Race seats that fit me and my 84 3.2?

[gliding_serpent]

So I am looking for race seats that will fit me and my 84 3.2.

Use will be HPDE and street. My goal is to get a seat that does not have excessively high side bolsters due to street use. I am 5'7 and 130lbs, with maybe a 30 waist. I am hoping to have my passenger seat be wider for my wife (she is about my size, but with hips) and presumably larger instructors. I want my seats to match in design. I will be recovering the seats.

Why am I posting here for this info? because I live in the middle of nowhere and the closest place with a variety of seats to sit in is a plane flight away. Plus our local track is closed for the winter, so sitting in the seats of others is challenging right now. Finally, I have been in contact with a store with many seats in house, but they are not familiar with what will fit in a old 911.

Of interest, my car is in the shop, but someone here told me that the B-pillars are 47 inches apart, thus any seat 23.5 (597mm) inches or wider at the shoulders will rub.

Here are my top candidates:

- evo for drivers (shave down shoulders a bit as they are 600mm wide), evo II for passenger

- cobra imola pro. On the US site there is a wide option, I just can;t find details. edit: not sure if the same, but the imola S GT is 23.5 wide at shoulders, and 393mm (15.5inches) at the inner waist. Regular Imola Pro is 22.5 and 15.

- OMP Champ R. Again no identical wider option for passenger.

- Momo Supercup x2. 390mm wide at hips, so too wide for me I presume, but I might be able to add inserts for a snugger (occasional) track use. Price is good.

- recaro profi or Profi XL. Not keen on recovering a seat this expensive.

Thoughts and experiences would be appreciated.

[APachon71RN]

Check out Status seats as well as Racetech. I've heard good things about Bride seats too.

[puddy]

FYI The recaro profi seats have quite a narrow leg bolster on them. I'm 6' and 190 lbs and it was annoying every time I'd press the gas my leg was rubbing against the bolsters. So I switched to recaro pole positions and they are perfect for me. Since you are shorter and lighter than me perhaps the recaro profis would fit you well. Just my 2 cents if you go the recaro route.

[3literpwr]

Many of the Recaro seats fit a smaller frame along with the Sparco evo. I had the Evo in my 944 track car when I was 22 @ 5'8" and 140 lbs. The seat was a great fit.

[matt f]

This may not pertain to you and your wife because of your body types.

Be cautious of the width of the passenger seat.
Too wide and it will hamper selecting reverse.

My humble advice would be to get the seats that work for you two.
Don't worry about the size of potential DE instructors.
The host club should have no problem accomadating you.
Some clubs may require similar seats for both driver and instructor.
They do require similar safety belts.

Matt

[Jesse16]

On the "for sale" forum was a beautiful pair of status brand seats for a narrow waisted person. They are lust worthy. Would fit beautifully but passenger would need to be narrow also.

[Bill Verburg]

I wouldn't go w/ anything that is wider than a Profi XL both at the shoulder and seat, I would also look for a seat w/ large holes, the larger shoulder holes are more flexible wrt fitting the harness. lastly the bigger the seat the harder to fit it so even though something like a Profi XL does fit it is a chore to make it so.

[moneymanager]

Don't do this by mail! You absolutely must sit in the seat you select to check its comfort. A good seat makes driving the car a great experience; the reverse is equally true. Wait till Spring when you can sample the seats of other enthusiasts.

[boyt911sc]

Originally Posted by moneymanager

Don't do this by mail! You absolutely must sit in the seat you select to check its comfort. A good seat makes driving the car a great experience; the reverse is equally true. Wait till Spring when you can sample the seats of other enthusiasts.

This is like buying a pair of running shoes. You got to try them first and see if they fit well unless you are getting them at a bargain price. Do you need a retractable back rest? Or it does not matter? Take your time and try them.

Tony

[Quicksilver]

+1 on sitting in the seats as a requirement.
I have a lot of back problems: back surgery 20 years ago, sciatica, a deformed vertebra, arthritis, etc. I stand slightly leaning forward for a couple minutes, like brushing my teeth, and I am toast...

The point of this?
I have found one seat that I can sit in for 3+ hours at a stretch and I am fine. The seat makes that much difference. There are a number of them with similar dimensions but this is the one that makes it all come together. You have to try them out or at least be prepared to replace the seat if it isn't the correct fit for you.
One idea is to only replace the driver's seat initially. If that isn't perfect you can put it on the passenger side and then put a better choice on the driver's side.

