looking to buy a race seat, inputs
 

2nd gen fc, i need a race seat before i can get fitment of the cage for myself...i was leaning towards the sparco pro2000 since i have drove a car with that..i loved it....just wondering if there is anything comparable in comfort/fitment but not as costly... $700+ for a seat is just out of my range.

this being said...fixed position seats only....

What organization? SCCA?

Do the rules require head protection/restraint?

if im not mistaken it will be nasa organized drift events. i would like a seat with head restraint but its not 100% needed

BRIDE Zeta III is very comfortable and light.

i would need to be able to find 2 matching seats eventually...price, color?, anyone used these? how do they compare to the pro2000 sparco

also what is the fia expiration date? not sure it matters a whole bunch in the events i plan to drive but theres no point in paying top price for an expired seat

Save your money, get a kirkey aluminum with a back brace.

this wont be a drag car...it will be setup for a drift car only. saving money isnt the issue being kirkley seats are actually less expensive than say the sparco pro2000

Not sure where the "Drag Car" comment came from, but the Kirkey Intermediate Road Race seat (which I think Gene was referring to) is a good, safe and comfortable seat (I have one in my FC). You will need a back brace, but since you are already spec'ing a cage that should not be an issue.

You said earlier that $700 was "just out of my range", so we were assuming that price was an issue. Is that still the case? The Kirkey is < $450 from Summit Racing.

-b

do you have pics of your seat fitment? i only have heard of them mostly for drag racing seats, i browsed their site and found the 45 series, it just looks like a monster of a seat and i cant find any real feedback or reviews on comfort and stability etc. weight isnt an issue but ultimately comfort is.

$700 isnt really OUT of my range, just if i can get a seat for considerably less it would be great since $400 or so can go to other things...

Yup, that's the one. A friend of mine has one in his race car that I've driven a few times (and I'm buying from him actually) and it's pretty comfortable and doesn't expire. The FIA composite seats have expiration dates... once they expired I think most sanctioning bodies let you use them if you install a back brace, but they aren't designed to have holes drilled in them for the back brace, so it's questionable whether that is even safe... Drilling the composite creates stress risers in the material so the mount might not be strong enough to hold in a crash.

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

thats what i was worried about with the composite seats. i know the local events dont check seat or harness expiration dates so i may be somewhat in the clear. i would really like more feedback on the kirkey brand seat. pro/con etc...

I use Ultrashield road race seat

http://www.ultrashieldrace.com/prod.php?id=49

man the price has gone way up on these seats.

how did you like that style of seat? it looks very similar to the kirkey brand. i have thought about purchasing a bag kit to make my own custom formed seat pad

we do the seat cushion thing, it actually works really well.

seat cushion as in creafoam?

The Kirkey seats are well proven through years of racing in SCCA and NASA. They are solidly built and I have never heard any concerns about the quality of their construction. One of the nice things about them is that you can order them in widths with 1-inch increments, so you can size them for yourself (something you cannot do with many models of composite seats). I'm a big guy, so I have an 18inch seat, which fits fine in an FC.

Ultrashield's are certainly an alternative for an aluminium seat, and I not heard anything bad about them. They seem to have been popular amongst the Spec-Miata crowd.

Composite seats are certainly nice, can have some benefits in the weight department (depending on the construction). However, I do not feel any less safe in my Kirkey and it definitely very comfortable.

-b

we have 4-5 drivers, so we have a different one for each driver.

the "best" ones are just 2 part foam in a garbage bag. mario's got some fancy foam thing with a fabric cover...

i think i might go with the kirkey seat, especially if i can do my own foam for comfort. do you have any information about the seat foam and maybe which brand to purchase?

damn those are cool looking and nice for the price but that might be too much for a car that will be a daily driver

i dont think its a dumb question. if its comfortable enough for DD then it would almost be godly at the track :)

you got a point there. plus it beats paying a bajillion for a seat that has an expiration date. to the people that have them in there car, how big is it?

I had a Kirkey Intermediate Road Race seat in my FC. The nice thing about FIA seats can be that some don't require a seat back brace to comply with safety rules. But if you don't mind having the brace, bang for buck the Kirkey is hard to beat.

Comfortable enough to daily, well.. that's a stretch. I could do it if it was a sunshine fun car I drove a few days a week... But a true daily driver seat? I don't think it's any worse than any other race seat, so if you could deal with it in a sparco seat, I think you could do it in the kirkey too. But not me, my back would be toast :)

PaulC