What seats are you running?

[claudermilk]

Great post as always, Terry.

I can second that the Recaros Ford is using are great seats. Comfy & hold you well. At the autocross I did recently, I was expecting to be bracing myself like in my last car--at least until I threw a 5-point harness in it. I was quite surprised at how well it held me in place even with the stock 3-point belts. I know a proper 5 or 6 point harness will eventually be needed, but those seats are an even better start than I thought.

I also just went the the LA Auto Show & sat in a bunch of cars. I was partly checking out the seats in comparison to mine. I was happy to walk away from the show thinking I have one of the best OEM seats offered--at least in any models I could sit in.

 

[FR500GT]

I found a pair of Cobra Imola S seats at a good price locally. The only downside is that it's for the seat only; no sliders or brackets. Does anybody know where to find the correct sliders/brackets to fit the Cobra seats to our S197 chassis?

 

[FR500GT]

Nobody knows?

 

[stang389]

http://www.evoperform.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1332

found it for ya man

 

[FR500GT]

Damn! $650 for just a pair of mounts/brackets?

 

[Mike K]

Sounds like you need to make some. Lol

 

[Memphis]

425motorsports has the mounts and sliders for a lot less than that. Give them a call, the owner Dan Reiss is great at answering questions and responding quickly http://www.425motorsports.com/

 

[FR500GT]

Thanks. So all I would need is the Cobra Aluminum side mounts and Cobra universal seat silder kit right? $478

 

[STEVE_POE]

RACETECH baby. Don't skimp on a seat. It just could save your life.

 

[Napoleon85]

RACETECH baby. Don't skimp on a seat. It just could save your life.

If that car lives in Cincinnati, I would love to come see it ...

 

[DTL]

Thought I'd reset this thread instead of starting another one.

I'm currently running a Sparco Evo2 with Sparco offset side mounts on a Planted bracket. No sliders. I've got the seat as low as it will go before bottoming on the bracket, but I still feel like I'm sitting on a booster seat in the car. Granted, it's lower than stock, but still too high for my taste. Is there anyone that makes a bracket or mount setup that gets the seat DOWN in the car?

Thanks!

 

[SoundGuyDave]

You're probably up against fabrication at that point.... Most of the seat brackets that I've seen that tie into the factory mounting points sit pretty closely to the the crossmembers running between the sill and the trans tunnel, so not much room to gain there. Take all the brackets off, set the seat on the floor, and see if that's low enough for you. Then fabricate mounts from there.

If it's not low enough, then I think you'll have to look at the Kirkey/Ultrashield/LaJoie fabricated seats. When I test-fit mine, sitting on the floor, my 5'11" frame had the center of the steering wheel at eye level. PLENTY of adjustment room, since you drill your own mounting holes to fit the brackets. Big downside is that you'll need to run a seat-back brace tied into a rollbar with the aluminum seats.

 

[DTL]

The Planted bracket doesn't have much room to drop at the front, but there's a bit of room at the back. I've thought about chopping and lowering the back of the bracket, since that's the end that's running out of adjustment. Before I hack up a good bracket, I thought I'd check and see if there was a ready-made fix out there.

 

[Random Asshole]

Could use some expertise:

I'd like to run a fixed back seat (preferably with sliders) and run the stock 3 point belt. The biggest problem I see is the receptacle now fixed to the bracket. I pulled a receptacle from the back seat that is a regular soft belt. It's an inch longer, but I still think that might not do the trick. I have read here and there there was a guy an ebay that made custom length seat belt receptacles... but I don't think I'm ready to trust my life to some guy on ebay.. I suppose I can scour junk yards, but I've got enough shit to do as it is outside of this silly little hobby.

While trying to find differences between the Sparco and the Planted bracket to compare the two in terms of seat belt tab length, the only thing I could find was a possible legitimate photo of the planted bracket. All findings of the Sparco brackets I came across were generic file photos that didn't even close to how our floors look. Does anyone know if there is any difference between the Sparco and Planted brackets in terms of seat belt location or tab length?

