Race Seat Recommendation 2010
 

I know there are a million of these thread, but most are pretty old by now. I figured some new seats have come out. I'm looking for a race seat for, racing. I do a lot of autox, and trackdays. I'm getting of sliding around in my modified stock seats (bottom has been modified for a 5 pt.).

I'm looking for a race seat, and wanting to know what people like. I'm 5'8" 150lbs and 33" waist. What do you guys have and what do you like. I'm limited to what I can fit in my car, since its so narrow, and can't fit really wide shoulder bolsters. I want a fixed back for sure. Another thing is ergonomics. I need something that has good support for my lowerback/lumbar. Not necessarily padding, just a good shape to it so my lower back doesn't sink in..

Know of a place where I can sit in a bunch?

Starting to get tired of sliding around all the time, even with harnesses.

Review: Bride Vios III Bucket Seat

^^^Scrub just posted this yesterday on RotaryAddicts.

I really like those seats myself, actually, but don't know if it's what you're looking for.

You might look at a Sparco EVO as well.

+1 I think zumspdrx-7 (Rick) has those seats in his car. I meant to sit in it last time we were at a track day but never got a chance.

-Dan

I've got an EVO driver and EVO2 passenger now. Also have a custom slider for the driver seat that I need to sell since it's fixed mounted now.

Corbeau Forza and FX1. I also remember reading something on here about an F1 Spec seat that fit well also but I had never heard of them before.

Kevin,

seats are really important and you want next to nothing between you and the seat. no padding, just a cover. if you are looking for a track seat don't look at the boy racer asian stuff. look towards the circle track outfits.

here's a link to one of the manufacturers and a seat that i probably will put in my car. pick your size.

it's the real thing.

http://www.ultrashieldrace.com/prod.php?id=9

howard

I'm a bug fan of the Recaro SPG racer.

Are you looking for a HANS compadible?

Lotus Elise seats fit perfectly more room than stock. Finished my install a couple months ago and love them. Firm fairly tight fitting and light.

^^Looks nice, but where do the shoulder harnesses go? Perhaps that's why the Lotus owner switched them out.

Yeah I'd totally put that circle track seat in a street car that also sees track time :lol:
Pretty sure Kevin drives his car on the street regularly.

I love my Kirkey 47 Series intermediate road racing seat. It is not a "head containment" seat, but Kirkey does make one (45 series).

Fits perfect, especially when you install stock sliders onto them with a 1/4-inch spacer in the front mount for perfect rake.

I can switch my race seat and stock seat in under 15-minutes.

http://www.kirkeyracing.com/index.ph...&code=Series47

:-) neil

BTW: thanks to Fritz I got one gently used.

Check out Race Tech seats also

http://www.racetechseatsna.com/seats.php

Check out Cobra

whats the difference the evo and evo2 seats?

Wow, thats really cool. Ive never seen those seats before, looks like awesome seats for a street car. Looked them up and saw that they have Tan leather ones too with black back and sides that would probably look really good in a tan interior FD. How did you mount them, were you able to retain sliders? And how low do they sit compared to stock?

The Evo2 is slightly wider and designed for bigger people.

Recaro ts-g/rs-g would be my recommendation.

First question, what is your budget?

Looks like I need to add more information for you and everyone else. I don't drive my car on the street much. When I got it three years ago, it had 30k miles on it. Now, its sitting at 36,500. Most of those miles are to and from the track or autox venues. I seldom sit in the car for longer than 2 hours on a drive to an autox. Most of the time its a 45 minute drive to an autox, and the occasional trip to Mid-Oh, which is a three hour drive.

I had a herniated disc in my back, and had a surgery to "fix" it. I still have quite a bit of back pain. If a seat is so uncomfortable on the 45 minute drive that I'm paying for it all day, thats not real good for me. But on the other hand, I don't need a super plush cushy seat. Just something with proper ergonomics designed into the structure.

I'm not looking at the ricer brands at all, and would prefer a FIA seat, but not an absolute must. I'm not really sure where to say my budget is. I don't really think I'll pay more than $500 for a seat. I may find out that a racing seat that fits my desires is out of my price range and use my modified stock seats a bit longer. They'd done ok so far for 3 years, but I figured it may be a good item to invest in for better, more consistent car control.

