Eyal 951

Matt, tell me what seat you want, and I'll get you your price!
~Eyal

TRWright

Such a great deal, the seats are usually $279 each, and then the brackets/sliders are another $80 or so each, and it includes shipping........

hacker-pschorr

Eayl,
Just this brand or can I inquire about Sparco, Recaro and Koenig?

jc22

I understand what you're asking but I don't know the answer. I have never heard nor thought that reclining seats would be safer or sturdier.

I look at the potential weak points in a system. With a reclining seat (including stock) it seems that the weak point is at the hinge. In every rollover I have ever seen a reclining seat breaks right at the hinge allowing the seat to lay down flat. If you have a harness bar or roll bar behind the seat it will prevent the seat from fully reclining. With a roll bar your head/neck should be protected anyway but a harness bar provides none of that protection.

It would seem the same could be true in a rear end collision. Much of the force from your body weight would be going towards the back of the car and may break it at the hinges although I have never witnessed this. If you don't have a seat-back brace the force will attempt to push your body (and seat) straight into the roll bar which doesn't give. At that point, whether the seat fails at the hinges or where it attaches to the chassis doesn't really matter. IF it fails you are in a lot of trouble which is why the braces are becoming mandatory.

Fixed back seats and 5,6,7 point harnesses basically all attempt to keep your body upright in a roll over. The seats cradle your body keeping it from shifting and also provide no inherant weak point in which to fail predictably. It may fail where the back meets the bottom but it may not. It may be really strong and attempt to pull the front of the seat right out of the floor. Either way the results are, at best, unpredictable The stock seats with stock belts will both allow you to slide over and at the same time the seat will fail at the hinges allowing it to recline fully.

Imagine a fixed-back seat in this car, where do you think it would be now?
What do you think the stock seats did?
Now what if the impact had been more severe?
(sorry about the borrowed picture)

Eyal 951

Do inquire! as long as the supplier has em, I think I can get you a group buy price.
~Eyal

hacker-pschorr

Cool, Recaro would be my first choice.

streckfu's

I think he was asking for which Recaro you want.....

RMills944

LOL!! I knew that'd come up again sometime!

I highly recommend Corbeau - they are good quality and very comfortable.
With the seat rails, it's a direct bolt in - very easy install.
Here's my TRS Seats:

Steve PH

I find the idea that fixed back seats are less safe than recliners a bit hard to believe. I've been in one multiple roll over accident whilst strapped into a conventional seat with a three point harness. After being bounced around brutally in the seat until the vehicle finally came to a rest I think in hind-sight I would have rather been strapped in a bucket seat with a multi point harness. I probably wouldn't have been quite so badly shaken around!

Admittedly there are many variable that can occur during an accident, but a fixed back seat and three point harness would be far safer in a roll over in a non roll cage car than a car with a reclining seat. The fixed back may even help keep the roof off your head to some extent.

Danno

"Do they come with stimulated sheep skin covers?"

I didn't realize you CAN stimulate dead sheep...

jc22

It's not the shaking about that will kill you instantly. Having your head crushed or spine compressed because your seat doesn't give when you land on your roof will.

Believe me you would be much better off to flop around inside the car like a jellybean in a washing machine than to be in a fixed upright seating position when that things lands on the roof.

Manning

I'm pretty sure reclining seats are not designed to break at the hinge in an accident. In fact I believe there have been many lawsuits over the years because seat did break at the hinge and recline in an impact and the driver lost control/submarined/etc. as a result and was severely injured.

Steve PH

Ok in part I agree but that only really applies if your are wearing a 4,5 or 6 point harness in a fixed back seat, then you are trapped bolt upright no matter what. If you are wearing a normal inertia real seat belt you have freedom of movement. Its not the fixed back thats the problem its the belts.

hacker-pschorr

Check this out by Sparco - FIA Homologated with a steel frame:

http://www.sparcousa.com/pseats_comp.asp?id=93

OK944

That would make sense too. If the seat laid back your more likely to submarine and no one wants that happening. What would a manufacturer do in the instance of a roadster. I know in my Miata if the seat were to break at the hinge in the case of a roll over my seat would go back the 1/2 inch to the rear bulkhead. I really don't think alot of design goes into the factory seat, at least not as much as goes into the roof pillars.

And by the look of that picture up top the frame did a decent job at keeping the driver from being shortened a few inches.