If anyone has installed the Corbeau CR1 seats in a 2nd gen coupe with sunroof I would greatly appreciate hearing how they fit and any tips on installation. TIA

Larry

 

UPDATE: Received the CR1 seats and installed them yesterday. The seats fit in the FC just fine and they look very nice.

Unfortunately, with a helmet on sitting in the passenger seat the helmet hits the headliner regardless of the position of the seat. (This car has a sunroof.) So I have removed the seats and have to decide what to do with them. If you track your car, and someone will be riding in the passenger seat with a helmet on, these are not the seats for you. Otherwise, the seats are fine.

BTW, the floor pan on the passenger side of the car is higher than the drivers side. The OEM brackets are constructed to account for that, but the Corbeau brackets are not.

 

I am planning on buying some Corbeau Forza's so if you figure out the problem let me know so I can correct that to. Great seats though

 

wow.. gorgeous seats! if they were all black, id snag them off of you in a heartbeat (if you decided to sell them that is)

 

The basic problem is that the distance from the seat bottom (your butt in other words) to the headliner is too short for someone of medium height wearing a crash helmet. The Cordeau mounting bracket does not account for the higher floor pan on the passenger side and that results in the passenger seat being about an inch and a half higher than the drivers seat. You can see that in the front on photo. I don't know if you would have the same problem with the Forza's.

 

Yeah, they are very nice seats with the microsuede fabric. The standard fabric is not as nice. I may end up selling them if for some reason I can't return them for a refund. Right now things are in limbo awaiting a response from the company I purchased them from.

BTW, the seats run $399 each with the microsuede fabric and the mounting brackets with double locking sliders are $108 a piece.

 

Yeah I have the all black Corbeaus and i love em. they sit a little high for me though but other than that they are awesome. yours look dope btw with the white and black. mine are all black.

 

The seats are being returned next week. Haven't decided what seats to go for that will provide enough headroom on the passenger side for someone wearing a helmet. May have to go with the OEM seats and forget the harnesses.

 

Why would you have someone in the pass side wearing a helmet anyway? I mean if you would go back to OEM seats that just doesn't make sense. You would be losing the harnesses and the support of the Corbeau's...If you're that serious about driving then you should just send the pass one back and put a stocker in there.

Chris

 

Most HPDE event sponsors require an instructor to be present in the car during on-track time. They also require identical seats and seat belts in both positions. After a couple of initial laps with the instructor at the wheel, the instructor rides in the passenger seat. And he/she wears a helmet. Of course, when and if a student moves up to a solo level after a number of events and after demonstrating the required skills an instructor is not required and these requirements would not apply.

OEM seats and belts are approved but I would prefer harnesses, hence the attempt to upgrade to a seat that accommodates harnesses.

 

No way to use the OEM bracket on pass side or modify the new one?

 

I looked at that possibility. Unless you have looked at the sliders on the OEM passenger side seat with it out of the car, it's difficult to describe the problem but I'll give it a shot. The sliders on the OEM seats are attached individually to the bottom of the seat. In other words, there is no firm connection between the two sliders other than the cable for the locking mechanism. And, of course, the mounting points on the Corbeau's don't match up with the holes in the OEM sliders. In addition, the inside slider on the OEM seat is canted and it is mounted at a higher level than the outside slider.

So one would have to construct a bracket to adapt the OEM sliders to the Corbeau seats. It's not that such a bracket can't be fabricated, but in doing so additional height is added to the seat wherein lies the problem. I have tried removing the sliders from the Corbeau bracket and mounting the seat directly to the Corbeau bracket base. That drops the seat about an inch, but the helmet still is too close to the headliner and would not be comfortable for someone riding in the passenger seat.

I think that adding to the problem in this case is the sunroof which has a lower headliner in the area between the edge of the sunroof and the top of the door. Not much I can do about that, so I'm back to the OEM seats and I'm no closer to a solution.

 

beautiful - 'nuff said

 

Just mounted my CR1's earlier today...wow, they do sit pretty high. Im only 5'7" and its pretty high. It worse that I have a 6pt cage.

Anyhow, Im holding on to them since I put a lot of work into mounting them. Corbeau brackets werent exact, so I had to modify the holes a bit. The cage made it hard to install as well.

In the future, Im going to see if a shop can custom make me some brackets so it sits low. Definately no way to use stock brackets...theyre not long enough for mounting points to the seats.

 

I have the CR1's in my car as well. I was not too impressed with the quality of their brackets. Like mentioned above, the passenger bracket does not account for the height difference in the floor pans. Plus, the mounting holes did not match up.

They do look good, and fitt snugly though.

If someone from this thread does end up making some new brackets, keep us all informed. I would be willing to throw some $$$ in for an additional set.

 

Good luck with that. In my opinion, it would not be possible to fabricate an adapter bracket that would lower the aftermarket seats. The problem is that the OEM seat inner bracket is up inside the seat bottom. So, unless they could modify the seat bottom of an aftermarket seat, I can't visualize how any adapter bracket would work. I may be wrong. Maybe someone can come up with a solution.

My next approach is to go with the OEM seat bottom and to see if an upholstery shop can modify the seat back to add harness ports. Of course, that could be very expensive what with modification of the seat structure and the reupholstery. Not sure that is something that can reasonably be done, but in any case I'll report back in a couple of months.

 

I would like to keep the stock seats also.
Can't you install a harness bar (Spearco or I/O Port Racing) and loop the harness over the bar. Perhaps weld some wire guides that keep the harness aligned over your shoulder.

 

I have a roll bar with integrated harness bar so that's not the problem. Where would I weld some guides? The harness ports in racing seats keep the shoulder straps from pulling down on your shoulders in a crash or rollover. So some kind of "guides" would have to be integrated with the seats. That's kind of what I plan to look into after I finish with some engine work.

 

In your case, wire loops or channels welded to the roll bar behind the seat to capture the harness straps and keep them inline with your shoulders. That too becomes the brace point for downward force of the harness.
That way you may not need to add "loops" to the stock seats.

I see many installs of harnesses over stock seats with the straps on each side of adjustable headrests. So it looks to me like the harness bar (roll bar or separate) due the work of harness alignment and down force.

There's not much room on the seats for a giude loop due to the wide head rest (1988 AE S4). I too had that idea. Also I think the seats need to be strong enough to take the force of the harness in the event of a crash if you had loops on them.