clubstylus

Well, after a lot of deliberating I bought some new seats. GRP shells from Kit Bits Direct on eBay. They're seconds, so there are some scuffs and chips in the gelcoat but I can live with it for the price.

One fitted, so far. Making a bit of a meal of it as I only have a 6.5mm drill bit and as always, nothing is quite square

I've also got the shaped stick-on foam pieces for them, though they're pretty comfy as they are so I might try it without first.

Incidentally, I think my head is about 3-4" lower in the car than it was previously. A huge improvement - so much so that the harness bar on the standard rollbar is really too high up now. My shoulders are lower as well, so the frontstays are right against my arm, which could get annoying but the rollbar is on the list of things to change to meet the 2016 regs anyway.

Once I'd fitted mine many years ago , even after checking the position many times before bolting in , I was just a tad to far from the steering wheel. I simply put 25mm foam up the back only then tank taped it in , overlapping the tape as I went. That's been perfect for 10yrs or so. I find the no padding fine , as long as the seat hugs your sides well . Never bothered to pad the passenger or the actual seat of mine.

The driver's one is just a smidge further forward than the passenger's one - maybe 15mm or so. That was my perfect spot

They are the same seats as i have and they are a pig to fit!

What have you done about your lap straps? Mine touch the seats and so i need to either put some holes in the seats or remove a lot of material for the IVA

Hmm... I don't recall them touching the seat for me (they actually felt snugger than with the Cobras as the seat's less bulky so I can do them up tighter as there's room to adjust the buckle properly). I'll go sit in it and check later on

The key for fitting was to slightly oversize the mounting holes as the fittings in the seat aren't perfectly 13" apart, but very roughly. All done up with the biggest penny washers I could find and some tapered spacers to go between the floor and the seat at the front.

Basically what i did too. The drivers seat is on runners though. Got them in in the end!

What belts are you using? Im using Titon belts

Willans 2" 4-point ones that came with the car - they have seatbelt type click buckles. I'm convinced the aero type buckles would give me more strap in the lap so I could get it a better fit (I'm quite a small chap) but I've got more pressing things to spend money on!

Had a look at the lap belt positioning today - they do just rub on the seat edges, but not by much. Not sure there's enough room to cut a slot and make it ok for a larger person. Going to speak to my local MOT chap at some point and see what he thinks as the documentation online doesn't really cover anything post IVA.

Spoke to the tester and he said it's not something they have to check on the MOT. Not that it helps you if you have to get it IVA'd as it's definitely a requirement there.

First run out in the car today. Haven't yet put the padding on the seats and I may not bother if I can return them and put the money towards something else. The shells are pretty comfy as they are.

One minor problem though - I can't see over the sodding steering wheel! It's a cheapo 320mm which needed replacing anyway as it's bendy. Think I'll go for something 260-280mm which ought to be enough to move it out of my eye line.

Stylus was good as gold on the first run of the year after cleaning the carbs out. One week to get used to the new seating position before competition.

Out of interest are the seats the narrow striker type that kit parts sell?

Shooter

They are the wide versions!

Yeah, they are the normal wide version, though in all honesty I think they're off the same basic mould looking at the photos and quoted dimensions.

josephmoore wrote:Spoke to the tester and he said it's not something they have to check on the MOT. Not that it helps you if you have to get it IVA'd as it's definitely a requirement there.

First run out in the car today. Haven't yet put the padding on the seats and I may not bother if I can return them and put the money towards something else. The shells are pretty comfy as they are.

One minor problem though - I can't see over the sodding steering wheel! It's a cheapo 320mm which needed replacing anyway as it's bendy. Think I'll go for something 260-280mm which ought to be enough to move it out of my eye line.

Stylus was good as gold on the first run of the year after cleaning the carbs out. One week to get used to the new seating position before competition.

If you remove the two bolts clamping the steering column under the lower dash plus the ones by the pedal box tower then slip spacers or washers in there before clamping up again , that'll drop it quite a bit.

Good info - thanks Rob. Might be a combination of both moving the column down at a smaller wheel, I reckon