bigmackloud

Hey guys,

So last fall when I was prepping my 01 C5 Corvette for it's first track event, I did a ton of research to figure out what seats and seat mounts I wanted. But to be honest, it was a little confusing trying to figure out what would fit, how to anchor my harnesses, when I needed stud extenders, etc.

So as I went through my installation I tried to video most of the critical steps and give some good visuals on modifications that have to be made to make everything work together. So this is my effort at giving something back to the forum. Hopefully the video will be a good resource for future people considering installing race seats. The seat video is rather long, but then again so is the installation process for getting the seats to fit. I also did a review/installation video for the Shark Bar.







So here's what I installed...

Corbeau FX1 Pro - Driver's seat
Corbeau FX1 - Passenger Seat (wider than the FX1 Pro)

Marrad Industries (Arizen) Seat Mounts with Sliders and rear harness anchoring system

G Force 6pt harnesses

Key Modifications:

Stud Extenders:
Marrad was kind enough to send me the stud extenders with head already cut off so that the seat bracket will sit flush with the floor pan.

Also, the rear mounting holes in the seat mounts have to be enlarged to clear the larger diameter of the stud extenders. This is no easy task as the holes in the seat mount are oblong which makes the drill bit jump around.

Yaw sensor:
The yaw sensor is located on the passenger side floor board beside the transmission tunnel. This interferes with the seat track. The side of the seat track has to be trimmed back with a cut off wheel about 4.5".

Rear bottom mount pedestals on the seats:
To get the rear of the seat as low as possible, both for head clearance and to add more rake to the seat, the rear bottom mount pedestals have to be cut off with a sawzall. (I side mounted my seats). Nothing like unwrapping your new race seats and then attacking them with a sawzall.

Harness bar vertical rods:
The Shark Bar harness bar comes with vertical rods and mounting feet that add rigidity to the harness bar and prevent it from pivoting under load. Since the Marrad seat brackets have a rear harness anchoring system integrated, I used the side mounting holes of the seat bracket instead of the mounting feet that come with the harness bar. While the mounting feet are no doubt sufficient, they slightly interfere with the seat bracket anchoring system. Plus the anchoring system is even stronger.

Final thoughts:

The Marrad seat brackets are very nice. Heavy. But do require some modification to fit.

The FX1 does fit... but barely. Pretty much negates having sliders as there's no room to slide forward/back. The FX1 Pro fit much better.

The Corbeau sits are reasonably comfortable. While this isn't my daily driver, I have made some 1.5 hr trips. No complaints from me... or the wife. Though I would prefer a little more lumbar support.

I've done two track events with them now. Great support on the track. Can't imagine tracking without them.

Hope this helps someone. Feel free to ask any questions.

RadnessWarrior

How low were you able the get the driver seat? I have the fx1pros with PLANTED floor mount and side mounts. And I barely fit with my helmet.

bigmackloud

Honestly I don't think I gained any headroom over stock. Keep in mind that with the sliders, as you go back, the seat gets lower.

I'm just under 5'10" and with my helmet I fit ok. But still not tons of head room. Towards the end of the video I have a shot of me with my helmet on to show head clearance. Basically I have the thickness of my hand between the helmet and roof.

0marrad

We now have a redesigned version of this bracket. We eliminated the overlapping 3/16" steel section around the rear studs and the bracket is now 3/16" instead of 3/8". The stud extenders should no longer be needed. We have also added a multi-position sub belt crossbar.





http://www.marradind.com/proddetail.asp?prod=C56MBWHM

The picture below shows the Brey Krause harness bar strut around a stud extender. So we know the Brey Krause bar fits, but now the components won't need to drilled out to clear the stud extenders.




This bracket is easiest used with our sliders and side mounts. Trying to bolt side mounts directly to the bracket can cause problems because the tabs that bend upward for mounting belts may interfere with being able to install or offset the seat from center. The sliders allow side mounts to slide over the top of them if needed. This bracket with sliders sits lower than the oem rails.

bigmackloud

[QUOTE=marrad;1591872185]We now have a redesigned version of this bracket. We eliminated the overlapping 3/16" steel section around the rear studs and the bracket is now 3/16" instead of 3/8". The stud extenders should no longer be needed. We have also added a multi-position sub belt crossbar.


Oh sure, now you come out with the multi-position sub belt crossbar, haha.

And not overlapping the steel in the back so that it's 3/16" instead of 3/8" is a big win. Because drilling out for the stud extenders was a major pita.

So those are both nice design improvements. I definitely recommend the Marrad seat brackets.

0marrad

[QUOTE=bigmackloud;1591873630]For some reason the C5 seat studs tend to be shorter than the C6. We really do listen to feedback and once we found out the trouble C5 owners were having needing stud extenders, we made the changes.

flash911

Hey Mark (marrad),

I just want to thank you for your great customer support. One of these days I'll get my seat mounted to my requirements and post up a new thread for all to see.

Cheers Sir,

Ron

RobbyZ

Mark, I see you have a side mount option that will work with my C6 OEM track. What else will I need? I plan on buying the Corbeau A4 seats. If I use the OEM track, do I still need to other bracket pieces or just http://www.arizenracingsports.com/pr...?prod=C56OEMSM ?

0marrad

The A4 is not a side mounted seat - it mounts from the bottom. I don't know how you could mount that to oem tracks and if you could it would likely sit very high.