What Aftermarket Seats Are Available?

Aftermarket Seat Discussion Thread – go here

Momo

[STH – 99/3/18] I bought the MOMO 1000 Lakes with the carbon/kevlar frame last year and had TAD Motorsports attach sliders on them. This way you can adjust the seat front to back in "real time". I needed this adjustability because of the differing heights of my friends and family members.

If you are going to get two, get them together. Don’t make the mistake I did. I bought the seat last year, then shopped around for a good harness bar, sat on my ass for a while and when I wanted a passenger side one to match, MOMO stopped producing them! Now, I have a nice seat ready to get installed, but I can’t find another matching one. Oh well… you snooze, you lose. BTW, there is a *significant* weight savings… more than 25 lbs per seat.

Sparco

[RLW -99/03/12] In response to the recent post about whether racing seats are a good idea. I’ve done several modifications, and the racing seat is well worth it. I’ve found that every mod has a drawback, and you need to weigh the advantages/disadvantages.

I had the Sparco Evo seat put in, and took out my Comptech roll bar, and put in a Dali harness bar. I bought brackets for

 the seat from Mark at Dali, but they were for his other seat that he sells, I forget  which, and not the Sparco. That was mistake number 1. If I had to do it over again,  though, I'd just buy the seat and bracket from Mark, and not have to have the race shop  screw around with it. My race shop had a bitch of a time trying to get the seat to fit,w  ith me and my helmet.  I'm 6 feet tall, and most of my height is in the legs, 34 inch  inseam. The sliders couldn't fit, and the side brackets which make the rake adjustable  didn't work, so the seat is bolted straight into a frame, and then into the floor. I like  the seat pretty straight up, so that's okay, but no one else can drive the car unless they  have legs as long as mine. The seat is terrific at the track, one of the absolute best  things you can do. I don't have to slide around anymore, holding onto the wheel for  support, I can now use the wheel for its intended purpose.  However, for street use,  the seat sucks. Pain in the neck to get in and out of, can't help but wrinkle a suit with  the 6 point belts, can't let any valet park the car, can't let anyone else drive it. so, I  take the seat out after a track event, and put the OEM seat back in, but I leave the

 harness bar in all the time. With the racing seat, though, I can't use the roll bar,  because the seat blocks where the side bar has to be screwed in. So, I'm going to sell the  roll bar. The drqwback on the roll bar is that it blocks some of your mirror, so you will  not want to use it for everyday, just for the track.

What Seat Mounts Are Available?

[RLW – 99/03/20] I just bought a race-car with a partner, an SCCA Improved Touring Sedan class car, a BMW 325. I wanted to let people know that we wanted to switch the racing seat in the car, and bought a seat, and brackets and sliders. The race shop refused to put the sliders on, saying they uncomfortable about them in rollovers/high speed crashes and did not want to be responsible for the seat coming off. Because the other owner and I have the same length legs, this didn’t much matter to us. I don’t know if their concern was based on experience, knowledge or innate conservatism, but thought I’d pass this along. I don’t know how well these parts are tested, and what forces they are subjected to in a rollover, but thought I’d pass this on for the engineers to comment on. The only hassle with not having adjustability is that no one else can drive the car–I wanted to let Alex V. drive it, and he couldn’t because he is shorter than we are.

Accessories