Hi guys, after putting my factory seats in the chassis, I now know why the tall builders are looking for aftermarket seats.
Once the pedals were mounted, no way will this be comfortable.
The fuel tank is not installed,with the headrest touching the roll bar in a 818S, there needs too be more room to lift my foot up to the clutch.
I am in the market for aftermarket seats, which ones do you professional drivers recommend? This will be a strictly a street machine with a three point stock seat belt.
I spent the better part of two days looking at sparco, NRG, Recaro, and Corbeau,only to be more confused.
Searching this forums leaves a lot of work as the info is scattered throughout peoples builds. The problem is I don't know anybody running any of these seats to even sit in to try out!
What are you guys using in the 818 or your other vehicles that you have good or bad things about each Manufacturer? Thank you and I know a lot of guys are wondering the same thing
I was looking at street seats. Not full race seats and these names came up a few times, but, what do I know about seats?
Here are a few names.
F1 spec R1 http://www.f1spec.com/spr1rebuse.html
I've had a Corbeau seat (FX1 Pro) for a few years and I'm very happy with the quality of it especially considering the price. I'm looking at getting a MOMO seat for my 818, but haven't had one in the past so I can't really comment on the quality.
I too would like some insight in this area. I was originally planning on using the seats that came with my donor. They are gray leather and are perfect. I've heard the stock seats are tight, heavy and take up too much room. The brackets they send for mounting them weigh a lot. At the very least I would lighten them.
I do ask that when you post on this thread, let me know your height. I am 6'-0".
I started leaning toward the Kirkey seats. Lightweight, lots of room, narrow, easy to fit in the car. I won't be going on long drives so that may work, but I definitely would prefer more padding. At least I think I would. I've never sat in a Kirkey.
I think I would like a Corbeau, Sparco or Recaro type seat better.
I did sit in the Kirkey seats at the FFR showroom. I thought they were comfortable, though just barely big enough for my fat butt. I would consider them if I wanted something other than stock.
Being a little shorter (5' 7") and the fact that I like being closer to the pedals than most, I am assuming I will be happy using the stock '02 WRX seats. Since the seats are in good shape but a little worn I am hoping to find some good seat covers without spending a fortune at an auto upholstery shop. Does anyone have experience there?
I was able to go to Corbeau, Kirkey and Recaro dealers and sit in about a dozen of their seats. I will be tracking my S and also doing some longer cruises, so I was looking for a seat that could take a 5 point harness, had an adjustable back and, most importantly, fit in the 20" deep, 20.5" wide square we have to install them. I'm 6'1" with a long torso, average leg length, 175#.
Opinions, conclusions:
The aluminum fixed back Kirkey I had in my Spec E30 was excellent for sprint races, but I finished every weekend with a sore butt and bruised ribs. Now, thats racing, belted in as hard as you can but I wanted more flexibility. Advantages are most shells fit, covers are removable for cleaning.
Had Recaro SRD's (now Speed) for the 911, perfect for this app, won't fit, expensive.
Ended up with Corbeau LC-1, proper dimensions, not too tall, comfortable. Good web site. The The CR-1 bolster length is too long, no option for submarine cutout (offered with many of their seats). A slider/bracket that adds only 1" of height was a bonus, though I may still need a roll bar addition to pass the broomstick test.
I also discovered that when I raked the (stock) seat back to where I liked it, the FFR tank fit. When mocked up 1" above the floor, the top of the seat hit the roll bar anyway. I'm using rori's steering column spacer to get the wheel forward.
Just my two cents.
" That which is rightly done, however humble, is noble." Sir Henry Royce
SN 46 In the building 10/4/13.
Go Cart 10/20/16
Coupe Conversion
EJ205 Wagon donor
I'm Very Interested in this topic as well. When I was able to sit in a 818S that Six Star Cars is building in Greeley, Co
with the stock donor seats I found the pedals to close to me and very uncomfortable.
