North Coast Cab

Looking for some new seats for my 993 street/DE car. For several reasons I want to install a reclinable seat with sub hole for use with 5-point harnesses.
I have a roll bar and seat back brace and am trying to decide on a seat. I have a couple of issues.

1) I do not want to raise my seating position higher than the stock seats and prefer to lower it if possible.

2) The new PCA DE standard calls for the following:

"The seat and belt system must be either FIA or SFI approved and have a date tag depicting the date of manufacture."

I have not been able to find reclinable seats with an SFI or FIA rating.

3) Sure would like leather too.

Comments or thoughts?

TIA, John

007DT

I'm not sure if Recaro A8 are acceptable or not. But Speedware had a nice set for sale (used)

No affil..

www.speedwaremotorsports.com

I can't seem to find them on the site but call them tomorrow.

Martin S.

If you want a seat that reclines, it will be heavy and as to FIA certification, I doubt it. What then is the point? Were I you, keep the factory seat...when it is track time, unbolt it and drop in a FIA approved carbon fiber seat. It is not that tough to do, so I am told.

I have my FIA approved Carbon Fiber seat bolted to the floor pan...perfect for me. To get an even lower position, I just pull out the bottom seat cushions.

dan212

There is tilt forward and recline backward. For what its worth, I looked at the track seats that had a recline function - even the ones that did not have a sub belt hole since an upholsterer could add one. I found that the side bolsters kept them from tilting forward enough to extra hardware. I did not find a seat that had a rearward recline function. I wouldn't be comfortable with a seat that tilted in both directions.

Bitter Pill......

The seat is not just a comfort device. It is part of a safety SYSTEM. Once you put a harness on, everything changes. For example, I added a HANS device when I put in GT3 seats and harness because the only moving part on impact remaining would be.... MY NECK (read: basilar skull fracture).

Put in a safe seat and swap it out when you want a highway seat.

jester911

John, i went through some changes in seats looking for what you looking for. Honestly with a roll bar installed a reclining seat doesn't really have any room to recline anyway. I found it was better to go to a fixed back full race seat.

Swapping seats out is only a handful of bolts so as has been suggested that may be the way to go. The funny thing is when you find how comfortable the race seats are you may not want to switch back anyway.

TR6

Timely thread for me since I'm looking into seat options for 2008. I've also looked at the hybrid street/track seats that still tilt forward for the following reasons:

1) car is dual purpose. If I put in hard shell seats which will only work with harnesses, my wife will never ride in it again. We still like to take it out on the weekends to tour in. She will only want to wear 3pt factory belts.
2) a tilt forward seat will still give me enough access to the rear shelf area to store gear back there since I drive my car to the track and have it stuffed full of gear.

I have a BK harness bar rather than a roll bar (for now). I don't care if the seat doesn't recline backwards. I only want the tilt forward feature. I also have thought about just going with hard shell seats instead and swapping them out, but one guy I asked about this told me that I would probably get tired very quickly of swapping seats between trackdays.

One thing I've wondered is if a hardshell seat on the passenger side that slides forward on the track would give enough clearance to get to the rear shelf with gear, bags, etc.

The advantage of the hard shell seats is that they are lighter, safer, and provide better support on the track. Many of the hard shell seats are also cheaper than the street/track reclining seats. So, its quite a dilemma.

lowside67

Why not buy a hard shell seat for you as the driver and leave the passenger seat as OEM? If it bugs you aesthetically put your oem driver's seat back in for jaunts around town.

Vampire

Where is posted, or where did you hear about it?

LPM911

I don't think the OEM passenger will work for the "equal restraints" rule. However, you can get two different hard back shell seats. Thats what I have in mine, the driver side fits me perfect and the passenger is meant to support all types of body shapes.

And if you've got a half cage in the back, the recline feature is worthless. If you were using a BK harness truss that you remove when not at the track, that'd be different.

Conekiller

I have the recaro speeds in my street/track car. I think they are comfortable with the 3 points on the street, and very supportive on the track with the harness.

dbryant61

I do not think that they are allowed for racing (SFI and FIA do not allow "articulating" seats, IIRC, but I have a pair of Recaro Speed seats in my SC. They are snug, but offer great support, and have shoulder harness and sub-belt holes. Oh, by the way, they are for sale. Med/lt gray, not cuts or stains, probably 10k miles and 8 track events on them. PM me if you are interested.

BrianKeithSmith

Does that mean that Kirkey aluminum seats wouldn't be allowed???? I can't imagine that being the case, but is it????

aben8057

+2 (for PCA DE??)

chrisp

non-FIA seats are allowed but require a back brace.

dbryant61

Brian,

I did not know that the Kirkeys folded. I just know that mine are not allowed and I need to swap them out. I guess I did not "RC" (the important part of "IIRC").

Don