Piglet

iTrader: (2)

thanks for taking the ball and running with it. I would have gone crazy trying to keepisode everyone's questions straight.

Monkman33

iTrader: (28)

I hate to be a dick, but anyone saying "wire transfer only or gift only" without already proving themselves..... is just asking to be labeled a scammer. I know I have done it, but that was to save each person a few bucks and I have already sold multiple $2k + transactions with zero complaints.

So this is pure fishy. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. And if they are not up to safety standards, what would be the point of having them? So your insurance company or the other party's insurance company can deny paying you for bodily harm should the seat fail?

Monkman33

iTrader: (28)

But if a well known like SBG is willing to trust them or take on the liability... then that would change things. Still not certified for some track uses, but meh, not everyone does that.

Andre The Giant

iTrader: (21)

Really?
I'm sure SBG would be willing to author the "waiver of liability" that every buyer would need to agree to when purchasing these seats.
I'm sure they will be for "off road use only", and "not for racing purposes" if you catch my drift... I'll trust only my personal assessment of the construction/quality of the seats. That's all anyone has to go by unless SBG is going to do crash testing of the seats which would drive the price up substantially.
Also I hope no one on the list actually intended to send money without adding in the Paypal fee so they'd have protection. It's just common sense. The last group buy attempt was in 2013, and we have evidence of 1 or maybe 2 sets of seats ever sold. I'd think there would be more feedback by now.
Please don't take my posting as negativity, I'm just trying to be realistic here. I want this to work out as much as everyone else.

Check out how much flex the oem recaro has to put up with just driving and making some pulls. Yes it's a RiceRacing vid but the angle illustrates my point.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

^ That is a crazy amount of flex for the OEM seats. Had no idea they did that. I'd imagine a knock off product would fare even worse.

That's a scary proposition if you plan on tracking your car which is why FIA rated products are the way to go.

Most surely, SBG would slap on a waiver absolving them from liability. Can't blame them as I wouldn't want the liability associated with a replica product. Great price though.

ATX-RX

iTrader: (5)

That is a pretty crazy amount of flex

Neo

iTrader: (4)

That's actually a decent amount of flex. It's nothing out of the ordinary.
I don't think the factory seats were FIA certified either. And yet people take their cars on the track. For a street machine, getting a recaro seat from the factory is a nice option. But I know it will remain a street machine.
If you're going to be serious about tracking, you should get a dedicated track car. In which case you would need to get FIA certified stuff (which makes total sense).

Let's see what Sakebomb makes of the seats.

Turbo II FC

iTrader: (14)

Seriously never understood why people want to buy knock off seats especially if tracking the car. It amazes me people are willing to pay 1000 per seat for a knockoff. I have a FIA certified Recaro Pole Position and purchased it for right around 1000 with rail. If you go to a real track like COTA then they wouldn't even let you on the track. My .02 cents.

RotorMotor

iTrader: (5)

Yup, the OEM recaros are extraordinarily flexible. The set we have here does the same, and you can actually grab the headrest and twist the top with one hand. Some of the seat flex however does come from the base of the seat which is what we worked with AGP to address in this seat design as well as addressing some of the flex, however some flex at the very top of the seat is actually designed into it. Shoulders down is quite stiff however.

Yes you are correct, these will come with an "off road use only, user takes full responsibility for liability related to the seats" disclaimer. There's just no way to avoid that unfortunately. We've looked into getting them DOT approved however the process is not cheap, and since they can not be FIA approved (as they are not a side mount seat) it's a bit of a moot point. Are they made for competition racing? No. If you're wheel to wheel racing go get an FIA cert. recaro, bride, or even a cheap status seat, a roll bar/cage, and a nice helmet. The Recaros were made from the factory to be a crossover seat, a trackable setup that holds you in place, but without super high bolsters so you can actually get in/out of the car. These seats are a compromise between a full race seat and the OEM seats, and are meant to slot in-between those two categories.

We are currently in negotiations with AGP (who actually produces these) to We have worked with them remotely for parts of the design process and would like to review as much of the design (especially the rails) before making them available to FD guys in the US. The point for our involvement is to make sure no issues fall through the cracks for safety, durability, long term use, quality, and facilitating the production run and distribution. As (I hope) many of you know, we strive to distribute products that conform to a high standard. If we do not have them installed in our cars, we will not offer them for sale. We've worked to make sure the mounting points (even though it's a bottom mount and not side mount) were heavily reinforced and will show as much of the design process as AGP will allow. We've experienced our share of issues with many sets of imported OEM versions of these seats (cracking over time, bottom mounts breaking with extended use, etc) and are applying that knowledge to (hopefully) help AGP finalize this project within the next month and begin production. We have samples of the latest production run headed here for evaluation and we should have them to take pictures of and give you guys a full review of the latest version of these within the next week or two.