I stand corrected.

What do you define as a "ricer" seat?

Kevin,

I had back surgery about 2 years ago as well, laminectomy & discectomy (L1-S5 area, so below where lumbar would help). I understand about still having pain. I purchased a Momo Start 2007 seat for my car. I haven't installed it, but I did test fit it about a year ago. Currently, the FD stock seats are about the only car seats I can use without using a towel or something to stuff in the joining area of the seat for back support. When I did test the Momo, it felt really good and that wasn't too much past my surgery.

i thought thats what the evo xl are?

is it evo, evo2 evo xl? from small to largest and the only difference is sizes?

Pretty sure it goes:

EVO
EVO2
EVO2 Plus (for taller)
EVO 3

The XL I believe is discontinued, as is the EVO L (large)... I think that's the 3 and 2 respectively.

They are quite comfortable actually, once you get in. I'm 5'9", 175 lbs, and 31" waist, and the EVO is great (though mine is well broken in). You can also get various velcro-on lumber and shoulder pads to customize, and the covers are replaceable. If you really want "nothing between you" except cover on track, the butt and back inserts are removable.

Oh I don't really know. Hahahah. I figured most seats like Bride, Takata, and other JDM shit was ricer. Never paid any attention to that stuff, figured it was all for ricers. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I'd be happy to look into anything.

Lol...

I wouldn't say you're wrong because "Bride" seats have become trendy since they've been ripped off by a Chinese company that uses the same name and logo. Bride Japan (Real bride seats) makes quality seats and some of them are in fact FIA approved and currently used in the JGTC, but they're not cheap. You can definitely find a Sparco or Recaro seat that is similar for around the same price. No matter what seat you choose it absolutely has to be comfortable to some degree otherwise you're going to hate every second being in the car. I can see where the correlation between Bride seats and ricer comes from. I've rarely seen a car with bride seats that actually gets taken to the track.

I actually had my car out two nights ago and took a lady friend for a ride, who'd never been in the car. As soon as she sat in my seats she was like OMG these are amazing! Apparently she's been having some lower back pains, but the lumbar support relieved the pain she was having like immediately. She didn't want to get out of the car haha. She said "my drive home is gonna suck now, thanks"

Well what seats do you have?

Those puppies :icon_tup:

In those pictures I don't see a hole for an anti-submarine strap. Is it between the two cushions? Also, since you mentioned it, where is a good place to buy a legit one?

I am selling a set of omp seats..check out my forsale thread. I am 5'10" with a 34 waist and I fit good. It is a comfortable seat but doesn't have a ton of padding so it should work well on the track.

They should be in your price range.

BRIDE seats are very compfy, and the best part about the company is...

CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

Most Japanese companies I have emailed with questions about their product, either never reply or take a month to get back to me.

For that reason, I normally stay as far away from companies without customer service.

Bride responds back very quickly & offers technical data about their products.

I have the GIAS low max seats for street, but I have never spent any time in their fixed buckets

Well from some research I thought the Sparco TEC seat may be a good one, since it said something about added comfort, and the picture made it appear as if it has some sort of lumbar padding back there. I went to a local place and treid to sit in one, but they only had the Sparco EVO and EVO XL.

The EVO seat fit great around my ribs and shoulders, but my hips were painfully squeezed in there. My hip bones felt like they were going to come through my skin. There also did not feel to be any lumbar support. So next I tried the "big and tall" version the XL. The hip area was too spacious, and the rib/shoulder area was huge. Neither of them fit me well.

From Sparco's site, the TEC has smaller hip dimensions so there is no way my hips would fit in there. I found an autox guy who has a Pro 2000 seat I'm gonna try. And gonna see if one of the ricer shops near me has any Bride seats I can try out.

If that fails, its onto Columbus OH to Jegs to try out some Kirkeys I suppose.

Anyone got a line on a set of Memory Fab FIA rated S68 seats. Thats what I was looking for but they stopped making seats.

Kevin,
According to the dimension guide on Sparco's site, the EVO2 is exactly the same in the shoulders/back, height and seat depth, but 1.5" wider in the butt/hips and 1" wider in the thigh area than the EVO. The EVO3 seems to get bigger everywhere.