So my thoughts right now is I will need to build with the Boyd Gas tank and I want to use a different seat as well.
The seat I have found but yet compared the dimension to the stock seat (hope someone can help here) is the
Procar Evolution Series 1616 Seat. 80-1616-58.png942-evolutionspecs.jpg
And cmcintyre I was just on Corbeau site and I could not find the LC-1 is this a discontinued
item or a typo because all I found was the LG1.
And I do plane to use rori's steering column spacer as well.
After I got my kit, I realized that the stock seats aren't going to be right for me.
Any of the dealers here want to weigh in? NRG's seem to be the most affordable, but there are a lot of choices under $400 per seat. Anyone have something that will fit a 38 inch waist they want to get out of their warehouse?
I will be using a Ultra Shield Rally Sport seat (http://www.ultrashieldrace.com/catal...Sport-Seat/160 ) with a 10 degree layback (as to get more leg room), I have all ready pushed my rear firewall back 4.5" (had the angle on the FFR supplied firewall changed). I use a Ultra Shield Spec Miata seat in my Challenge car.
Tony Nadalin
2018 SOVREN Big Bore Champion
2015 SCCA Oregon Region VP3 Champion
2012 ICSCC ITE Class Champion
FFR MkII Challenge Car, Spec Racer, Street Legal, SCCA, ICSCC and NASA Racing
818R Build in progress
Let's revive this thread. I am torn between the following seats, in this order.
Corbeau Sportline Evolution X (pair $755 shipped)
Corbeau FX1 Pro (pair $623 shipped)
NRG FRP-300 Large (pair $382 shipped)
Car won't be tracked, so I'm looking for comfort for somebody 5'9" 180lb with a 34" waist, and occasionally 5'10" 250lb 38" waist. I'll be using stock wagon seat belts in their mounting position ( behind the seat ). I currently have the stock FFR fuel tank, but am considering switching to the Boyd tank if it would help with clearance.
From what I have researched, the Corbeau Sportline Evolution X would fit both of us fairly comfortably, but I'm pretty sure it is a bottom mount seat. Will I have issues #1 - fitting this seat, and #2 - mounting this seat?
If anybody has any similar suggestions or feedback, please let me know your thoughts. Looking to get this car go-karting soon
Last edited by bompus; 01-09-2016 at 11:18 PM.
Reason: added pricing
I used Sparco R333 seats. $525 ea. I'm 5'9" and weigh 175 lbs. These seats fit the car very well and are sized for a person my size. Got them from CarID.
One builder modified the seat cushioning of the stock seat to help with head and leg clearances. I almost went that route, but worried if I tried and didn't like the result and not confident it would work, I'd have unsellable seats to help fund new seats. After selling the stock seats, I found a recaro sport seat that my back seemed to like that had me much lower when installed. I used Sparco sliders with a 1" bar under the front mount of the seat to add incline to the lower cushion to fold my legs a little for leg room while keeping them supported. I'm 215lbs, just shy of 6' with a 32" inseam. No way the original stock fuel tank was working for me. I installed the Boyd tank and bartered the ffr tank for welding services for my exhaust. It's a snug fit, but comfortable. Post 147 on my build has a pic of the bracket setup, but I don't have one of the seats. I had to blank out one of the recliner rollers, and trim the post under it, to get the seat to fit. They should come with one set of blanks for each seat, but often get tossed by the dealer, so be sure to ask about it. It's nothing fancy, but a simple solution that would take time to cleanly fix on your own. http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...light=Goldwing
Rich
818S in progress. 2007 WRX sedan donor.
Powered up: 7-8-14, First Start: 7-20-14, Go kart: 8-19-14
Probably a good thing that my kit came with seats- so 1 less thing to "figure out what I want"...
They are Sparco R100, and seem like a great fit. There is ~3/8" clearance on each side at the tilt-adjuster.
