jranaudo

How many guys do this? Is it a big pain?

My concern is I am not the only driver and if I put in a fixed seat it would create problems if I leave it in all the time. I also am looking at a passenger seat as well. If this is the case I'd have to swap two seats!

Any opinions or alternatives welcome. Thanks folks!

naschmitz

I swap both. Lap times much better with good seat.

Racingswh

Simple enough but a pita. I had every intention of doing it but haven't. Seat is fixed for the primary driver and I compromise. Car is no longer on the street.

joenationwide

This week I intend to install a Kirkey Road Race Intermediate fixed back seat in my Z06, which is a DD/weekend track car.

I'm hoping I can get away with leaving it in the car year round. I am going to mount it to an OEM power seat base, and hopefully program the seat memory to move back when the door is opened to help get in and out of the seat without hitting the steering wheel.

I'll check back after this weekend (Saturday at the track, Sunday autox) and share how it went.

RedLS1GTO

I just so happen to have 2 perfect seats for sale...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...-brackets.html


As far as swapping goes, after you do it a time or 2, I'm guessing you could have both done in 10 minutes. Depending on what mounts you use, here is what it takes...

Plastic covers off - a few seconds and a flat head screwdriver to pull the plastic pins
4 nuts off - a minute tops with a battery impact
Pull seat out - Unplug harness on the way
4 stud extenders on
track seat in
4 bolts in

To put in the stock seat, do the opposite.

I just pulled mine out and put the stocker in. It took no more than 5 minutes, tops.

RedLS1GTO

Unless you are short, you might have a hard time with that. I'm 6'0" and there is no way in hell that I could fit in a bottom mounted seat with my helmet in my '02Z.

FASTFATBOY

A good seat is THE BEST money you will spend on a car period.

lefrog

If you want to put a racing seat, you will also need to have a harness bar and set up a 5 or 6 points harness. I went with the Hardbar harness bar, a Planted seat mount, slider (so that my wife could drive it) and an Evo 2 US seat with Sparco brackets (I used to have Evo 2s in my C4).
My experience so far:
- The Evo 2 US barely fits, it rubs on the tunnel on the inside and on the door on the outside. Good luck mounting and unmounting it in 5 minutes. The Evo 2 is smaller and a better fit if you can fit in the seat.
-I couldn't get the Evo2 US to fit with the factory seatbelt, I had to remove it altogether (not a problem since it is a track car). Also keeping your factory belts with the harness bar is doable but it's a real PITA.
- The slider makes the seat a little bit higher, very tight fit with the helmet (and I'm 5'11 with long legs and short torso)
- To help get in and out of the car, use a quick release hub with a good steering wheel (the stock one is dreadful anyway).


Those seats also take a lot of room and you'll need the space to carry them.
You can check the ZFrog photo album on my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/frogracing

I'll put up new pictures soon showing the passenger seat with the Evo2.

RedLS1GTO

I didn't have any trouble with mine in either regard. This is the "new" EVO II (formerly called the EVO II plus). The brackets were actually originally fitted to a friend's EVOII US, which is what I had originally planned on. In the end, I switched to the EVOII because it fit me better (hence the brand new US for sale). He still has the US in his car on similar mounts with the stock belts in place. There isn't a LOT of room to spare, but both seats fit with the factory belts in place and both could be put in or taken out in no more than 5 minutes. All you needed to do so easily is a long extension with a U-joint type of socket to get to the inside rear bolt easily. 4 bolts out ~> seat out. It really is that easy.

I can't speak for Hardbar, but with the B-K harness bar, the factory belts are no issue at all.

lefrog

The Evo2 US is really larger than the Evo2 (but the Evo2 is also much tighter and I just fit in with 5'11 for 175lbs).

Here is how much space is left between the seat and the seat belt mount (I actually attached my harness where the seat belt used to be). And I'm not even talking about the plastic cover. No room there with an Evo2 US. On the passenger side with my Evo2 there is plenty of room though.

RedLS1GTO

I'm 6'0, about 210 with a 36/38 waist and fit like a glove in the EVOII. Over time, the padding will give a bit and the sides will flex a bit so for the track, being a little "too" tight in a new seat is exactly what you want.



Dimensionally, they aren't that different. The actual width of the base (D) is only .1" different. The part where the US is significantly wider is up in the bolsters (A). That section of the seat doesn't have any clearance issues in a C5. The only part that there was any issue with fitment was the shoulders (B). The US barely made contact with the door. I would imagine that over time, it might cause some rub marks or mess up that panel.



