The seat debate again

[Andymaserati]

Hi Guys,

I've looked through the Archive and couldn't find a satisfactory answer so I thought I'd pose it again.

I'm looking for some new seats for my Elise S1, I'm going to fit harnesses and would ideally like some that come with harness holes.

I've seen these on flea-bay which are cheap, but I'm not sure if they would even fit in an Elise.
Clicky

Does anybody have any experience of aftermarket seats in the Elise?

I don't want to pay more than the cost of re-trimming my old ones (~£850 for pair + £20 for a set of Grommets)

Cheers Guys

[TIPPER]

Can't say I've ever seen these seats before so can't comment.
Few observations though - firstly they're suspiciously cheap......
Next ...why do you want to change the seats on your car? If you want a bit more comfort then try and get hold of a pair of 111S seats or anything from an S2 or try the Corbeaux seats Eliseparts sell (as fitted to the S160) which will also give you more support. There are also some good reasonably priced bare (no padding) seats but expect to pay towards £1,000 for a pair.
There's a price for everything.

[TIPPER]

One more thing, do you want to reduce the resale value of your car - those seats would be a deal breaker for me.

[Andymaserati]

Ok so those seats were a bad example to start a discussion with. My issue with the Corbeau seats is their price. If I could pick up a pair for less than the cost of a re-trim then that would be my first option, but they're proving prohibitively expensive.

Do you guys know if any of the seats below will actually fit in the Elise?
Corbeau Forza

Sparco F300R

Cobra Aqua

Recaro Furious

And in answer to your other question, I'm not planning on doing any modifications to the appearance of my car that would prevent a future owner from changing it back. But while it's in my ownership, I'd like to enjoy it how I want to.

[subaqua]

IMO there's no point taking a risk on something like this... if any of those seats are at the wrong angle, or are a bit thicker than an OE seat, you'll be robbing yourself of much needed legroom.... especially when you realise that putting a harness bar in an elise often loses you a click or two at the end of the seat runner.

I've not bought aftermarket seats, but eliseparts, elise-shop, msar and hot-lap should all have tried and tested elise specific options for you - they might start a bit more expensive than some of those options, but at least with these guys its unlikely you'll be chucking the money down the drain

Edited by subaqua on Wednesday 2nd November 11:02

[S Works]

^^ What he said ^^

There's a lot of stuff out there that won't fit, and believe me, hundreds of people have tried and whittled down to the options that are tried-n-tested.

[TIPPER]

These are made to fit the Elise
http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/Performance/Seats_Ac...

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/Performance/Seats_Ac...

http://www.eliseparts.com/products/category/48/sea...

http://www.elise-shop.com/seats-c-5_63.html

As S Works says many have tried to find a cheaper route - unfortunately there's not a lot that fits the Elise. You can get your existing seats re-trimmed and fitted with the probax support.

[pthelazyjourno]

subaqua said:

IMO there's no point taking a risk on something like this... if any of those seats are at the wrong angle, or are a bit thicker than an OE seat, you'll be robbing yourself of much needed legroom.... especially when you realise that putting a harness bar in an elise often loses you a click or two at the end of the seat runner.

I've not bought aftermarket seats, but eliseparts, elise-shop, msar and hot-lap should all have tried and tested elise specific options for you - they might start a bit more expensive than some of those options, but at least with these guys its unlikely you'll be chucking the money down the drain

Edited by subaqua on Wednesday 2nd November 11:02

Why's that then?

My harness bar isn't anywhere near to the seats - why does it rob you of seat space??

[Andymaserati]

Cheers for the help guys. After your comments I stopped off at Lotus Silverstone yesterday and managed to pick up a pair of 2eleven seats at a more than reasonable price.
(I don't know why they don't advertise them anywhere)

[pthelazyjourno]

Nice.

How much were they?

Stupid car - mine already has retrimmed seats, but as soon as I see something else shiny I want it!!!

[Loudman]

Those look well-nice, my car hasn't even been out of the garage for 3 weeks but I'm tempted to by some anyway!!

[chevronb37]

I'd be interested to know how much. A pair of Probax with harness grommets is on my shopping list.

[Thorburn]

Very nice, picked up a similar pair myself this year, but in cloth not leather, to go with my harnesses and they're fantastic - even my girlfriend likes them and said they're worth the money, she hates me spending money on my car

[XTR2Turbo]

Tillett make the B5 seat which is designed for the Elise / Exige

http://www.tillettcarseats.co.uk/B5-racing-car-sea...

[Andymaserati]

I'm not going to say exactly how much they cost, but after selling my current seats (on ebay) it shouldn't have cost me any more than a Retrim.

Top tip, check out your local dealerships. Although these were the only ones Lotus Silverstone had lying around, they did have a pile of standard seats for sale (and I mean a pile). Who knows how often these things crop up at the local dealership....

.... probably the local dealer

[Thorburn]

Andymaserati said:

I'm not going to say exactly how much they cost, but after selling my current seats (on ebay) it shouldn't have cost me any more than a Retrim.

Top tip, check out your local dealerships. Although these were the only ones Lotus Silverstone had lying around, they did have a pile of standard seats for sale (and I mean a pile). Who knows how often these things crop up at the local dealership....

.... probably the local dealer

Did they have any standard S1 seats in there? Sold mine years ago and wish I'd wrapped them up and stored them instead in case I ever want to return the car to standard.

[tertius]

pthelazyjourno said:

subaqua said:

IMO there's no point taking a risk on something like this... if any of those seats are at the wrong angle, or are a bit thicker than an OE seat, you'll be robbing yourself of much needed legroom.... especially when you realise that putting a harness bar in an elise often loses you a click or two at the end of the seat runner.

I've not bought aftermarket seats, but eliseparts, elise-shop, msar and hot-lap should all have tried and tested elise specific options for you - they might start a bit more expensive than some of those options, but at least with these guys its unlikely you'll be chucking the money down the drain

Edited by subaqua on Wednesday 2nd November 11:02

Why's that then?

My harness bar isn't anywhere near to the seats - why does it rob you of seat space??

It depends which harness bar you have, how far back you need your seats (obviously) and probably which seats you have, I have my seat right back and had to try a couple of different bar designs before I found one that allowed me to keep that seat position.

[Andymaserati]

tertius said:

It depends which harness bar you have, how far back you need your seats (obviously) and probably which seats you have, I have my seat right back and had to try a couple of different bar designs before I found one that allowed me to keep that seat position.

tertius, which harness bar are you using? I also require the seat as far back as it will go and this could save me weeks of buying and returning harness bars.

Cheers

[Andymaserati]

Thorburn said:

Did they have any standard S1 seats in there? Sold mine years ago and wish I'd wrapped them up and stored them instead in case I ever want to return the car to standard.

TBH I wasn't interested, so didn't inquire. The pile of seats was large, but they may have all been s2 seats. Although if you want a pair of S1 seats, mine will be for sale soon....

[tertius]

Andymaserati said:

tertius said:

It depends which harness bar you have, how far back you need your seats (obviously) and probably which seats you have, I have my seat right back and had to try a couple of different bar designs before I found one that allowed me to keep that seat position.

tertius, which harness bar are you using? I also require the seat as far back as it will go and this could save me weeks of buying and returning harness bars.

Cheers

The one that works for me is one that bolts to the back of the rollover hoop, though I believe there are a couple of different suppliers of this style and I don't know which I have. What definitely didn't work for me is the Sinclaire's/Essex AutoSport design that uses the upper seatbelt anchor points.