The truth about GT3 seats for tall drivers

[johnsimion]

Is the vertical adjustment of the stock seat limited by the electronic whatzit that's under the driver's seat? If so, can the whatzit be relocated to under the passenger's seat? I am just looking for an inch or two additional clearance from the rollbar on the driver's side (my passenger is 5' tall and height isn't an issue). I can't see investing $1500 to $2000 for a couple of seats for a 10 year old car.

[Mike_Yi]

Originally Posted by mmuller

I bought 2 Recaro SPG's (non XL). They came with the stock Recaro sliders and adjustable side mounts. I then took the BK R-9040 Seat track adapter kit to mount the sliders to the floor and the mounts to the sliders. I mounted the seats as low in the brakets as they could go.

By doing this I gained around 3 inches of seat drop. Where I used to look through the top of the windshield, I now look through the middle to lower half of the windshield.

That's pretty much what I've decided to go with Mmuller. I sat in a Boxster with Pole Position seats + sliders and had much more headroom. If you look at the BK brackets, they have more adjustment holes for reclining more too. I've been told that the BK brackets will let you lower the seat even further, though I have come to trust those people less now. I've also read (in only 1 place) that the Sparco slider is actually lower than the Recaro slider. BK's brackets work with the Sparco slider. I have to call BK tomorrow to ask them about that. I'll let you know what I find out.

By any chance do you still have the stock seat around? If so, could you do what I did (first measurement I described) to measure to see just how many inches lower the SPG is from the stock seat? It would require you to pull the Recaro seat to get a really accurate measure, but it would be great info for people like us.

Originally Posted by johnsimion

Is the vertical adjustment of the stock seat limited by the electronic whatzit that's under the driver's seat? If so, can the whatzit be relocated to under the passenger's seat? I am just looking for an inch or two additional clearance from the rollbar on the driver's side (my passenger is 5' tall and height isn't an issue). I can't see investing $1500 to $2000 for a couple of seats for a 10 year old car.

Not that I can tell John. I looked at the stock seat pretty carefully. I was trying to figure out if there is a way I could modify it to lower it. It could be done. There is a piece of metal between the seat frame and the sliders. In the front it could save you about 3/4" to an inch. The problem is that in the back it would only save about 1/4" unless you actually modified the seat frame. Most of the space up front, I think, is for the shock that pushes the seat up when you are raising the seat. Us tall people don't care about that, so that could come out. It wouldn't help in the back though.

[mmuller]

Sorry, I no longer have the standard seats. I was so happy to get the seating position finally right that I was happy to let go of them.

If you want to retain the standard seat belt and buckle, you will also need to use the BK-9005 Tunnel side seat belt anchor. This gave me a mounting point at the tunnel for the buckle and allowed me to retain the use of the standard seat belt. The car has been through 2 state inspections and they always comment on the nice integration of how it looks.

I can tell you that there is no more than a quarter inch between the bottom of the seat shell and the floor of the cabin. I could go one notch lower, but I would have to machine the side brackets somewhat as the side hole for the harness would foul with the bracket.

[Mike_Yi]

Do you use a harness at all? BK tells me that if I go with that solution I cannot use the anti-sub strap mount bar. That kinda defeats the purpose of the race seat (other than for getting more headroom).

They tell me if I want to use an anti-sub strap mount bar, I have to go with the R-9075 side mounts with the stock sliders. That will cost me 5/8"-3/4" of headroom. I want to put in a 6-point harness for DE, but I need all the headroom I can get.

What to do? What to do?

[mmuller]

I don't use a harness (not yet anyway) as my goal was to get comfort and safety first and then worry about track days, which is still on my to do list.

I looked at the anti sub brace just now. At least in my install, I dont see why it would not work. I dont have the BK side brackets however. Mine came with the seat and were supplied by the company I bought them from, but I can't recall who that was as it was over 3 years ago. I think it was Speedware Motorsports. I still dont see why they wouldnt work with the BK solution however

[Mike_Yi]

I talked to BK again. I was wondering if their R-9773 brackets would mount the Recaro seat directly to the floor. It won't. They don't have a solution to mount it without sliders (which seems odd to me). If I have to, I'll fabricate an adapter myself for track days to get that extra inch of clearance.

Anyway, while talking to them again, I found out that the R-9062 (which is for use with the Sparco or Recaro sliders) WILL work with the anti-sub bar. It's just the R-9062s and the sliders aren't drilled out for it. The guy I talked to was one of the engineers at BK and he told me that lots of people do it and it works well. So it's not a clearance issue, it's just that the parts need to be drilled. BTW, the BK guy was VERY helpful.

So what he said to do is put all of the hardware together with the seat out of the car. Determine where the sub mount bar should be located. Mark the holes. Take it all apart and drill the holes with a cobalt bit. Since the BK parts are made of stainless steel, you have to use a cobalt bit or you will go through a ton of bits trying to drill it out. Finally, put it all back together. The holes need to be drilled in the bottom of the seat side brackets, and in the top piece of the slider.

I ordered all of the stuff I'm going to need from Stable Energies. The guy I talked to there was also SUPER helpful. After I gave him the list of everything I was ordering, he offered to have one of his installers double-check to make sure that should all work. Of course I took him up on it. I should have all of it on Tuesday, so I'll update the thread with the comparison between the seats then.

[SilentThunder]

My carbon fiber seats are lower than the stock seats. They are GT3 design but smaller I guess. When I first installed them I had to re-adjust my rear view mirror due to the height difference. They are for sale, check the classifieds if your interested.