Dodge, or one of the other Stellantis brands, might be looking into endurance racing. The CarBuzz research team has just found a patent from FCA US – aka the North American branch of Stellantis – for something called a slouch seat. This is a multi-position seat designed for racing, but the timing of the patent and the wording has us connecting some dots that suggest a very interesting conclusion. Let’s break this down and see what it means.
High-Performance Driving For More Than One Driver
Dodge racing seatStellantis
Race cars need low rooflines for center of gravity and aerodynamics. The problem is that cramming a driver under that low roof can be difficult. If you are sports car racing or competing in another form of endurance racing where driver swaps are required, the seat might not work for all of them. This invention makes a seat that can be used for different drivers without needing to be replaced at the swap or sacrificing comfort.
The patent covers a seat that can both slide and tilt. It’s attached to a track fixed to the floor, just like a normal seat. It has a mechanism to let it more fore and aft, and also one that will raise the front and put it into the slouch position. Both movements will have fixed pin locking so that they stay in place, and the seat can work for safety the way it should.
There is one other thing it can do that most racing seats can’t, and that’s recline. The seat pan and the back can adjust separately, where most approved racing seats are one fixed piece. This is because safety requirements for race cars are quite different than those for production cars. After all, you aren’t crashing your street car at 160 mph. Or at least, you shouldn’t be.
Dodge Copperhead Could Go Racing And Spawn A Street Version
Dodge SRT Copperhead ConcealedStellantis
Big deal, it’s a seat. But this has our attention for a few notable reasons, starting with what Stellantis might be building it for. Currently, most of the company’s factory racing efforts in the US are drag racing, where drivers don’t swap and where comfort isn’t an issue because everything is over in 10 seconds or less. The other effort is in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, where, again, there are no swaps. And NASCAR teams, not automakers, usually handle the seats.
This has all the earmarks of endurance racing, where multiple drivers get behind the wheel for lengthy stints. And if we peruse the current lineup of Stellantis brands in North America, there isn’t anything that fits the bill. More likely, this is for something like the Dodge SRT Copperhead that was shown to select media, including CarBuzz, earlier this year.
The Copperhead, which reused a name from a Dodge concept of the early 2000s, made an appearance as part of the company’s investor day earlier this year. We were fortunate enough to get a peek, and we saw a striking coupe roughly Charger sized, but decidedly lower – imagine a mashup of a Charger and a Viper and you kind of get it. And then during the Stellantis Investor Day presentations, a product lineup photo clearly showed something with a big GT3-style wing.
Additionally, language in the patent specifically says this seat is for a “low roofline vehicle.” That pretty much fits exactly the Copperhead we were shown. And the patent also specifically states that racing cars “may be operated by more than one driver.” That is a clear reference to endurance racing. So yeah, it’s just a seat. But the implications go much further.
Patent filings do not guarantee the use of such technology in future vehicles and are often used exclusively as a means of protecting intellectual property. Such a filing cannot be construed as confirmation of production intent.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
2010 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR Exterior Finished IN Black Driving At NürburgringStellantis
A Dodge back in the NASCAR Cup Series might make sense, but this has a very distinct GT3 feeling. The Viper used to race in GT3, so there’s precedent for the automaker to return. Perhaps more importantly, there’s renewed incentive to return thanks to the Mustang GT3. Ram built its TRX pickup to directly rival Ford’s F-150 Raptor. So why wouldn’t Dodge build a car to directly rival Mustang’s race-going GT3, and perhaps a road version to battle the Mustang GTD?
This could all certainly happen, but that would depend greatly on what the brand is looking to accomplish. In any case, this could be our first sign of a new Detroit rivalry in the making.
Source: US Patent & Trademark Office
