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Mixed feelings at the moment about going with different width seats.
Which widths did you end up with?? Is one of them the US and the other one not? I'm curious bc I'm around 38-40" waist and trying to find a seat that fits in the car and fits me.
Which widths did you end up with?? Is one of them the US and the other one not? I'm curious bc I'm around 38-40" waist and trying to find a seat that fits in the car and fits me.
Thanks
The seats are EVO II on the left and EVO II US on the right. I'm 6ft 185lbs with an athletic build and a 33 waist. The EVO II is about a perfect fit on the seat and waist and the US version is very slightly wider, but honestly I can barely tell the difference. I have somewhat wide shoulders and back from years of weightlifting and the biggest difference I really notice is in the shoulder bolstering. The EVO II US is a little lower and wider and feels perfect, where the regular EVO II is higher up and narrower and I can feel it sort of impacting me rather than comfortably resting against my shoulders.
If I were to do it again, I would just get two US versions. I may still see if I can swap it out.
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; 03-12-2018 at 12:49 AM.
I'm a 38-40in waist. I've had the Evo 2 US with planted base/sides and a Sparco slider. I fit in the seat but I wasn't happy with the lower thigh bolsters. I sold that seat and went with the OMP WRC-R with all the same mounting hardware. I bought all this stuff before Mark had his mounts available and when I was still driving the car to the autocross events. Now that I tow the car to events, If I had to do it, I'd but Marks mount and be done with it.
I could barley shoe horn in my Sparco Evo 2, non us version. The seat base is to wide and runs into the tunnel and emergency door release. It’s a very tight fit. I think the shop steered you correct as I dont think your getting the US version in the drivers side. Unless your sitting much farther back. I am as far forward as I can possibly go, I’m 5’11” and barley get the clutch pushed in all the way. I am a longer torso shorter leg type of human.
I just started a new thread in an attempt to compile everyone's seat setup into one place. Any and all would be encouraged to visit the thread below and share your setup:
Interesting. I had no problem getting the Evo 2 US into my C5. Not sure what the difference are with the C6.
That's because rb185 has a C7... The C6 will fit a Sparco Evo II US no problem. It is a tight fit, but it will go. I've got a C5 z06 and a C6 z06 both with marred brackets and sparco mounts and neither car has anything done except removing the carpet padding behind the tunnel. Neither car has the seat trimmed in any way and both cars still have full carpet.
I would expect that Mark's bracket would make things a whole lot easier and have more room, but they fit even with less than ideal mounting solutions.
I agree with duk007 Mark's seat brackets would be the way to go. I installed EVO II US seats in both sides in my C6 using sparco base and sparco aluminum side mount brackets, you don't want the front section of the side bracket to sit against the seat cover like on rb185 or over time you will tear the seat cover. I had to trim the side brackets on mine so that won't happen.
I could barley shoe horn in my Sparco Evo 2, non us version. The seat base is to wide and runs into the tunnel and emergency door release. It’s a very tight fit. I think the shop steered you correct as I dont think your getting the US version in the drivers side. Unless your sitting much farther back. I am as far forward as I can possibly go, I’m 5’11” and barley get the clutch pushed in all the way. I am a longer torso shorter leg type of human.
The front of the Evo II and Evo II US bases are virtually the same size. Even according to Sparco's specs, the Evo II is actually wider at the very front of the seat bottom by 2mm (533mm for US and 535mm for regular). The Evo II US is wider at the very rear of the seat, toward the seat back. You're mostly limited by the very front of most seats as they all taper toward the rear. But long story short, the Evo II US will usually fit on the floor where the Evo II will, its higher up on the seat back where the width is noticeable.
I thought I had this Sparco EVO II US shoe-horned into this car, but once I tightened the bolts on the brackets and attached the eye-bolts for the lap belts...it simply will not fit. Whatever leverage I had to jam it in and force into place was lost with the eye-bolt hitting the trans tunnel. So, back to the drawing board. I'm about at my wits end here on how some of you guys are easily placing this seat in a C5. I've taken apart the entire drivetrain of my C5 on jack stands...but this seat is just being an absolute nightmare compared to that. It feels like putting a square peg in a round hole.
If anyone can give me some advice on how in the world you made it fit, please...I'm all ears. I feel as if I'm wasting far too much time on this and missing something simple. Thanks fellas!
Something I noticed, but wasn't aware: Once this seat is in the car...there will be no way to adjust a few of the straps for the harness. The inside lap belt is mashed up against the trans tunnel, and the sub belts are too far under the seat to do easily without taking the seat out. The door side you can do with the door open, which isn't a big deal.
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; 03-18-2018 at 09:33 PM.
In order to fit mine, I trimmed the inner front corner of the seat where there's a bit of an over hang. Just folded the cover over, trimmed the over hang flush and flipped the cover back over. Can't tell it was even trimmed, and gained about a half inch or so of space toward the inside of the car.
In order to fit mine, I trimmed the inner front corner of the seat where there's a bit of an over hang. Just folded the cover over, trimmed the over hang flush and flipped the cover back over. Can't tell it was even trimmed, and gained about a half inch or so of space toward the inside of the car.
I've removed the carpet padding, but haven't done any trimming yet. I'll wait on that to see what some others have done.
How did you mount your lap belts? Do you have a photo?
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; 03-18-2018 at 09:44 PM.
Pulled the eye bolt on the trans tunnel side and am able to wedge the seat in with minimal effort. I need to come up with a different, low profile mounting solution for the carabiners built into the Sparco harnesses. I've searched for a simple bolt-in flat plate I could attach it to, but am really not finding much.
