Hey... ive been scoping rx-8 seats for a while and was wondering what would you guys think of them in a fb?... i personally if i could find a pair for less than an arm and a leg would put them in my car...

lemm know what you think

-greg

 

Buying them might be the easy part... Who knows who they'll be installed.
I have installed FD seats, and that wasn't easy! So if the RX8 seats are anything special (mounting wise) prepare for some fabrication work. They won't be a drop-in...

 

i pretty much assumed they werent drop in.. i would fabricate to have those seats in my car.... not only are the comfortable as hell but they look sweeeet..

-greg

 

then go ahead, they'd look good, if the colors would match. I like those seats a lot.

 

if i can get them im gonna do black leather..

 

go price them first

 

What did you have to do to get the FD seats to fit? How did it turn out?

Just for reference, if it did work out well, how tall are you? I am 6'1"; and I have to watch what I do or I won't fit (even if it does look good).

Thanks,
BTC

 

rx8 seats are HUGE. measure them first, from bottom of rails to top of seat. i will almost gurantee it will be 3" taller than your car is!

but they would be cool in there. i'm goign to get 99+ miata seats for mine.

 

sweet.... ive never sat in a miata but the look damn comfy...

-greg

 

I'll start with this: before the FD seats I had FC seats in. There are several styles of FC seats, and they tend to be different depending on market (EU, USA...) The ones I had had a seperate headrest, but weren't leather.
Anyway, the current FD seats ended up around the same height as the FC ones, so if you fit those (heightwise) you'll fit the FD ones. No idea how they compare to FB ones.
I'm saying this, because a German guy had been telling me the FD seats end up sitting higher, too high for him, so he didn't instal them. I'm not sure if this is true, since I'm certain the FD ones aren't any higher then the previous ones.
Now for installing: the mounting holes for the seat rails are not lining up, so I welded a square frame. The FD seats are bolted to the frame, which can be bolted to the stock FB rails. I choose to weld the rails on the frame, in order to have a stronger construction, and less bolts. This was the easy part and goes for the drivers seat. The passenger one is a bit more difficult. Stock SA/FB/FC cars all have the transmission tunnel a bit wider here, to allow the exhaust system next to the tranny. Result is that stock seats have the left rail tilted. Doing this would mean a seat that would either be higher then stock, or sitting tilted. Both are not very cool ideas.
I again made a frame, very much like the other one. But only the right rail is bolted or welded on. The left side is modified to bolt straight into the stock locations on the body, without rail. This requires welding a small bracket in front and an angled bracket at the rear. One disadvantage is the fact that the seat will be rigid mount, you won't be able to slide it forward an backward. This doesn't matter to me, as it's only the passengers seat, and that one is always in the most rearwards position anyway. If this is fine with you, the frame is just a matter of testing and not very hard.
To install the thing, you'll need to bolt the frame in first, then the seat on top... This is VERY much fiddling, and really a pain in the *** to do. I hate removing the seats... I had to do that twice now, once to replace the carpets and dash, and once to replace the backseats by a self build storage box.
I hope this doesn't sound to unclear, I forgot to take pics of the frames, and I'm not willing to remove the seats once more, just for that
BTW: I'm only 5'10" (1m75) so that does make some difference... My father is 6'1" and drives the car from time to time (sometimes over large distances) and doesn't have a problem with it.

 

just speaking of rx8's, last night at the 24hour autocross there was a beautiful blue one going at it! he pretty much drifted the whole course everytime cause the clock was always busted. LEMME TELL YOU, i dont care what the horse power **** is right now with them, THEY ARE FUGGING FAST!

 

They are really fast and the seats are comfotable as all hell. I took one for a test drive about a month ago.

 

****, i guess they are ******* expensive from the mazda dealership...

 

not as bad as you'd think. i saw one here for $36000 i think. compared to any other sports car thats pretty good.