So, these aren’t really new products, but we hope to bring new information to our customers to help them make decisions about how to mount their racing seat. There are infinite possibilities on how to do mount your seat – you can use all off the shelf components in any combination that works, or you can fabricate something yourself and everything in between. The aim of this document is to shed some light on the intricacies of the side plates that we sell a lot of so you can see what will work for your situation.

Please note, that these plates are specified to fit specific situations by each manufacturer. We have found that because the side plate mounting hole dimensions are the same on virtually all racing shell seats, that you can use different side plates from different manufacturers to fit your specific application. We mention what each plate is designated for only to help you find the specific plate when ordering, not to guide your choice. You must use the measurements we provide to figure out what works in your situation.

Brey Krause Side Plates

These side plates are very often used when we do Porsche 996 installs because you can buy off the shelf a whole lot of parts that work together to create a safe and clean installation of everything – seat, harness, and fire extinguisher. But that is far from the end of what they are good for. These side plates have a provision for an inboard lap belt mount which is something most other plates only dream of. This sets them apart from the other side plates.

This particular set of side plates is the R9073 plate, which according to Brey Krause is specific to the Cobra Imola II GT and Sparco Evo 2 Seat. We’ve used it for Suzuka GT as well, and think that it probably will work for other seats too.

Side View - BK r9073

Front View - BK r9073

The Inboard Lap Mount BK R9073

Keep in mind that there are other Brey Krause Plates available as well. We hope to bring you more dimensions on those very soon.

Cobra Side Plates

The Cobra Side plates are made of aluminum and are very beautiful. They feature a bend which is usually a great thing if you are trying to mount a narrow seat, or if your car has wide mounting locations. Obviously we sell the most of these to Cobra Seat owners, but we also use them for other applications.

Cobra Side Plate

Side View - Cobra Plate

Front View - Cobra

We will continue to add information to this post as we have time.

Piloti came out with a bunch of new shoes that look and fit great. We’d like to highlight one of them, the PCH Touring shoe.

The Offical Blurb from Piloti is as follows:

Inspired by the Pacific Coast Highway from Cambria to Monterey on the California coast, the PCH features a suede, leather and mesh low-cut upper. Our first adventures to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca took place along this amazing and challenging road, recognized by the hairpin corner stitching on the quarters of the upper. The patented Evolution bottom unit with its dual-density Roll Control™ heel cushioning gives a performance edge to this new classic Piloti Touring shoe taken directly from our history.

The Soy and Olive Piloti PCH Touring Shoe

As you can tell they are very proud of this shoe’s namesake, the Pacific Coast Highway, and anyone that has been on this road knows why. No matter what you’re driving it is a blast – no matter how slow the person in front of you is going. I can remember driving it in a 93 Accord – a trusty steed but not what you’d wish to tackle serious geography with. Even still it was a great experience.

But my galavanting is not the issue here, these shoes are. Plain and simple, they’re great – available in a few different color combinations there’s sure to be one that suits your stylistic fancy. The shoe we’ve photographed is the Soy and Olive color combination.

The Flat, yet still grippy sole of the Piloti PCH Touring shoe

What Makes Piloti’s a “Driving” shoe?

If you haven’t tried a pair of Piloti shoes, give them a shot – they are really a great comprimise between a full on driving boot and a normal walking shoe. The sole of the shoe is flat, so that when you’re driving you don’t have to deal with the annoyance of having the contact patch between your feet and the pedals change depending on where your foot is placed. It’s flat, yet has enough grip to keep you from losing it walking down a hallway in your office building.

Piloti makes a pretty big deal about what they call the “Roll Center Heel.” As far as we can tell, this essentially means that the heel of the shoes is designed to be comfortable in a driving position. Shoes like New Balance and Asics running shoes generally have very sharp angles at the heel of the shoe, so when you have your heel resting on the floor at the accellerator, there is a lot of pressure on the very edge of the shoe. The Piloti shoes feature a rolled heel that allows you to actuate the accellerator with full support from the shoe. It really does make a big difference. If you look at all the Racing Boots from Puma, Bell, Oakley, etc they all have the same design, a gradual rolled heel.

Here you can see the shape of the toe

We have taken a picture of the toe of the shoe to give you a better idea of the shape. You can see how the laces are situated here, and to those of you that have been on a Skateboard, you can notice some very similar styling cues here. They look almost like a pair of Vans, or something of that sort.

“At The End Of The Day”

Seems like a very long winded review of these shoes, but they are really great – we hope this review helps you make a decision – buying shoes via the internet is always very difficult. Piloti seems to be right on with the sizing, and you do want your driving shoes to fit tightly and be as narrow as possible. So to that end, Good Luck!

Links:

The Piloti PCH Touring Shoe at our website

Piloti.com