13 replies to this topic

[Foleyracing3]

hello,

 

 

   i am building an nb and i am looking to gain more headroom as i am 6'3 210lbs. i have a kirkey 71 series containment seat (16"). i am leaning towards installing a drop floor to gain more headroom but my main concern is the drop floor coming into contact with the ground. the drop floor sits flush with the oem "frame rails" and we all know how badly those can be bent and beat up in spec miata. does anyone have experience with the drop floor that can shed some light on my concern? also if you have any other recommendations for fitting me into my car that would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

 

 

thank you for your time!

[Michael Novak]

Your concerns are correct but the safety as far as headroom goes is worth it.  Make sure you build it strong--make it a skid plate...

[Foleyracing3]

Your concerns are correct but the safety as far as headroom goes is worth it.  Make sure you build it strong--make it a skid plate...

 

 

i was looking at a pre made drop floor by advance autosport. is there any modifications to be made to help it last? and do they last a good amount of time?

 

 

thanks for the help

[Bench Racer]

The Advanced Autosports kit includes a width extension (from door jam into tunnel by a couple inches to better center seat without tilting it inward) and it looks like they provide a new section of vertical frame rail as you call it. Have you called Dave at AA and asked your questions. If you've never talked with Dave he sometimes comes on like Mr. Curmudgeon, but really a knowledgeable and nice guy. 

 

https://www.advanced...iata-floor-drop

 

Mr. 2 time Jim Drago (site owner) is somewhere around 6-3 and maybe 300# depending on his eating habits for the week and he fits.

[dc2696]

I've put my drop floor into a few curbs, with my kirkey bolted to the floor it was fairly unpleasant, after side mounting the seat and giving it a slight air gap its not as terrible of a feeling. The floor itself takes a beating but has held up well thus far, I would recommend doing it.

[Jim Drago]

hello,

 

 

   i am building an nb and i am looking to gain more headroom as i am 6'3 210lbs. i have a kirkey 71 series containment seat (16"). i am leaning towards installing a drop floor to gain more headroom but my main concern is the drop floor coming into contact with the ground. the drop floor sits flush with the oem "frame rails" and we all know how badly those can be bent and beat up in spec miata. does anyone have experience with the drop floor that can shed some light on my concern? also if you have any other recommendations for fitting me into my car that would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

 

 

thank you for your time!

our kit is on the site, We have installed about 25 or so here and sold over 85 kits.  The concerns with head room far outweigh the concerns about the floor. 

The frame rail is NOT a frame rail. It is called a floor stiffener, It is flimsy and does little but keep the floor stable, the rocker is really your frame rail.  All the floor kits and by rule the drop floor is thicker metal than the floor is originally. We use a new rail to replace or go over the old rail that is 1/8 steel. Far stronger than what was there.  We also put the leading edge of the floor on a 45 degree angle so anything you run over should not catch the front edge , rather glance it and run under the car. If the floor is installed correctly and welded in correctly, there are no concerns.

[BNaumann]

Pretty sure Ralph put Jim's kit in my car. I've glided it over some curbs. It takes it well. First time I felt the keyhole exit curbing at Midohio with my ass was quite the wake up.

[Danica Davison]

Johnny, is your seat already mounted directly to the floor?  Mine is bolted right to the floor with no floor drop and that gave me a couple more inches of headroom. I have to sacrifice the padding on the seat though. I used to sit directly on the seat with no padding, but now that I lost some of my fluffiness in my booty, it started to hurt. Ran a thin piece of padding this weekend and it was just fine. My knees are in the dash though and my right knee rests up against the dash and is now bruised a little bit from Daytona, so there is that lol.

[Jim Drago]

Pretty sure Ralph put Jim's kit in my car. I've glided it over some curbs. It takes it well. First time I felt the keyhole exit curbing at Midohio with my ass was quite the wake up.

First time I rode over the curb at 15 at Sebring and slid across it.. I though OH shit I forgot all about this drop floor   Got my attention, but other than some scratches and paint burning smell it was fine

[davew]

I am going to agree with everything Jim said. We have installed about 25 in the shop and have sold +/- 100 for others to install. We sold 3 last week!!!!! We get 10 drops out of a sheet of metal, we do 2 sheets at a time and that lasts about 2 months.

 

About 10 of my shop cars, including rentals, have floor drops. We have seen no damage to the drops plates from curbing. Even when Voytek hit the leading edge of the curbing at Indy and crushed the front subframe and steering rack, no damage to the floor drop.

 

By rule, the replacement metal is almost twice as thick. If properly designed and properly installed, it is stronger than oem. Just keep your bolts short.

 

Dave

[speedengineer]

I agree with everything everyone has said. I have installed about 1 in the shop, and sold +/-0 for others to install. I sold 0 in the last week.

In all seriousness, just install one. Should be a required safety modification, in my opinion. I'm only 5'8" and I appreciate the additional head clearance to the cage. And it makes seat fitment way easier.

[Foleyracing3]

I am going to agree with everything Jim said. We have installed about 25 in the shop and have sold +/- 100 for others to install. We sold 3 last week!!!!! We get 10 drops out of a sheet of metal, we do 2 sheets at a time and that lasts about 2 months.
 
About 10 of my shop cars, including rentals, have floor drops. We have seen no damage to the drops plates from curbing. Even when Voytek hit the leading edge of the curbing at Indy and crushed the front subframe and steering rack, no damage to the floor drop.
 
By rule, the replacement metal is almost twice as thick. If properly designed and properly installed, it is stronger than oem. Just keep your bolts short.





 
Dave

our kit is on the site, We have installed about 25 or so here and sold over 85 kits.  The concerns with head room far outweigh the concerns about the floor. 
The frame rail is NOT a frame rail. It is called a floor stiffener, It is flimsy and does little but keep the floor stable, the rocker is really your frame rail.  All the floor kits and by rule the drop floor is thicker metal than the floor is originally. We use a new rail to replace or go over the old rail that is 1/8 steel. Far stronger than what was there.  We also put the leading edge of the floor on a 45 degree angle so anything you run over should not catch the front edge , rather glance it and run under the car. If the floor is installed correctly and welded in correctly, there are no concerns.

Thank you for all the info. I will be placing my order for dragos drop floor in a few hours. One more question for those who have installed the pan. Do you just lap weld the whole thing or do you drill holes and plug weld?



Thanks again for all the helpful responses!

[Jim Drago]

Thank you for all the info. I will be placing my order for dragos drop floor in a few hours. One more question for those who have installed the pan. Do you just lap weld the whole thing or do you drill holes and plug weld?



Thanks again for all the helpful responses!

We weld all the way around. Not needed but looks nicer and its not going anywhere

[speedengineer]

Thank you for all the info. I will be placing my order for dragos drop floor in a few hours. One more question for those who have installed the pan. Do you just lap weld the whole thing or do you drill holes and plug weld?


Thanks again for all the helpful responses!

 

Take care when welding so that you don't warp the floor pan.  It's really easy to do. 

 

Probably put tack welds all the way around before you start welding and put much heat into it.  Unless somebody that has installed more of these than I has a better recommendation for welding strategy.