Here is what I have right now. Notice the eye bolt location and also how the adjustment releases are on the outside of the seat hole. There is no way to adjust the trans tunnel side like this. I'm also not sure how that would work in a crash, as the adjustment hardware is tight against the seat while there is slack in the belt from that to the eye bolt.
Here is what I would like to do. Somehow attach the carabiner around the seat mounting bolt. This would give me the room I need to fit the seat in the car AND move the adjusters in-board so the rider could actually adjust the belts as needed.
Thoughts??
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; 03-18-2018 at 11:21 PM.
Have you sat in the seat to see how the harness falls on your hips in the current configuration? My adjusters are the same way on the tunnel side and I can't adjust them either. I do all my adjustments from the door side. My trans side is at a set length and I cinch the lap belt down with only the door side adjuster. I don't think you'd want to move the lap belt up and have the adjuster actually on your person. That would hurt in an accident me thinks.
Same deal with the sub belts. No way to really tighten those on the fly. Get them to a length where they will clip in when your lap belts are fully tightened. Remember they're not really straps designed to suck you into the seat. They're just there to keep the lap belt from riding up in an accident. So they shouldn't be uncomfortably tight anyway cuz that would be rather uncomfortable.
You'll find you have a set routine when it comes to installing yourself into a race seat. Mine is: step on seat, slide down into seat. Grab lap belts, clip in, cinch down lap belt from door side. Lap belt should be as tight as you can stand. Clip in sub strap. Grab HANS off of roof of car, put on and tether in. Attach shoulder belts, cinch down. Practice this a bunch before you're at the track and as importantly practice getting out of the car in a hurry. Don't forget to have your gloves close and your door not so wide open that you can't reach it! Ahhhhhh the joys of driving a race car...
Last edited by Mark@AMT Motorsport; 03-19-2018 at 08:27 AM.
Yes, I've sat in it. This is still the passenger seat though, which I still can't get in the car as is anyway. I haven't even attempted the driver side yet. Since it's the passenger side, more adjustment would be great. In the end, I'm OK losing adjustment as long as I can at least get the seat in the car. But it seems a lot of other manufacturers have the adjustments further inboard so they can be adjusted, same with the racecars I've ridden in. However, it didn't have these large adjusters, they had the smaller ones.
I'm not comfortable with the way the lap belt is mounted right now anyway. The adjuster is flat against the seat opening and there is slack from that to the belt mounting location on the bracket. So in a crash, the impact would try and force the adjuster through that seat opening instead of pulling tight at the eye bolt. I'm looking for a different mounting solution (and correct angle) for the lap belts that'll do at least two things, get the adjuster away from putting pressure on the seat opening and allow me to fit the seat in the car.
Thanks!
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; 03-19-2018 at 09:53 AM.
SFI standards call for those adjusters to be a minimum of 2" from that seat opening, and beside the seat (not behind). So I need to mount the belts further back at roughly the same angle.
That said, this looks to be the solution. If I could find something like this that came out just a bit further to be more out to the side without the sub belt anchors, I think the issues would be solved.
I had a similar issue with my toyota mr2 when i installed a seat with a g force 6 point harness. The lap belt adjuster was tight on the outside of the opening on the seat. I figured my issue had more to do with being so skinny at a size 30 waste. After some advice from another owner that had the same issue, I switched to the schroth profi II 6 point harness. The lap belts are 2" instead of 3", the cam lock is part of the sub straps instead of the lap belt, and the adjusters actually sit inside the seat instead of outside I believe(I can double check on that if you'd like). This made all the difference. The price is alittle steep but it was worth it to me.
I havent swapped this setup into the vette yet but I do plan to. Probably be a few weeks before I get to it. Im in the Des Moines area if you wanted to try test fitting my harness into your car. Not sure where in Iowa you are.
I had a similar issue with my toyota mr2 when i installed a seat with a g force 6 point harness. The lap belt adjuster was tight on the outside of the opening on the seat. I figured my issue had more to do with being so skinny at a size 30 waste. After some advice from another owner that had the same issue, I switched to the schroth profi II 6 point harness. The lap belts are 2" instead of 3", the cam lock is part of the sub straps instead of the lap belt, and the adjusters actually sit inside the seat instead of outside I believe(I can double check on that if you'd like). This made all the difference. The price is alittle steep but it was worth it to me.
I havent swapped this setup into the vette yet but I do plan to. Probably be a few weeks before I get to it. Im in the Des Moines area if you wanted to try test fitting my harness into your car. Not sure where in Iowa you are.
This Sparco harness is similar. The sub belts are permanently attached to the cam lock. I'd prefer to bring the adjustment inboard, but at this point I don't really care.
My seat project has stopped for now, as I can't install them until I figure out a different way to mount the lap belts. Or, get different harnesses. I can get the seats in, but not with the big eye bolt on the side. Even if I could get the seats in, the lap belts aren't installed in an appropriate way (adjusters impacting seat opening). If I move the seat far enough forward to make the eye bolt work, my knees are jammed against the dash.
So currently, I'm stuck. Also, I have yet to see how anybody who has ever replied in any seat thread, actually show how their lap belts are mounted or explain how they did it, I'd love some info on that to see what others are doing. It's possible I may be able to get the seat in by trimming, but I'm leaving that as a last resort.
Last edited by Quickshift_C5; 03-20-2018 at 10:30 AM.
03-12-2018, 12:47 AM
