Andy (Portland, OR)

My new found local friend with a cool car just like mine, let me sit in his GT3 euro seats with my HANS and helmet on for a fit test.

I like the seats -- they fit me well -- but my helmet touches the headrest and the HANS folks want 1.5" clearance behind the helmet. So here's my question: can the GT3 seats be reclined by putting washers under the front mounting points? I assume this is true, and easliy accomplished, but I thought I'd ask before plunking down the bucks. (I know Recaro make a HANS specific seat, but they appear rather extreme for a street car, with severely compromised ingress/egress.)

Thanks, Andy

LVDell

To do that you would need to have to bend the brackets at the rear since they would not sit flush to the floor. That sounds dangerous to me since you could easily introduce vibration in the bolts causing them to loose their initial torque and.............

GT3 Chuck

check with CDOC. I think there are some GT3 seat brackets that have multiple holes at the rear mount so you can change the layback and not mess with the floor mount...

mooty

it's not just a matter of reclining the seat. if you reclined the seat, your head may have more space but y our back is not on the seat back anymore. i can't explain it, but go sit in a hans specific seat with hans and helmet on, then buckle up, you will feel very different. i have both type of seats. and i really hate my GT3 seats when i have my hans on. i never notice it much until i tried the hans specific seat. then i realized what a difference it makes. however, the hans seat is hard to use on street due to the elephant ears.

GT3 Chuck

Mooty, wish you would have told me that before I bought a Hans Device this week....

viperbob

There are no differnt brackets for the GT3 seats other than the Brey krause ones that just lower it. The spacing on the GT3 seats is different than the Recaro standard spacing used on every other race shell. And as Mooty mentioned, that would not be a total solution.

Andy (Portland, OR)

I think I can solve the problem of my back contacting the seat by playing with the padding, so again, does anyone know if the seat can by tilted back on its mounts to get the headrest back?

I just looked at the Recaro Hans specific seat and it looks like it would NOT be a good idea on the street, with the elephant ears compromising side vision, backing and checking blind spots. I drive my car to the track (and elsewhere on the street) and I just don't think those seats are a viable option.

I would really like to use the Hans for safety reasons, not to mention that I have already purchased it. Any other thoughts?

Thanks, Andy

ryce

Andy--It figures that it is a bit more complicated than we thought. You might want to give Jeff a quick call. I love your car, it is a real beaut. It will really settle once it is aligned properly.

mooty

sorry, but i have posted this many times. however, if you dont sit in a hans specific seat, you will never know the difference. i dont want to start some sort of anti GT3 seat propaganda. what i mean is if you had a choice b/n hans seat and GT3 seats, i would take hans seat provided you dont mind the elephant ears. basically every time you make a l ane change on the fwy, is a life threatening gamble b/c you can't see anything unless you got a full legnth mirror (think nascar mirrors)

viperbob, you were correct, the seat i last pointed out was not hans certified. its a spg xl with large shoulder strap holes. BUT that seat does have that ever so slight indentation for hans and if feel the same when you put your hans'd head on the seat back as compared with the truly hans specific seat with elephant ears.

bob really knows these seats well. he's right on the BK brackets. but let me add this, some ppl actually change the sliders (why, i dont know) but none of the sliders i have seen even comes close to the factory GT3 race seat sliders that comes with the seat. i had sparco and recaro sliders in other cars. every time i had to adj my seat, 4 letter words just flow right out of my mouth like no tomorrow.

andy, i really dont think padding is going to solve your issue. hans probabaly sticks out another 1.5-2" from the back of your shoulder. so you need at least that much padding up top and even more around lumbar area. assuming you are lwt and dont compress the padding very much (you float on the padding literally) then you will not have enough side and thigh bolster (it's not that deep to begin with). thus conceivably you solved the hans interface prob. but you sit so high and forward on the seat it's no longer a BUCKET seat. am i making sense here?

one small trick i did. you can put padding on the back to get head clearance, but pull out the seat cushion where your butt sits on. that way you still have deep thigh bolstering at a minimum.

Rceron

I reviving this from the dead. Just ran my first track event with the Euro Seats. I couldn't stand that fact that with my helmet on (non-HANS related) the seat seemed to push me forward toward the steering wheel. From the above it seems that there are no brackets that can be purchased to fix this. Is this still the case? If so I guess I need a new seat just for track events.

Thanks.
R