Also all seats don't fit in all cars. When I initially fitted my current seat I had stock door panels. I discovered that the plastic door releases were flexing enough that they would hit the leg bolster and it was rather hard to open the door. I switched to a Rennline metal door latch and that fixed that. When I shift into 2nd gear and I push taking up the linkage slack the shift knob touches the bolster for the right leg. (It is close but the fit of the driving position is perfect!)
The moral of the story is make sure someone has fit the seat to the same model car and then ask them what, if anything, they had to do to make it work.

Seeing that you are going to the effort of getting the seat for your car there are a couple details about what you should look for.
- Side mount seats are WAY safer. The mounting points are loaded in shear which is quite a bit safer in a crash. Bottom mount seats have the mounts loaded in tension during an impact which is much more prone tear out failure and if it fails that is a much more dangerous failure.
- Don't get fiberglass. Fiberglass does not have the strength needed in an impact. You want the seat to transmit as much energy as your body can take before it seriously starts to deform and fiberglass cannot do this. Get a kevlar or carbon seat. They will hold their shape even after an initial impact and keep supplying protection. If you want to hold the issue under a real microscope there are reasons you might want to go for kevlar instead of carbon. Carbon will sustain its shape under a much higher G loading before starting to deform. Deformation at the correct level can help cushion the shock imparted to the occupant. If you are in excellent athletic physical condition (like a pro driver) and you are smaller (less mass like a pro driver) carbon is a better match for you because you can naturally stand a larger G hit and the properties of a carbon will allow you to survive a much higher G impact. But if you are like probably most of us you probably aren't in excellent physical shape and you weigh quite a bit more then a pro driver. The lower impact G loading of a kevlar seat is better matched to protect you up to the limit of what your body can ultimately take.

[OffCamber00]

FWIW I have a pair of Profi SPGs. They fit me nice and snug at 5'10" and 175lbs so will be great for you at your size. They were easy to fit into the car and are quite comfortable. I drive my car to the track and can do up to 4 hours in them and still be relatively comfortable. The side bolsters are not a bother on the street.

I also have no problem fitting all but the most gigantic instructors.

[mussberger]

With your size you could fit a narrow Kirkey with their mounting brackets fastened to the top of the stock seat rails

[RR711]

I have a Sparco for a narrow waist like yours in really good condition. I bought a track car from a good friend that was not driving it much and I replaced the seat for a wider one. I will check the info on the seat today and get back to you. Rob

[SkunkWorks]

Just an FYI, but I'm roughly the same size as you gliding_serpent and those Status seats in the classifieds (had the same seats in my 240Z) were tight.

They've fixed the narrowness with the Ring series but I can't seem to justify their price increase over other seats. Brand perception?

I used to have SPGs in my other 240Z, also not a wide car by any means, and they were not only incredibly comfortable on 5+ hour road trips, but fit decent too.

[JV911SYDNEY]

I went for the Sparco Evo as they are narrower in the hips and wider in the shoulders than the Recaro PP which suited me better (175cm, 77kg & 86cm waist - i think that is 5'9", 170lb and 34")

It took a bit of massaging to get them in the car though - sound deadening/underlay was removed from the tunnel and still a tight fit.

+1 on the running shoes analogy

[RR711]

The seat that I have is the Sparco Rev My friend that used it in his car before I bought the car from him was about 5'8" and 145lbs Check the Sparco site for exact dimensions. As I said the seat is in great condition.

[Patrick3000]

This may not work for your situation but back in the day it was not unusual to see a factory driver sport seat and a stock passenger seat. Check with your club but "equal restraints" does not necessarily require the same seat.

I had this setup in my 944 S2 and it worked very well as the car was my DD and DE car. Almost forgot I recovered the factory sport seat in vinyl to match the passenger seat because of all the in and out at the track. When the car was sold the factory non-sport seat was reinstalled and it was in perfect condition from several years in storage.

Factory sport seat



Stock seat

[gliding_serpent]

I need to digest all of this a bit more. I would like to verify that 47 inches wide at the b-pillars.
- I do NOT want to alter my interior to make things fit.
- interesting point on the EVo... it was a top contender, but if it is a tight fit at the tunnel, I am not so keen on that. I have been focusing on shoulder width, now I need to take my choices and look at the bottom width.

I 100% agree with sitting in a seat, but it is a 1.5 hour flight to get to a place with seats to sit in (Montreal Canada, and I am in The east coast in Nova scotia). I am trying local racers to see who has seats I am considering, but not much luck. Small area. Will continue to look around.

Ideally I take my car to a place with lots of seats in stock. I test sit, and then take the seats outside and test-fit. I would rather slightly large seats, as i can add temp padding for occasional hpde use. Too fitted and the rehupolstered leather will make me sweat.

On the topic of used, the trick is that shipping from the US is in the 300$ range, at least from Florida and Texas. It would have to be a good deal...

thanks for the info however. lots to think about.