Driving is dangerous

So this past Saturday I had a nice drive all to myself, I drove to the Carlisle Corvette show. Driving a minivan.

After the first hour of radio fiddling my mind relaxed and I got serious. Being passed by caravan's of c5's and c6's made me think my c4 needs a rear mount turbo to keep up. I justified the holset with remote pump and fabricating plumbing, even accepted the engine management modifications including pump and injector cost, MS or new code. Then I thought about the stock bottom end with 110k miles of severe beatings and decided it deserves new bearings before a turbo. That's where the idea died because that stupid oil pan is such a pita to get off.

So I progressed. I further dived into the idea of a cheap jag xjs. It would need a manual transmission and straight exhaust. I would replace every non working gizmo with nothing. It would be a track car and it would be wonderful. I did however realize I don't have the 5k or so available to fulfill this dream so my mind wandered on.

And that is where I am stuck. I can't get off it.

A carbon fiber baby seat, car seat whatever you call them.

The cheesy plastic units are flimsy and HEAVY. how can a 7lb newborn weigh 65 pounds? put them in their car seat. I hate lugging those things around.

So my plan is to buy a old/broken/cheap unit from c-list and cannabolize it. Re-use the latches/belts, use the thing to make a mold. Learn how to use carbon fiber.

Now obviously putting someone I care very much for in my home made contraption is not something I am comfortable with right away, its just the availability of new car seats is so crappy quality wise and they are so damn heavy.

I figure I will use the base and latching mechanism's because they work well and you don't have to carry it around. I do not have skills for aluminum fabbing so that's out (but how sweet would a billet AL "handle" hinge on your CF baby seat be?!?!)

Am I missing something? is a decent quality car seat actually available? I am going to build one. It will take a few years and I most likely won't use it even if I still have little ones. I'll keep it by my CF spoon I haven't made yet.

Oh well. Guess I should have paid attention to driving.

Simpson Racing seats makes a baby seat.

One thing to consider is that those things are meant to keep your baby safe in the case of ejection from the vehicle. With that in mind, I'd buy an off the shelf unit that's well made.

Ricaro and Momo both make child seats as well.

For coolness, google "Sparco Wingman."

+1 for Recaro child units...

VanillaSky wrote: One thing to consider is that those things are meant to keep your baby safe in the case of ejection from the vehicle.

Yeah, you'd never know for sure just how well your home-made version would hold up in a worst-case scenario.

I am, however, an advocate of carbon fiber cutlery.

4cylndrfury wrote: +1 for Recaro child units...

We have two Recaro Young Sport seats. They are fantastic, but at least 50% heavier than a lesser seat. They're also huge.

When a kid's life is on the line, I'd have to recommend using a seat that's been certified and crash tested. God forbid you have an accident where your child is injured in a homemade seat - you'd never know if it was your build skills which hurt them.

Another thing to remember here is just exactly who buys car seats. To the mommy crowd, heavy is comforting, because it means that the thing is solid (It must be stronger and therefore protecting baby if it weighs twice as much!).