The operating temperature of my setup is heavily influenced by air temperature, skid plate, traveling speed and/or oil cooler ducting. One downside of my situation is that I haven't built an absolute race car, nor have I built a street car. The setup is initially quite sensitive to air temperature, and flow through the duct over the oil cooler. I'm starting to get a good feeling for the relationship between the two, and thus have different 'block-off-plates' for the duct opening in the side window. Once I mounted the skid plate, however, the block-off plates became unnecessary as the engine runs hotter and thus becomes fully controllable (temperature wise) by the oil cooler and fan combo. The hot summer days we got at the end of August, however, were causing oil temps of 240 when I was really pushing it. I anticipate I'm going to want a couple of skid plate options available to use. A solid plate, whenever possible for maximum protection, and a second plate with more airflow for the hotter days. Going into winter, though, I think I'm going to need to look at installing an oil-tank heater to speed cold weather warmup!
And, speaking of warmup, I started working on dialing in some items for winter today. The stock heater linkages were interfering with the Kafer bar setup, so the first job was under the car to shift things around, bend a bit of the stock heater linkage and confirm it all worked. No photos, as I think I've put enough of that area in this thread already! Following that, it was onto the gas heater where I simply had to adjust the ducting, and add some foam to try and stop the cold air blowing around the ducts into my lap. The air-conditioning was nice in the summer, but it's getting a little chilly in the mornings now!
You might, at this stage, think I've got more then enough heat in the car...and you're probably right. I've had my racing seats in my daily driver for the last 9 years, and ever since I popped them into my Audi I've missed the heated seats. I always thought about putting elements into the racing buckets, but it almost seems like blasphemy. A few weeks ago, when I was on the Fall Freeze, I was thinking about how nice heated seats would be on a sore back, and how much I loved it driving home from skiing. I suppose the 3500km in two weekends helped me remember what a sore back was like! As luck would have it, a friend Geoff was selling some heated seat kits when I returned home. Well, why not?
But first, we must do a temporary install on one seat to see if I really want to do this...
The elements were laid into the seat for initial trimming. On this first install, I'm going to install them behind the padding instead of right under the cover like a traditional seat. Traditional seat covers, whether fabric or leather, are usually fairly heavy. The covers on my race seats are almost t-shirt thin. The foam padding, before you sit on it and compress it, is only about 1/4-3/8" thick...so I believe the heat should pass through. If I get a bit of warmth, but not good and hot, I'll try the elements right under the cover. But for now, this temporary fitting requires no holes sewn.
This probably isn't FIA approved...but the switch is convenient to reach, and subtle enough to not be noticed.
I thought this would be funny to post. Not my usual wiring standard! Since this is a temporary test, I left the kit wiring harness intact. If I decide to keep the warmers, I'll trim the harness down to it's bare minimum, mount it to the seat frame properly and put in a nice connector. At the moment I wired the seat heater into the reverse light circuit, since the relay right behind the driver's seat and I can go without for a day. Tomorrow morning should give me a good test to see if I'll keep 'em.
-Dave