The other noticeable differences are that the US is a bit shorter and has a little less layback angle than the II (G). I don't know where exactly they are measuring from, but for the depth (E) I measure out the US to be about an inch shorter than the II. My measurement starts in the "corner" where it starts to go vertical. Obviously by the numbers, this is different than they measured it. Every other measurement I take is pretty much dead on with their chart. The only other slight difference is that I measure the bolsters (A) at about 17 5/8" on the EVO II and about 18 3/8" on the US. That is including the thickness of the covers, not just the bare shell.

(EVO II US)


(EVO II)


I know that how far you put the seat back makes a huge difference since they get wider towards the legs than the back. Farther back gives you less seatbelt clearance. Maybe you are trying to mount it farther towards the rear than I did, maybe cars are slightly different, brackets are most definitely different... but in my car, with my brackets, and with my seats, I can say with absolutely zero doubt that both the EVOII and the EVO II US fit and are able to retain the stock belts.

lefrog

My bad, my passenger seat is an Evo not an Evo2 (so I guess we can call it Evo I). My driver seat is an Evo 2 US. So my comment about being tight was about the Evo not the Evo2, sorry.
The Planted seat mount seems to put the seat very close to the console for some reason. The slider actually doesn't slide well, when my wife needs to put the seat forward, it rubs so much against the console that I need to help her and push the back of the seat while she is trying to pull forward. When I push backwards, it is a significant effort to get the seat to slide (with the door open) and when I close the door, it rubs on the shoulder edge of the seat. If the seat is far back enough with another fixed mount, I guess that could work ok, but if you have to get a slider, my experience has not been great with this combination.
In the long run, I might do like my C4 and remove all the carpeting so that it gives some extra clearance between the seat and the console... but that's a winter project! Not sure if the seat would actually be compatible with a rollcage, I need to see if there would be enough clearance there.

Wicked Weasel

Its easy enough to put in a race seat and take it out.

I found once I had it in I just left it but if it is something like a kirkey it gets old real quick climbing in and out. I only used my car a few days on the street so no big deal.

If you need a wide seat there will not be room between the tunnel and the stock seat belt connector. Something to consider.

Stock rails will take away the extra room and at 6'1 I needed to have mine mounted on hardbar rails.

FYI hardbar allows for stock seatbelts.

RedLS1GTO

That sounds awful.

With something like that I would be swapping. My track seat was fixed and my wife is about a foot shorter than me so there was no chance of her using it (yea, she drives the car too on occasion )

Seriously, once you do it a few times it is 5 minutes out - 5 minutes in. Hell, by the sounds of it, it's probably about the same amount of time you spend trying to get it adjusted.

Bill Dearborn

Even with a Kirkey or Ultrashield that require a seat brace from the back to some hard point on the car you can use a slider. My passenger side Ultrashield sits on a stock C5 manual seat track and the IO Port Brace attaches to the harness bar. I can drill holes along the length of the brace where it slides into the mount on the harness bar so if I need to move the seat all I have to do is pull a pin on the brace slide the seat forward and put the pin in the next hole that lines up with the mount.

When swapping the seats the biggest pain in the butt is moving the stock seats so you can disconnect the wiring and then just lifting them out of the car while being careful not to hit the seat track on the fiberglass or door upholstery. It has sharp edges and gouges things quite quickly.

Bill

JerryTX

In my experience the biggest pain is the rear seat bolts and those are only a big problem if you have a fixed base. My drivers seat is on a slider, my passenger is fixed. The driver seat I can remove in 5 minutes, the passenger side is twice as long and requires a long flexible shaft magnet to serve as backup in case I drop the socket or nut. Mine is a race car so no stock belts, carpets, or wires to mess with; can't comment on those.

JeremyGSU

I did this for a little while and found it to be a pain. First, I've scratched up a number of things bumping the seats in/out of the car so many times. Second, depending on the seat it's hard to get the harness all back in correctly like before. Lastly, I started to worry as many times as I was taking it in/out I noticed my threads were stripping slightly on the seat mounts. Not something I wanted to mess with. I just keep my Sparco Evo 2 Plus in there all the time now.

That is also a seat that is SO tight to get in/out it isn't something I would mess with. Once you have it in, leave it in. It takes two guys.

FASTFATBOY

If you use a sheet metal seat like I do, drill a hole through the bottom of the seat for your rear set bolt access, just large enough for the socket to go through.

boltvette

If you're planning on doing just a few track days a year (I do 8-10), you might want to consider Angel Pads instead of seats. Heck of a lot less expensive and it takes all of 5 seconds to "install". There are dozens of Forum members who use them. They're made in the U.S. by Angelwings Tech.

waddisme

I switch mine out once a month for track days. I have the FX1 Pro w/driver side on slider. The power seat clip was always a pita to unhook, so I broke the tab off the top so I could separate without using a screwdriver. Much quicker.