The rig I use

The one that is still assembled, which does not use the carbon seat and is better for it.

Specification / as recorded

Status: Seat and rig built, August 2023
Role: Solo. Plug, mold, layup, frame and assembly
Method: Plywood buck, carved foam, clay plug, hand laid forged carbon
Timeline: Plywood box to demolded shell in eight days
Shop: A home garage, hand tools and an open mold

Sheet 02 of 03/Second rig

The one I actually use

The carbon seat is the interesting object on this page. It is not the thing I sit in.

What I sit in is a second rig, built later, and it does not use the shell at all. The seat on it is a padded reclining chair on its own pedestal, bolted through the floor pan. That is worth saying plainly rather than leaving it to be noticed: I laid up a forged carbon seat, and then built the rig I actually use around a cushioned chair instead, because a rigid shell with no give in it is exactly as unforgiving over an hour as that description suggests. The shell was the better exercise. The chair is the better seat.

A sim racing rig built from dimensional timber, with a direct drive wheel base on a raised deck, pedals ahead of it and a black bucket seat behind — Wider base, a real seat, and pedals far enough out to sit at a proper driving angle.

Close view of the rig's wheel deck, a direct drive base bolted to a timber crossmember with a rimmed wheel attached and cabling below — The base is bolted through the timber rather than clamped to the edge of a desk.

The sim rig seen along its length from behind the wheel, showing the seat, the wheel base and the pedal plate all on one timber frame — This is the version I still use, which is the only endorsement that counts.

Nothing about the second rig is precious. It is dimensional pine, screws and steel mending plates, with no mold anywhere in its history. It is also the version that is still assembled and still gets used, which is the only endorsement that counts.

Sheet 03 of 03/What changed

Three corrections, all geometry

Every difference between the two rigs is about where things sit, not what they are made of.

The base is a floor pan, not a frame. The first rig carried the load in a narrow timber structure. The second spreads it across a wide pan that everything bolts through, so braking loads go into the floor instead of trying to rack the frame.
The wheel deck is raised and separate. The direct drive base is bolted through its own timber crossmember rather than clamped to the edge of a surface. A clamp is a hinge with extra steps, and a direct drive base will find that out for you.
The pedals moved forward. On the first rig they sat close, which is comfortable for about ten minutes and wrong for anything longer. On the second there is enough distance to actually extend a leg into the brake.

None of that needed carbon, a mold or eight days. It needed a tape measure and a willingness to admit the first geometry was wrong.