We've kept this project under wraps for awhile as we've been working with AGP to develop these, but apparently something got lost in translation and it seems that ATX-RX and AGP were actually talking about the original version of these seats, and not the revised v2 that Francis and I have been working on together in the last couple months. I think that's lead to a bunch of confusion so I wanted to at least step in and try to help make some clarifications in the chaos. We'll start a new GB thread once we can actually give these seats a thorough analysis, and we'll make that available to everyone in the thread as soon as they get here.
-Heath

SakeBomb Garage

iTrader: (17)

^Oops, posted from my personal account. Sorry. For some reason the GB section does not allow post edits for non-vendor accounts. That's annoying, hopefully a mod can fix that.
-Heath

Neo

iTrader: (4)

Thanks Heath.
Ill patiently wait for the final word.

ATX-RX

iTrader: (5)

+1 and my appologies for jumping the gun! Glad to hear that you are following up on the R&D side. I'm sue you put some people minds at ease

SakeBomb Garage

iTrader: (17)

This logo issue has been a sticking point for us.

A) Recaro didn't make them, therefore they can not, should not, and will not say Recaro anywhere on the seat, and most likely will carry some other label. Now, I know first hand the engineering and design work that went into these seats far surpasses the originals from a strength, structural, and materials perspective... BUT, as they are not made by Recaro they will not carry the Recaro name. We would not sell replica Ohlins or fake Setrab oil coolers, and the seats will follow suit.

B) We couldn't import them with the Recaro logo even if we wanted to. Why? Because if customs decided to open up the shipment, into the crusher they go, and we'd have quite a few unhappy customers without seats.

C) They can be sold with blank headrests, however I've seen them and to be honest (maybe it's just me) but they look a bit lackluster with nothing at all on the headrests. We've talked with Francis about this issue it really comes down to what people want. AGP logo, no logo, SBG logo, RX7, etc. Unfortunately this is where things can get sticky because everyone inevitably will want something different.


You can please all of the people some of the time, or some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. That said, I'm interested to get a general idea (from those that are still interested in the seats *assuming no recaro logo*) what peoples preferences would be. I've actually been hesitant to ask this question as personal preference is very subjective, and asking could just be a can of worms. I don't want to add anything that would detract from them, however we can not put the recaro logo on them.

SakeBomb Garage

iTrader: (17)

Correct, these were never FIA certified. Anyone thinking these are RACE SEATS, please realize they are high performance seats but intended for frequent use. Our Lotus Elise has something similar (though I would say less aggressive than the Recaros) which is a composite bucket seat that is meant to get in and out of daily and not solely for strapping-in in the paddocks. These are very capable, but also very usable. Remember these came on the Spirit R and RZ cars, they're meant to be USED often, so some compromises to how tight/high the bolsters are and how the seats mount to the frame (even the tilt rail) were tacked on to create a hybrid seat category. On a scale of OEM to racecar they are a 7/10. They are not a 10/10 and as a result are not meant to be used in wheel to wheel racing. You also wouldn't be very happy with actual race seats on a daily basis, trust me, we've done it it's not ideal

Neo

iTrader: (4)

I wouldn't mind the rx7 logo on them or the Enfini logo.

Piglet

iTrader: (2)

given those options, i'd probably push for the RX-7 logo, or no logo at all.

'ringmeister

iTrader: (12)

How about Spirit R & RZ, depending on color of course?

Mazderati

iTrader: (3)

No logo.

TonySeagle

iTrader: (8)

I would probably get a shop to embroider RECARO on it if it were no logo, lol. So no Logo for me if I had to choose.

blackjack2015

RX-7 logo would be nice

Neo

iTrader: (4)

If you wanted to get something embroiled, wouldn't you have to remove that piece of the cover to get that done?

I think I saw a link on how someone restored a pair of Recaro's and let me tell you, it's no picnic.

Is the cover easy to remove?

fdjonny

iTrader: (4)

i'll just go no logo

diablone

iTrader: (2)

I believe this is the site you're thinking of: Triple-R: Recaro Spirit-R seats

If these are assembled in the same manner as the OEM seats, then the portion with the logo is glued at a couple points.

Neo

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, that's what I thought.
I would go with either the rx7 logo or no logo.

TonySeagle

iTrader: (8)

I saw that link before. Taking the cover off doesn't seem like a big deal at all. He did a complete restoration of the seats....something I wouldn't have to do as they are new.