Alpine Pure Seat Adjustment For Tall Person

Alpine Pure Seat Adjustment For Tall Person

Author
Discussion

drhildr

Original Poster:

453 posts

233 months

Monday 9th September
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Hi. Does anyone have any experience of fitting in an Alpine Pure - I'm not overly tall at 6'22 but tried a Pure with the seat in the middle position and was staring at the sun visor unless I stooped. There is obviously another position but that does not look like it offers more than 1.5cm less height. Any "long backed" and tallish drivers any idea if the lower setting does the job?

Portti

226 posts

42 months

Monday 9th September
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I have an A110 with the Sabelt bucket seats and I'm 191 cm tall. I have no problems with forward visibilty. The seat on my car is in the lowest position.

The Alpine CEO at the time when A110 was being designed was 2 m tall bloke and the story goes that he made sure that the car was designed so that he can fit in the car.

Edited by Portti on Monday 9th September 13:20

fossett

41 posts

73 months

Monday 9th September
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Portti said:
I have an A110 with the Sabelt bucket seats and I'm 191 cm tall. I have no problems with forward visibilty. The seat on my car is in the lowest position.

The Alpine CEO at the time when A110 was being designed was 2 m tall bloke and the story goes that he made sure that the car was designed so that he can fit in the car.
+1

7en

281 posts

18 months

Monday 9th September
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I'm over 6'4" and on the middle setting my head pushes into the headlining, on the lowest setting my hair grazes it. The lowest setting is also slightly more tilted rearwards compared to the other heights. If the rest of you fits in the seat comfortably the height shouldn't really be an issue. I feel like a perfect position is a bit lower, however without modifying the seat or fitting a Tillet style seat with little to no padding to drop that last inch it's not possible.

On the subject of sun visor, even with the seat on the lowest position I could never use the sun visor folded down infront of me as then my vision is extremely blocked, being so tall I generally don't have to use the visor in the A110 anyway, only occasionally on the side window with an extender for maximum comfort when the sun is low in the sky.


Edited by 7en on Wednesday 11th September 18:59

Whaleblue

381 posts

95 months

Tuesday 10th September
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Being 182cm I don’t have any problems with the bucket seats, but do prefer them in the lower position, and I’m perhaps more averagely proportioned body/legs-wise.

Anyway, my understanding is that the comfort seats go lower, so perhaps you need to look for a model that has those?

Colin P

459 posts

150 months

Tuesday 10th September
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Hi, I'm 6'1" but long bodied and I had this exact issue. There are a couple of threads on here discussing this, but essentially I had to buy a car with the comfort seats as with the adjustment your eye line is lower.

Also (whilst I didn't) you might want to try and find a car without the mirror pack, as the tinted mirror is, I understand, larger and more intrusive.

croyde

23,929 posts

237 months

Tuesday 10th September
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My car came to me in the lowest position and looking at the bolt holes it doesn't look like the higher positions would make much difference but I had a courtesy Alpine the other day with the seat in the middle position and suddenly I felt that I'd got out of a race car (mine) into a SUV.

Actually amazed how much, what looks like an inch, difference it makes.

Also the middle position has the back of the seat more upright.

I'm only almost 6ft tall though.

drhildr

Original Poster:

453 posts

233 months

Tuesday 10th September
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Thank you everyone for your help - very encouraging.

springfan62

854 posts

83 months

Tuesday 10th September
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6'6" here and I am fine with the bucket seats.

My head does brush the roof lining but its perfectly ok.

I think the car was designed with one of the team being 6'7" tall.

tony993

358 posts

222 months

Wednesday 11th September
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6ft (183 in Eurospeak) & I'm on the lowest position. I always drive with the sun visor down. Headroom is fine, but I'd like to be lower to get more of a sports car feeling.

There's a crossmember that's part of the floor pan located just behind where the back of my seat is. If this was 10cm further to the rear of the car, I should think Alpine would have set the lowest seat position lower down. I like to sit with my arms well bent & I compromise my leg position rather than my arm position (because the adjustment on the Alpine steering wheel is insufficient). So when I find time, I will be taking my Dremel to the rear holes on my seat mounts so the back of the seat will be a little lower & the seat will be slightly more reclined. This won't suit anyone who likes to sit further back than I do.

If I remember, I'll report back once I've got this job ticked off my list.

7en

281 posts

18 months

Wednesday 11th September
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tony993 said:
6ft (183 in Eurospeak) & I'm on the lowest position. I always drive with the sun visor down. Headroom is fine, but I'd like to be lower to get more of a sports car feeling.

There's a crossmember that's part of the floor pan located just behind where the back of my seat is. If this was 10cm further to the rear of the car, I should think Alpine would have set the lowest seat position lower down. I like to sit with my arms well bent & I compromise my leg position rather than my arm position (because the adjustment on the Alpine steering wheel is insufficient). So when I find time, I will be taking my Dremel to the rear holes on my seat mounts so the back of the seat will be a little lower & the seat will be slightly more reclined. This won't suit anyone who likes to sit further back than I do.

If I remember, I'll report back once I've got this job ticked off my list.
I don't think what you're planning is possible unfortunately. The seat shell can't drop any lower as it isn't narrower than the bottom of the mounts or the sliders it's mounted to. With the seat set on the lowest height setting, the the nut/thread where the sliders fix to the mounts, protrude into a hole in the bottom/rear of the seat shell. It's really as low as it can go. You could maybe get it to drop a very small amount, however the seat shell would be sitting directly on the sliders which I don't think would be a good idea, given how much flex the seat naturally has it would keep tapping.

I agree about being lower in the car, I managed to drop ~1" inch and it makes a good difference. A simple way to bring your eye line lower without serious modification is to put some extra foam behind your lower back, although this will also raise your knees.

Edited by 7en on Wednesday 11th September 19:33

tony993

358 posts

222 months

Wednesday 11th September
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Perhaps I'll have to change the whole seat. I've done this in several cars over the years & it's always worth the effort. I've got a couple of Recaro Pole Positions + brackets that I've never got around to Ebaying, so I may try one of those.

croyde

23,929 posts

237 months

Thursday 12th September
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On another Alpine seat discussion on here, one of the owners is working with Tillet seats to have them make the buckets for the Emira fit the Alpine.

James Elmer

263 posts

222 months

Thursday 12th September
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That’s me! It’s work in progress. More news soon! The aim is a Tillett B10 with Alpine-style seat pads and brackets that fit the Alpine rails that are stronger and less flexible that the Alpine brackets.

James Elmer

263 posts

222 months

Thursday 12th September
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And to add, it seems the potential demand is higher than first thought!

Rob_RCF

163 posts

18 months

Thursday 12th September
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drhildr said:
Hi. Does anyone have any experience of fitting in an Alpine Pure - I'm not overly tall at 6'22 but tried a Pure with the seat in the middle position and was staring at the sun visor unless I stooped. There is obviously another position but that does not look like it offers more than 1.5cm less height. Any "long backed" and tallish drivers any idea if the lower setting does the job?
I'm 6'4" and I test drove quite a few on the middle setting before finally driving an S on the lower setting. It makes more difference than you might think just by looking at the distance between the holes - you do feel decently lower. However every time I got into the comfort seats I felt even lower which definitely contributed to my decision to go for a GT. I think the buckets on the lowest setting would have been fine still though.

If you're still not sure or want some perspective go sit in a 718 Cayman at a Porsche dealership, I couldn't believe how low the seats went in those, I had a whole fist's width of space above my head. Lovely cars actually, I just didn't want a Porsche for various reasons.