I just grafted an Elise seat to the RX8 - Gained at least two inches of headroom!
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I just grafted an Elise seat to the RX8 - Gained at least two inches of headroom!
Bought my '04 in '05. Wanted to autocross it, didn't realize when I bought it how much headroom the sunroof would subtract. Got the track bug, and now do the occasional HPDE, with my head cranked to the side. Had to slide my seat way back to get a little head room. I'm 6' 1", with a long torso.
Found a used Elise seat on eBay. It's not the year the seller said it was, so it doesn't have the Probax padding I wanted. Anyhow, since these don't come up on eBay very often, I decided to keep it. The lotus forum folks have a DIY on how to add a little padding, which I may eventually do.
Bought a bracket from Wedge Engineering. Waited a little bit. Got my bracket today, and it's nearly perfect! As perfect as they could have gotten it without having the Elise seat in front of them for a test fit! They sent me a bunch of socket cap screws of different lengths.
No drilling, no filing, bracket mounted easily to the car, and seat mounted easily to the bracket.
Only problem is that seat belt buckle and stalk are not in quite the right position. I may be able to use the original Lotus mounting point on the seat, or I may have to drill and tap a new mounting spot on the flange on the side of the Wedge bracket.
It's weird being this low in the car. My sight lines are off, and it's going to take some getting used to.
My wife's not thrilled, but she drives it maybe 2% of the time. She can see over the steering wheel and she can reach the pedals.
Anyhow, it's not real showy, but I've been after something like this for a while. I know, it's leather, but hey, whaddya gonna do? Got the final push to do it after I found this guy, who managed to put Lotus seats into his miata:
http://revlimiter.net/blog/2009/04/lotus-elise-seats/
Found a used Elise seat on eBay. It's not the year the seller said it was, so it doesn't have the Probax padding I wanted. Anyhow, since these don't come up on eBay very often, I decided to keep it. The lotus forum folks have a DIY on how to add a little padding, which I may eventually do.
Bought a bracket from Wedge Engineering. Waited a little bit. Got my bracket today, and it's nearly perfect! As perfect as they could have gotten it without having the Elise seat in front of them for a test fit! They sent me a bunch of socket cap screws of different lengths.
No drilling, no filing, bracket mounted easily to the car, and seat mounted easily to the bracket.
Only problem is that seat belt buckle and stalk are not in quite the right position. I may be able to use the original Lotus mounting point on the seat, or I may have to drill and tap a new mounting spot on the flange on the side of the Wedge bracket.
It's weird being this low in the car. My sight lines are off, and it's going to take some getting used to.
My wife's not thrilled, but she drives it maybe 2% of the time. She can see over the steering wheel and she can reach the pedals.
Anyhow, it's not real showy, but I've been after something like this for a while. I know, it's leather, but hey, whaddya gonna do? Got the final push to do it after I found this guy, who managed to put Lotus seats into his miata:
http://revlimiter.net/blog/2009/04/lotus-elise-seats/
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I knew somebody was gonna ask that, but I was in such a hurry to get it done tonight that I couldn't take the time to weigh it. That's why I haven't cleaned out the interior.
I dunno - around 24-25 pounds is my guess.
I will hopefully have the seat out this weekend to finish relocating the seat belt buckle. When I have it out I'll weigh it.
I dunno - around 24-25 pounds is my guess.
I will hopefully have the seat out this weekend to finish relocating the seat belt buckle. When I have it out I'll weigh it.
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I'm not sure who I dealt with.
My seat essentially acts like a bottom-mount. It's on the original sliders, which have four holes for mounting to the Elise floor pan.
All I had to do was tell them the spacing I needed between the holes front-to-back and side-to-side, and to have them make sure that there was at least 14 inches of clearance for the butt of the seat to be able to slide back and forth.
So it was a pretty easy one for them, I think.
I admit that I wasn't sure that they'd get it right, since it was all handled by phone in ten minutes. No confirmation e-mails, no drawings, no faxes. Just trust. And for me, they got it right.
My seat essentially acts like a bottom-mount. It's on the original sliders, which have four holes for mounting to the Elise floor pan.
All I had to do was tell them the spacing I needed between the holes front-to-back and side-to-side, and to have them make sure that there was at least 14 inches of clearance for the butt of the seat to be able to slide back and forth.
So it was a pretty easy one for them, I think.
I admit that I wasn't sure that they'd get it right, since it was all handled by phone in ten minutes. No confirmation e-mails, no drawings, no faxes. Just trust. And for me, they got it right.
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