Sorry, but I am NOT a fan of the original seats. Wondering if anyone has some suggestions for alternatives. BTW, my seating area will be lowered to accommodate non-standard seating.
Has anyone used seats from other vehicles in their project?
Very much like Wally described, I really didn't like the Superformance seats.
There's no lateral support.
The grommets come out.
I am 6' 2" and need to sit as low as possible. (I have no Gurney bubble, but the cars I have sat in with the bubble all had the bubble too far forward, so it was no help.)
They didn't look very nice after use... the 'cloth' starts looking very sad.
I talked with Fran at RCR and he was nice enough to send me his seats, but they weren't even close to fitting in an SPF.
Dennis Olthoff aid he has tried to find seats, but none really fit the GT40 _and_ give you enough head room when you're tall. His red race car has a seat made out of aluminum. I tried sitting in them at Road America, but they were too narrow for my backside.
So... I decided to make my own. They ain't fancy and there's no grommets (although I'm still considering using Fran's inserts), but the lateral support is good and I can sit in the car with my helmet on.
I made a template from cardboard and used the Recaro seats in my Pantera as a guide for the sides. I bought some aluminum sheet and some foam and then had them covered in leather.
I learned quite a bit during the process and would do them slightly differently if I had to do it again.
The driver's side works great for me. I extended the bottoms for more leg support and, as you can see in the pictures, I added a 'headrest'.
Pros:
- I can wear a helmet at the track with the seats in (I took the bottom out at RA and slid around a lot while on the track)
- The lateral support is very good and is great at the track.
- They are easy to remove
Cons:
- They aren't stock and have no grommets
- The passenger seat gets very narrow with the sides on it. The foam SPF seats just squash when someone wider sits in them... my seats don't....
- The lateral support is good, but it is now more difficult to get into the car. I am now obliged to take the steering wheel off to get in and out.
- The head rests are nice, but if you thought that your rear view vision was minimal before, it is REALLY minimal now...
- The foam on the bottom is 1/4" so I sit as low as possible. That isn't much padding.
FWIW,
Kirby