I'd been stressing over the seat choice since ordering the kit. I finally took a trip up to OG Racing yesterday and came back with this:
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It's the Racetech RT4009HR, wide version. It was the only one they had. I think it's the same model Chad Plavan has. I wish I could have tried the regular (narrow) verson, but the fit was so good on the wide I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on it. I spent about 2 hours just sitting in a couple different Sparco and OMP seats. I really liked the OMP HTE-R, but the thigh bolsters were uncomfortable when making a motion like pushing the clutch pedal. The Sparco seats tended to lack lumbar support and didn't have the support around the rib-cage that I like. The Sparco that I liked the best was the Circuit II. Things that factored into my decision:
-Good lumbar support
-Not too wide (21" max along hips/legs, about 23" at shoulders to fit in the car)
-Comfortable clutching motion
-Good support on sides of torso
-Headrest area not extremely large since it will be up in the wind
If I had unlimited legroom in the car, I would have probably gotten the OMP and saved some money. But I had taken measurements of the footwell area and already had a good idea of where my legs would be - knees up and somewhat close to the steering wheel. The Racetech was just much more comfortable in that position. If I could have my legs straight forward the OMP would have been just as good.
First order of business was the broomstick test to try and get an idea of how much I will have to modify. Due the amount of room I have I couldn't get the front rollbar in the picture, but you can pretty easily interpolate it.
In both pictures, the seat is sitting flat and square on the floor with zero decline. This is NOT how it will be finalized, but I can't really reposition it until I remove the 3/4" slanted lateral brace above the sub belt mount on the frame. I used a piece of conduit to serve as my broomstick. In the first picture, the conduit was sitting on the front and rear rollbars without me in the car, so you can get an idea of where the front one is.
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Here's me in the car now. The conduit was a full foot above the front rollbar!
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Here's me scrunching down in the car so that the conduit once again rests on the front rollbar.
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Obviously, the seat will have to be reclined as far back as possible. I will probably have to cut whatever I can out of the seat foam and possibly cut out the entire floor to recess the seats down flush with the bottom of the car. I need every inch.
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Reclining the seats means taking away footroom area that I don't have to spare, so more cutting and welding will likely be needed to push the pedal box forward.
I think I can make it work. It's going to be a better fit than the Roadster was, that's for sure.