Seating improvments

[AirCooln]

As some of you may know I am need of some improved seating in my Mini. The orignal seats and belts offer no support, so I may as well be driving sitting on a milk crate.

I guess my question are these. What should I be buying? Where is a good place to buy it? What is a sensible amount of money I should be spending it put together a safe quality solution?

Here are the limitations I'm working with....I wont be installing a cage in the car, and want to mount using the stock mount points, but perfectly willing to pay to have what ever cusom fabrication needs to be done (not on the car itself).

I know CSC racing products sponsors the series. Are they a little more 'serious' then my needs represent? I've searched on the Internet and came up with no helpfull information on this subject.

Thanks for any help, I'm really quite lost here, and warey of many of the performance stores.

[Moose]

Do you want easy access to the back seat ???? because if you do, you will need a seat that will Tilt ...But these seats typically do not offer as much support as fixed back bucket.

Options ... listed below for ones that are easily available in the GTA

Corbeau ... http://www.corbeaucanada.com/ Rick at RT motorsports is Corbeau Canada ... and he has a bunch of models in stock

Sparco ... http://www.sparcousa.com JRP is a stocking Dealer for them http://www.jrponline.com/

Momo .... http://www.momo.it/ ... Momo is carried by Performance Improvements

Recaro .... http://www.recaro-nao.com/ is carried by Performance Improvements



Full Bucket .... these offer way more support and safety BUT are harder to get in and out of ... They come in five basic flavours
-Alunimum (light STRONG, and totaly customisable)
-Carbon Fibre (expensive but light and strong)
-Fibreglass (fairly light, strong and reasonably priced,
-Tube frame ... (light cheap, not as strong)
-Moulded foam composite (cheap cheap cheap)

Options listed below for ones that are easily available in the GTA

Corbeau ... http://www.corbeaucanada.com/ Rick at RT motorsports is Corbeau Canada ... and he has a bunch of models in stock

Sparco ... http://www.corbeaucanada.com/ JRP is a stocking Dealer for them http://www.jrponline.com/

Momo .... http://www.momo.it/ ... Momo is carried by Performance Improvements

Kirkey .... http://www.kirkeyracing.com/ carried by CSC http://www.cscracing.com/seats.htm

Race tech ... http://www.racetech.co.nz/ carried by CSC http://www.cscracing.com/seats.htm

The reason that I listed these particular dealers / manufactures is that you NEED to try out the seat ... you need to sit in it ... because like clothing there is no one common body size/shape .... you have to be comfortable in it ...so go to the dealers listed and try them out ....

All the manufactures listed above except for the ones carried by CSC can be purchased with custom fit seat rails ... or you can get custom ones make by CSC


One thing to keep in mind ... if you ever want to go road racing you need a FIA rated seat (meets their safety standards) ... most cheap seats do NOT carry this designations ... however I do not believe that you need a FIA rated seat for Solo .
You get what you pay for .. and a cheap seat may not protect you as well or be as comfortable

As a general rule a tube frame seat will set you back $400-500
As a general rule a Fibreglass seat will set you back $700-800
As a general rule a Cabon Fibre / Kevlar seat will set you back $1200+
Rails are generally arround $200

I hope this starts you one you quest .. good hunting

Cheers

Moose

[roooo]

OMP http://www.ompracing.it/
Carried by Kenedy Hi-Fi / Kensai Racing http://www.kensairacing.com/

The offer FIA-approved buckets, as well as reclinable sport seats.

I believe Sparco makes bottom-mount sliders which offer tilt functionality for fixed-back seats.

Although I think most FIA-approved seats are also meant to be side-mounted ...

Those RaceTech seats actually seem like a pretty good deal for a full fibreglass shell seat. (Although I just noticed it's not FIA homologated)

[Nissan Racer]

Kirkey makes an all aluminum race seat for road racing in two versions, a lighter weight one that goes for about $1000, or an intermediate that CSC is dvertising at $450, and its a pretty solid seat.
http://www.kirkeyracing.com/Seats.html

[AirCooln]

Excellent. Thank you. I'll check out some of these retailers.

[rpr]

Check the HADA Forum (http://209.226.81.145/forum/default.asp) For Sale section, a member is selling a Corbeau Clubman (I have the same) for $300, barely used, in black. It's a tube frame seat, very light, non-reclinable. I used my stock sliders and made brackets to bolt into the stock position and it works great.

[tomfoolery]

For OMP contact http://www.driversedgeautosport.com in Vancouver who will tell you to contact Raven Motorsports in Toronto :)

[roooo]

Or Simpson Racing ... http://www.simpsonracing.com/
So that's three choices for OMP gear then. hehe

[Marsh]

Originally posted by tomfoolery
For OMP contact http://www.driversedgeautosport.com in Vancouver who will tell you to contact Raven Motorsports in Toronto :)

I've dealt with Driver's Edge a few times and I've never been referred to Raven, or anywhere else for that matter. Really friendly. knowledgable and informative guys I like dealing with them.