Installing race seats

wastintime · 11-21-2003, 10:24 PM

Hey everyone,
Since my car ('92 C2) is becoming more and more of a track car I'm trying to get as many safety features features installed as possible. I just ordered a MOMO Acropolis Evo seat, and am kind of confused about part of the installation. I figured enough people on this forum go to the track that maybe someone has used the same seat or has run across a similiar problem.
My problem is this. According to the company that I bought the seat from, it cannot be installed with any sort of sliding base, and can only be mounted with side brackets. At first this wasn't a big deal, since I'd probably only be installing the seat to go to track, but then I realized that it means no one else can drive my car at the track unless they happen to be exactly as tall as I am, or feel like removing and reinstalling the seat. Pelican sells a universal sliding mount for the MOMO seats, but their tech department said they weren't willing to say either way if it would work with that particular seat.
I find it hard to believe that there's no way to make the seat adjustable, but didn't want to order the sliding base and find out it's worthless.

If anyone has done this installation please let me know if you were able to get the seat onto a sliding base, or if I'm really stuck being unable to adjust the seat at all once it's installed.

Thanks,
Andrew

rdane · rdane's Garage

This may or may not help. I put my side mounted Ricaro seat on the original Porsche sliders, no big deal. A hand held grinder with a cut off wheel made it easy. Saved me a bunch of money and no one said it would work.

wastintime · 11-22-2003, 08:18 AM

Lol, I'm all about making the impossible possible...

Are you still able to install stock seats onto the sliders? If so, what cuts were necessary?

rdane · rdane's Garage

Didn't have to touch the sliders. I did cut a 1.5"x 10" ( or something similar just guessing here at the key board) slot in the bottom of the side mount to clear the bump for the latch side of the Porsche sliders. The slot allows the slider and side mount to mate flat when bolted together. Took a few minutes to figure out but once done easy enough to do again. So easy in fact I then added a second latch sliders (one right and one left) to the side mounts for security. No harm to the sliders and you can reuse them on an OEM seat.

It was so easy to do to the passenger's side I have yet to do it on the drivers. Not sure I want anyone else driving my car as of yet

The other sliders are still sitting on the work bench.

Doesn't look like it is a signifigant loss of strength to the side mount either.

tchanson · 11-22-2003, 09:14 AM

Dane,

Did your SC have manual factory sliders? If so, those are fairly easily adapted for use with most racing seats.

Andrew's '92 C2, however, (unless an RSA) almost certainly has electric fore/aft adjustment on the seats, and those sliders aren't easily adapted to anything else.

I'd give the universal sliding mount a try, at least on one side. You may also want to give a call to Northstar Motorsports. Ask for John. While they do not sell Momo seats, they are fairly knowledgeable about which Sparco or Recaro brackets, mounts, and sliders can be used for other applications.

Good luck,
Tim

wastintime · 11-22-2003, 09:15 AM

Thanks for the advice guys,

Tim, I don't have electric fore/aft adjustment, I just have the old pull up bar on the left side of the seat, so hopefully it will be fairly easy to adapt like the SC sliders.

I'm only working on the driver's side at the moment as I haven't purchased the passenger seat yet, I just don't want to make it too permanent.

I wanted to try the universal sliding mount, but I'd been told that it couldn't be attached to this particular seat since it's a side mounting seat. Although, I don't see why the side brackets couldn't be bolted to the sliding mount and then to the side of the seat.

wastintime · 11-22-2003, 09:34 AM

Tim,
Thanks, I just got off the phone with John and he hooked me up. He knew exactly what I was talking about and sold me the seat base and new seat track and gave me all of the instructions on how to mount it, and even which fasteners to buy. So it looks like it's going to be a simple installation now. A little more expensive than I'd thought, but at least it's going to be correct now, I knew there was something wrong with what I was being told about only neeing the side brackets.

Thanks again,
Andrew