I've got my eyes set on Recaro Pole Positions. Variants of Bimmers, Porsches, and NSX's have run these seats with the stock 3 point belts. But, I don't know if I can pull of what I'm looking to do with the run of the mill sliders and brackets.

Cobra seats looks like they'd be more belt receptacle friendly with the lower/larger belt strap openings:

Anyone running fixed back seats and stock belts care to shed some light on the situation?

 

[Philostang]

Expertise...not so much. Experience...a little.

I'm running a fixed back seat (Kirkey), and I use the 3-points when I'm on the street.

I made my own seat brackets to accept the Kirkey aluminum side mounts. Mine are much beefier than just about anything I've seen for our cars. They're also much heavier, being made mostly out of 1" x 1.5" x 0.125" wall rectangular tube. I could put sliders on them if I wanted, even have a set in the garage, but so far it's not been important enough to try. Right now they allow the seat to be set pretty low, with the lowest plane being 1" higher than a line drawn directly from the tops of the forward seat base to the rear chassis pads.

I put the belt mount where I thought it would be best positioned to receive the belt OVER the seat, not through the seat belt holes. This is not ideal. Repeat, this is not ideal. You want the seat belt to fully cradle your hips, and like the harness lap belts, they should cross over the crest of your hip bones. In my configuration, the Kirkey seat's hip bolsters are too high to allow the belt to contact my hip, they're about 1/2" to 1" shy of the mark. The belt does make contact with most of my midsection (and I'm not a big guy, 5' 7", 165 lbs). So I figure in an accident I've got that 1/2"-1" distance to fling forward before the belts start really restraining me in earnest. Ish. Not good, but I believe liveable (or should I say, survivable).

Disclosure: part of my "survivable" attitude is accompanied by the fact that these days I very rarely drive this thing on the street. It's usually on track, and then it's the harnesses for me.

If I were looking for a fixed back seat to run regularly on the street, my first filter would be the height of the hip bolsters where the belt would run. Low is good. From there you have your selection based on whatever other quality you desire.

Keep in mind, even if you can fit the end of the belt through the receptacle-side hole, you still won't be able to get it through the chassis side unless the seat's hip bolster is slotted or you unbolt one end and fish it through (in which case, you cannot quickly remove the seat as I originally wanted). As such, you're still considering how high up those hip or thigh bolsters will hold the belt away from your hips. Still, one hip fully supported may be better than neither? Dunno.

Best,
-j

(edit): Come to think of it, my street configurations real concern is probably submarining in an accident what with that much room to spare before the hips are secured. I might consider using just the lower belts of the harness to address that and run the 3-points shoulder belt for chest restraint...

 

[modernbeat]

We didn't cover the seat install very well in our build thread, but there are a lot of photos in the gallery for the red Mustang. Photos start on this page:

Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT Build

We eventually went with the Cobra Suzuka Pro for the S197.

We liked them so much, we became a dealer for them.

 

[Rehagen Racing]

Just an FYI - We use Planted brackets in all our cars that have bolt in seats.

The other option to go lower, is to weld a base into the floor. This is sometimes used in our cage kits.

 

[Napoleon85]

We didn't cover the seat install very well in our build thread, but there are a lot of photos in the gallery for the red Mustang. Photos start on this page:

Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT Build



We eventually went with the Cobra Suzuka Pro for the S197.

We liked them so much, we became a dealer for them.

I like those Cobras a lot. What do they run with sliders/brackets?

 

[Philostang]

Ok, scratch what I said earlier about the belts needing to go over the bolsters.

Just got back from the garage and it shouldn't be too much trouble to run them through the Kirkey openings - don't know what I was thinking back when I put them in originally (I think it had something to do with wanting to be able to remove them very-very quickly...dunno, silly idea I'm sure).

I am going to relocate the OEM receiver further back, but that's cake; and if you weld up your own it would be part of the design from the start.

Best,
-j

 

[modernbeat]

I like those Cobras a lot. What do they run with sliders/brackets?

That exact seat is $799. Sliders are $79.95 and FIA approved aluminum side mounts are $149.

We make our own brackets to mount them into the car, as you've seen in our gallery. And, there are cheaper and more expensive seats. That Suzuka Pro is the one we decided on for the red S197.