GM first began researching racing crashes in 1992; it was spurred on by multiple driver deaths and severe injuries in U.S. open wheel series racing at the Indy car level. They installed “black box” crash recorders to the IndyCar series a year later to accumulate “real-world” impact data: g-forces in multiple axes. From this on-track information, they developed a rear crash attenuator (a type of absorber), and head padding for the open-wheel series cars to manage impact forces.
By 1998 GM had started to research crashes in stock car racing. Indeed, they were advocating installing impact recorders and using head and neck restraints before they were accepted on NASCAR stock cars.
Dale Earnhardt’s death at Daytona in 2001 became the catalyst to unite NASCAR - which had its own crash research program - with GM and the other auto manufacturers to develop a coordinated safety program. Soon after Earnhardt's death, NASCAR began research on a new race car design, with GM taking the lead on driver restraint systems.
"Even before we started working with stock cars, we learned from IndyCar crashes that the seat was one of the most important components in keeping a race car driver safe," notes Tom Gideon, safety manager at GM Racing. "So one of the first things we worked on in our stock car safety program was seat and head restraint development. We also looked at the benefits of moving the driver's seat inward."
Moving the driver toward the center of the car was originally resisted because it was thought it would interfere with the “stock” look of stock cars. Stock cars fans weren’t going
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Gideon and other GM engineers built two safety cars, one for NASCAR and the other for the now-defunct ASA series. They demonstrated moving the seat toward the center of the car, and adding shoulder and head support to the seat. The shift linkage was moved from the left side to the right side of the transmission – which allowed moving the seat inward a precious few inches – up to about 4—5 inches.
"The typical stock-car seat of the late '90s had a rear head pad and rib support but no considerable shoulder or head support," Gideon continues. "(NASCAR driver) Randy Lajoie was making seats in the late 90s that offered some shoulder support, so we had him make seats for us with head and shoulder support. Those seats became the beginning of the rigid seat."
LaJoie [http://www.joieofseating.net] has continued manufacturing racing seats and incorporated these safety designs into products used in lower classes of racing. It is a fact that it’s not the top divisions of racing series that need safety instruction and products, but the grassroots level where driver safety is more of an afterthought than it should be.
GM conducted intensive, and expensive, sled testing of the new seat (which simulated crash situations and angles to show the movement of shoulder and head and the forces involved), and shared the information with other manufacturers. The resultant seat -- now in use – is better than any previous version found in stock cars. The seat has been real-world validated by recent accidents from which drivers have walked away unscathed. The new rigid seats will have specifications provided by NASCAR so that seat makers can design to those specifications.
