Hey folks, I'm building up an E36 Track car to do open Tracking, and maybe eventually some club racing.....

I've come into some money I wasn't expecting, and have a couple of questions, but before that, a bit of information...

The car is getting a roll cage come this fall, which leads me to the first question

1. Any negatives about putting in race seats without a roll cage?
2. Do the harnessess attach to the roll cage?
3. Can i put in race seats without harnesses for now? (keep in mind, this car isn't being tracked yet)
4. Any seat recommendations? (fitment, cost, comfort, quality...)

Note: for #4, I sit VERY tall (I'm 6'2", but a lOT of me is torso, hoping to lower myself in the car for helmet fitmet inside the car)

Please.....
don't flame me for asking questions, I'm just looking for friendly help and guidance as this will be my first full-on track car.

Thanks in advance!

the general consensus is put in fixed back seats and harnesses at the same time the cage goes in, not before or after

for harnesses, go 5-pt or even 6-pt. the shoulder straps wrap around the cage and all the lower straps mount to eye bolts in the floor.

depending on the brackets you use, you can get the seat very low on the floor. much lower than the factory seats can go.

of the sparco seats i've sat in, the pro2000 fits me best (6'2" 170lbs...skinny). if you have a birthing hips, the evo will fit you better but is harder to mount due to its width

there are far more knowledgeable folks on this board, maybe they'll chime in. what i've posted is what i've gathered from lurking here and hanging around the RRT shop.

yeah, as it is now, if I was to put on a helmet at stock height with stock seats, I'd have fitment issues (to be comfortable and safe). I'm hoping to lower myself in the car as much as possible (definitive goal there).

Thanks for the information, James!
-ben

you can get the seat much lower if you use the right race seat brackets and such.

some of this stuff is trial and error, there aren't a lot of standard ways to do this.


yeah, as it is now, if I was to put on a helmet at stock height with stock seats, I'd have fitment issues (to be comfortable and safe). I'm hoping to lower myself in the car as much as possible (definitive goal there).

Thanks for the information, James!
-ben

You shouldn't have any issues with your height at all. A race seat is shorter than regular seats, sits lowers, there is no headliner in a race car, etc.

Best thing for you to do is to check out some E36 race cars at either a BMW or NASA race. And don't go too wild in building up your track car since you may want to race one day and stay in a certain class. Always keep an eye to the potential class you may race one day when you do safety or performance mods.

All good advice and good information, thanks guys.

height wise i would suggest custom mounts, but the best off the shelf solution would be a side mounted shell with the VAC floor mount adapters. nice piece of bling.

Your height won't be a problem at all. I'm 5'11", which is not quite your height, but I can get my seat so low that I have 4-6" of headroom with the liner and sunroof hardware removed. And my seats have a slider, which adds extra "thickness" to the base. All kinds of room in there.

You can put race seats in now, but if you do, stick with the factory belts until your cage goes in - using harnesses and seats without a cage or rollbar is bad news.

Have fun.

If you are interested I'll most likely have the 'race' interior for my car available soon. It would include a black Sparco Pro2K and Evo L, Kirk rollbar, VAC and a sparco floor mount, 1 slider, and 6 point harnesses. I'm local too so it would be easy. Let me know, thanks

Heya Peter, I may be interested in the interior you have, can you provide me some pics what you have? Also, when will it be available? Feel free to PM me if that's more convenient.

Hell, there may be a few other things in your sig list that I might want (the Turner bars for example), let me know man.
-Ben

a friend of mine fabbed up custom brackets at his work and mounted his Momo seats directly to the floor. no slide adjustment, but he says he can feel the tire letting go through the car....

plus it's goddamn low as can be.

That sounds very cool (feeling the tire letting go like that). Unfortunately, I don't have any tools for fabbing a bracket like that.

The height depends on the race seat and adaptor. Most sparco race shells are higher than Recaro. In my ITS car, the Sparco EVO II and TC Kline mounts was too tall, putting me close to stock height. I solved the issue by using Speedware mounts and removing the slider. I plan on making my own low profile mount to get it even lower.

When I had the Recaro SPG and identical mount and slider, I did not have an issue with head clearance and the seat mounts lower.

The height depends on the race seat and adaptor. Most sparco race shells are higher than Recaro. In my ITS car, the Sparco EVO II and TC Kline mounts was too tall, putting me close to stock height. I solved the issue by using Speedware mounts and removing the slider. I plan on making my own low profile mount to get it even lower.

When I had the Recaro SPG and identical mount and slider, I did not have an issue with head clearance and the seat mounts lower.
I found the speedware website, not sure if its the same
http://www.speedwaremotorsports.com/

How much were the speedware mounts? (don't see them listed)

Heya Peter, I may be interested in the interior you have, can you provide me some pics what you have? Also, when will it be available? Feel free to PM me if that's more convenient.

Hell, there may be a few other things in your sig list that I might want (the Turner bars for example), let me know man.
-Ben

PM'd ya.

