbrace would help eliminate these worries on trackdays. But that said, I'm with Todd-if there's a bar in the car, I think you'd be making the right decision not to put kids back there-its what's kept me from putting a bar in mine.

[D Hanson]

Props to Cory at Planet 911 for throwing in some of the $ 495 each sliders in for $ 100 each. He saved me $ 800 on the sliders. Highly recommend them and they have been cool to deal with.

http://www.planet9eleven.com/

[real550A]

FYI, my '88 has a latch on both sides of the seats.