Seats for the Coupe

[plschulten]

My Coupe is at the paint shop now, drove it a little bit and its all good. Love the Kirkey seats, once I'm in them, however....looking for something that gives me some head protection and is a little easier to get in/out of the car. I'm OK with losing a little bit of lateral support in the name of ease of entry/exit and long term comfort. Suggestions? I'm 6' 1". Thanks!

[CraigS]

I take it that you have the Kirkey classic low backs. Kirkey also makes other seats that are very similar but have a headrest. Go here and click 'browse seats'. I think you have the 41V so click that and then click 'shop drawings'. look at them and then go back, drop down one to the 41 and look at it and the drawings. You will see the similarity. To make them easier to get into you could have the outer side cut down a bit. Kirkey will sell you the edge molding in 3-4 foot strips. So cut your seat w/ a sabre saw, bend the new strip to conform to the new edge and find someone to do a few tack welds.

[plschulten]

Thanks Craig, I have the Kirkey high backs, just so I could have a little protection in a crash/whiplash. Basically a street car, so I don't need a "race" seat per se.....so looking for something that would keep my head from hitting the rollbar as well...

[snakebit31]

I went with the original fiberglass buckets provided by Factory Five. I did install roll bar padding on all of the cage in the cockpit. Not tested in a crash, but seems that it would soften the blow, at least when I hit my head getting in and out!

[Colonist]

The Kirkeys made my back whimper, so I went looking for a non-racing seat that would fit into the space and that was comfortable for me. After sitting in a bunch of different seats, I wound up with the Sparco R100 street seat. It was a little high with the slider, so they are mounted straight to the floor. It has reasonable lateral support and does not obstruct the doorway. 6'1" should not be a problem, and the seat is built for shoulder harnesses. Incidentally, I tried out the seats first looking at price. The ones I chose turned out to be one of Sparco's less expensive models, which made my wife happy.

I had tried a few seats without finding what I wanted, and I wasn't going to buy anything without being fairly sure of it, so trying them out at the racing parts dealer turned out to be a good idea for me.

[plschulten]

Thanks guys...I'll look into modding the Kirkeys or maybe the Sparco. Appreciate it!

[CraigS]

I have an UltraShield in my roadster w/ a hardtop which makes it almost identical to a coupe as far as getting in and out. You can see that I cut the outer side down quite a bit but left the shoulder wing.