I have the Sparco adjustable mounts ($70ea), and with a 1.25" rise at the front, and the rear on the chassis cross bar it feels good.
*I don't think donor shoulder-belts would fit at the factory mounting points, though.
ATTACH=CONFIG]49606[/ATTACH]
I really like the newer Corbeau Sportline RRB but it's long at 22.5". I am early into the build and have never really liked those goofy diagonal braces that define the front of the seating boxes. I plan to go about 2" forward of them with a full 1" bar across the width of the car, weld in some diagonals for good strength, then remove the existing angled braces. My cross bar would be attached to the frame rails with gusseted tabs extending down from the side rails and it's top surface would then be welded to the undersides of the two lengthwise bars forming the center console area. It would be about 6.5" above the floor pan. I think it would be lots stronger, would look lots better and would add some visual consistency to the interior.
Do the Sparco R100's fit real people with 36" waists.
We started our build about a month ago and this morning started talking about seats. This is a team build so we need to fit a few different body sizes. 5'-8 @ 170 lbs, 5' @ 210 lbs, and 6'-2" @ 230 lbs. We anticipate that we will be driving autocross/track 15-20 times a year and the rest of the time will be spent working on performance enhancements. I'm an old fart and haven't sat in a quasi race seat in 25 years (I was skinny, and nimble back then). The donor car seats are not under consideration, but could use some insights. We need something to hold our butts in position on the track, but not so restrictive as the make it unusable on the street.
For those that are interested, CDO Engineering describes our organization. CDO is pretty much like OCD except in alphabetical order (as it should be). Case in point, we powder coated all of our aluminum panels. 3D printed our drilling templates (for the aluminum panels), weren't happy with the appearance of the aluminum rivets against the aluminum panels, so we are replacing the rivets with painted rivets. My employees think that I am absolutely nuts and my wife agrees.
Because I could not find seats that I like for a daily or weekend driver I decided to re use my WRX seats and recover them. However, I was never able to make the FF brackets work, but I was able to modify them with good results.
Just thought I'd follow up with another possibility. I found these seats on Amazon and they looked like they would fit. Pricing looked too good to be true ($326 for a pair of new seats), but I figured I'd give them a shot. They had free shipping and they could be returned to Amazon by just dropping them off at Kohl's....
Well, I was pleasantly surprised. The seats are VERY comfortable, and they only measure 21" across at their widest point in the upholstery. The reclining lever is recessed pretty far inward so it's easy to reach. They come with sliders that actually fit the FFR frame. I just had to add some 1" tubes across the "X" where I can bolt the slides down. So the bottom of the seat is maybe 1/2" above the bottom frame rails. I thought I'd have to remove the front frame supports that cross in front of the seats but as it turns out, I don't think I'd ever need to slide that far forward. I anchored them to the frame using 5/16 bolts into rivnuts that are in the frame rails.
Last edited by Scott Meyer; 01-20-2021 at 01:47 PM.
Reason: Added picture
818 "S"pyder delivered 11/27/20, using 2007 Impreza 2.5l NA donor. Work mostly being done by my son Liam...body work and paint being done by dad (that's me)
MK3.1 #6583RD, built from 2008-2019, sold 11/2011
Yeah, I thought so. And the best part was that I could play with them for a month and still return them for free if I didn't like them. Anything else was check the specs and hope I'd like them. And pay 2X-3X for them!
I used the R and L version of this seat in the 818E I built. The owner was tall and he and his wife like the seat comfort as well. Price is hard to beat, IMO.
Thanks to you guys who revived this post. How are you liking the Amazon/ebay seats? Can you provide a measurement from the top of the floor x-bars to the top of the seat (butt height off the floor)?
I'm 6'4" and know I'll need different seats to keep my head at or below the roll bar height. I threw the donor seats into the car and they definitely keep me too tall and close to the pedals, even with the new FFR tank design.
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Originally Posted by Blwalker105