I've got one (EVO2) as my passenger seat, and it feels like that's exactly the case compared to my EVO drivers. Sounds like it would be perfect for you. They've also got a couple different kinds of velcro-on lumbar pads... I've got one myself.

You can see them all, get dimensions, and see accessories here:

http://www.sparcousa.com/seats_acc.asp

Sat in a few seats before. I prefer Bride and Recaro.

I'm almost positive there is a hole in the seat for the anti-submarine strap and it does come through the split in the two cushions, but I will double check next time I'm at my shop. I bought my seat from rallysport direct, but there are a bunch of Bride dealers. I think Miata_mx5 can actually get them too.

-Dan

Everyone is giving their opinion on the EVO so I'll add mine as well. I have a Sparco EVO driver seat and Sparco Sprint V passenger seat. The Sprint is FIA certified, weighs under 18lbs, has a 5 point sub belt slot, is relatively cheap (sub $300), and is more comfortable than my EVO. The Sprint V fits perfectly and the EVO is a little snug in the interior, even on super-lo rails. I have pictures in a thread somewhere. Let me know if you need help finding them.

I am looking to get a helmet halo'd Recaro or Sparco driver seat if you would be interested in my EVO.

I am very happy with my BRIDE Ergo II's. I am just over six feet tall and they fit me well. One thing the BRIDE rails didnt work, so mine are fixed position. Well worth the four month wait from Japan. Best quality seat I have ever seen IMO

Right there with ya on this one.:icon_tup:

I'd really recommend finding your local race shop safety expert, such as OG Racing or Discovery Parts(Ron gives 10% discount for NASA members and does free shipping alot. He is also a safety expert. Tell him Brent sent you), and talking with them about your specific needs and sitting in a bunch of different seats. I've had a few different race seats over the years. My yellow car has a Sparco EvoL and it's good. I've had sparco's in a few of my FD's over the years. I have no issues with it, other than it doesn't have a head halo.

The passenger seat is a Magnum, which is a UK company, and it is FIA approved.

Back in Feb or March, I purchased a Racetech seat with halo for side impact protection: http://www.discoveryparts.com/cgi-bi...cetech&pid=712
My reasoning for purchasing this seat was:

-The majority of wrecks on track are side impact. I won't say "very rarely" are they head on, but they are much more rare than side impacts. A HANS device only protects against a head on collision when you are using only a HANS device. It's human nature that if you are about to crash, you are going to avoid a front collision at all costs. Majority of the time, if you do hit in the vicinity of the front, your car is rotating and will continue to rotate(side impact).

-After doing my research, I came to the conclusion that the best head and neck protection is a hans and a hans seat with halo/wings opposed to some of the other head neck restraing systems on the market. It is also the most expensive option, but if you spend $1000's of dollars on your car in modifications... guess what? Your life is still worth more than it... invest in yourself. Racetech is a very well known brand in racing worldwide and most of the crazy touring car drivers use them. I, however, have a pan/sectioned floor pan so I don't think you'd be able to fit the racetech in an stock FD. However, Fritz has a Sparco Circuit(hans compatible with halo) in his track FD that still has stock windows and door panels.

Ideally, you want to buy your seat, get it mounted in the correct position, and then build your cage around the seat. This is something that is an after thought many of times and causes owners to comprimise.

I also see alot of guys using the Butler, Kirkey, etc... seats at the track and I think they are a really good option as well. They are hard to get into, but that's because most are custom made to your measurements and are fully contained seats, which means you don't have to constantly strain your body... you can fully relax and drive and let your body rest in the seat. Sounds weird, but it works.

I really like my OMP WRC seat. It's FIA and has really high sides. The padding is removable. I'm about a 30 waist, but I think up to about a 34 could fit comfortably, more than that and it would be a squeeze. The shoulder wings are pretty wide and do touch the door, if it really bothered me I would trim down the wings, but it's a track car so I figure whatever. I used AtomicRex seat mounts to get it mounted as low as possible, they aren't cheap but are a really nice product.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rx/seat2-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rx/seat1-1.jpg

You can see here how wide the shoulders are:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rx/rollbar.jpg