PM'd ya.
PM'd you back ;)

http://www.speedwaremotorsports.com/seat/hardware.asp

i prefer the sparco alum or recaro sidemounts, some people have complained about offset driving position with the speedware mounts.

http://www.rmaz.us/Sean/top.jpg

I had some custom mounts made at the same time I had my cage built. I have a Sparco Evo, which is a side mount seat. I spent nearly 2 hours with the fabricator making sure we had the seat in the proper location. It's set into the center as far as possible, so it's very nearly centered on the stearing wheel, unlike some others. I have sliders on it, as there are 2 of us that drive the car and the other guy is quite a bit shorter than I am, so he moves it pretty far forward.

I'm 6ft, and have about 1 inch of headroom with a normal headliner, my co-driver finds that he has a good 3+ inches of headroom. My passenger seat is an Unknown type of Sparco, and is mounted with a fixed Sparco base mount, which puts it far enough forward to be able to brace your feet on the floor, and is so low that someone 6'4" or so is the same height as me in the drivers seat.

I can take some pics, but I pretty much copied a design that someone else had done. There was a very good thread already in here about it. Do a search and you should find some good pics.

Talking to a reliable shop / technical source for race seat installation, they recommended the steel side mounts (sparco I assume), and bolting the seat up directly to the floor (since I'm 6'2" and a lot of me is torso, I sit very tall).

One local installer talked about making sure I had the correct nuts/bolts and backplate. Can anyone else assist me with detailed information re: what nuts/bolts, and about a proper backplate? (race seats in my car is completely new to me, I'm not very knowledgable)

I just put a Cobra Suzuki, Cobra side plates, VAC Motorsports floor plates no slider in my E46. The VAC plates come with all the mounting hardware. This combination significantely lowered the seat. I am 6' and now have 3/4" of headroom. Now I feel like I am sitting in the car rather than on the car. In addition the VAC plates allow you to get the steering wheel dead center on the seat.

Anyone have any feedback puting a Sparco Pro 2000 in an E36 m3, with the VAC floor mounts, and sparco Side mount brackets? Any fitment issues? The evo2's are out of stock everywhere, and the pro2000 lookts to be a good alternative.

Also interested to know what the difference is between the sparco Aluminum brackets vs the Steel Brackets. Obviously steel is going to way more than aluminum. Any downside with going with one or the other?

btw, found this up on the sparco website which was great for comparisons

http://www.sparcousa.com/resourceFiles/26.pdf

Thanks again!
-Ben

Also, since I'm going to be getting the floor mounts anyway from VAC, might consider the Cobra Suzuka seat. It's made out of kevlar, not sure if anyone else has some feedback on this seat. Looks like it comes in two widths too (standard and GT).

Anyone have any feedback puting a Sparco Pro 2000 in an E36 m3, with the VAC floor mounts, and sparco Side mount brackets? Any fitment issues? The evo2's are out of stock everywhere, and the pro2000 lookts to be a good alternative.

Also interested to know what the difference is between the sparco Aluminum brackets vs the Steel Brackets. Obviously steel is going to way more than aluminum. Any downside with going with one or the other?

btw, found this up on the sparco website which was great for comparisons

http://www.sparcousa.com/resourceFiles/26.pdf

Thanks again!
-Ben

I have the Pro2000 in my M3, with Sparco side mounts. I made a custom floor mount from 1/8" steel ... basically, it looks like this:


_ _
| |__________| |
|o____________o|
| | | |
| | | |
| |__________| |
|o____________o|
|_| |_|


The side mounts just bolt to that, offset by about 2" toward the centre of the car.

So, I ended up buying a cobra suzuka GT, the matching Cobra Side Mounts, and a VAC floor Mount. I'm thinking of putting the seat in this weekend, but a couple of questions for those in the know.

I plan to use the stock belts for now with the seat (I just want the seat to lower me in the car for now, autox, etc). But, I'm not sure how to get the stock belt such that it's through the left lower harness hole. It looks like the belt is permanently attached near the floor around a bar down there, and im not sure about the top mount for the belt. The goal being to have the belt so that it secures me tightly around the waste (through the side holes on both sides), and wraps around the outside of the top of the seat for the shoulder part.

Can anyone assist on how to do this? Let me know if I can clarify any information, and thanks!

use an e30 seatbelt receptacle.

Do you have any pictures of what this looks like? I'm not familar with the E30 belt receptacle.

Well, the Cobra Suzuka GT went in today (Driver's Side), and I pulled out both front seats. I ended up (for now) using the middle rear seat belt connector on the right side of the driver to connect the stock belt up. With the passenger side seat out, of course, the airbag light is on (since no sensor is hooked up).

Question: Aside from the fact that the passenger airbag won't fire, and the dash light being illuminated, is there any other negative affect to that sensor not being on?

I saw that Jim Powell built up something to connect to the airbag control system to fool it into thinking someone is in the passenger seat all the time (http://www.apexcone.com/JimPowellHomepage/Recaros/Recaros.html), although I'm not very well versed in putting something like this together (sad, because my dad was an electrician for years, sigh).

Anyway, any feedback would be appreciated, thanks!