Kirkey/Ultrashield Questions for those running them.
 

I need a seat before the next season starts. I was going to go with a Corbeau Forza Wide (38" waist, but wide hips means I don't fit in a normal Forza), but I decided to go with something I'll use a bit more long term as this is slowly becoming my track/autoX car.

Just curious if anyone has any experience with the seats, especially mounting them as a taller/bigger individual. I'm 6'2" and about 230 lbs. Even if I drop weight, I'll likely need a wider seat still, so I'm not sure if a 17" or an 18" will be the best fit.

I saw recently someone used the planted technology seat bracket and it seemed to sit pretty far back, so that may also be an option for me as I need to use the stock seat belt. I can have a custom bracket built if need be though. Curious how others are mounting them. I don't need sliders. I'm the only driver for the car.

My car still has full interior. I'm trying to run STX this year because I've already removed my self from Stock class by removing my cat. So, if you still have interior, I'm interested in how the fit is.

Thanks for any help you guys can give me. I've been reading on both seats for a while, but not a lot of info is out there for mounting in the RX-8 other than full track builds, and I as much as I'd like to do that, I don't have that kind of money. I do need to be able to turn my head while driving with a helmet on though if I'm going to be a bit more competitive this year.

I don't have experience with the seat question your have, but I am pretty sure removing the cat will boot you out of STX unless you have replaced the OEM cat with another cat (100 CEL min) within 6 or 12 inches (?) of the OEM location. Not trying to derail your thread, wanted to point this out. Forgive me if you were already aware and on top of this.

Really, I thought you could run catless in STX. Thanks for the heads up. Guess I've booted myself into STU then? We don't have a lot of people running STX or STU locally so either class isn't super competitive. I'm just looking to get seat time for the most part.

Catless puts you into DSP. If you want strong STX competition this year, come up to DC for an event or two. We have Matt Jones (BRZ), Ryan Davies (128), Steve Mitchell (FRS), Myself(RX8), Alex Reddick (FRS) and occasionally Don Sleven (FRS), Derrick Min (BRZ) and Terry Baker(128) descend from the PA Hills to play with us :-)

Our field should be super tight this coming season I'm super stoked about it! Let me know if you have any setup questions or need rule clarifications and such I'm happy to help. It'd be a good Idea to look over the STX thread first too.

About the Corbeau, I use that seat but need to pull the cushion out to fit properly in terms of height, it sits higher than the stock seat with the corbeau bottom mount rails, I'm 6'1" 270#

we run the ultrashield its alot more comfort than the kirley i can tell you that but of course we run in 24hr and 14hr events

I'd be bolting straight to a bracket if I went with the Corbeau so I'm hoping that would help some. My car has power seats and a sunroof so without a helmet I'm grazing the headliner. With it, I had my head out the sun roof, and sitting like that I couldn't turn my head. Really hurt my times the one event I ran in the car last year because I couldn't look ahead on the course.

If being catless pushes me into DSP, I'm in trouble locally haha. we have a bunch of really fast 3 series bimmers. I'd love to make it up to he DC area. I may try to do some traveling to events during the summer. I'm about 30 minutes from VA Beach and an hour from Richmond. I usually run in VA Beach/Norfolk but I'd like to get up to Richmond a few times, so DC isn't outside the realm of possibility. My engine is strong. Not super scared to drive it that far.

Thanks. That's some solid input. I'm not trailering my car this season, or probably for the next few seasons, so comfort is definitely a factor. I've got a few friends who want to try to make a trip down to Road Atlanta this year and I'd have to drive. It's about a 7-8 hour trip so the less fatigue I'm feeling when I get there, the better.

I think bolting it solidly to a non adjustable bracket would drop it maybe an inch at most, bolting directly to the floor might get you some more. When I remove the cushion I have enough headroom while helmeted but just barely and that's without the sunroof. Weirdly the Corbeau manages to be that high in the seat and the passthroughs for shoulder harnesses are insanely low, like to where I cant use them safely.



we have FAST DSP guys here in DC too! John Vitamvas and Kevin Henry specifically (John bested Doug at Nationals by almost 4 seconds! o__O)


I drove mine out to Lincoln Nebraska and back this summer heheh, I'm sure you can make it to DC! Hope to see you there. I'm sure until youre at the pointy end no one will mind you being catless. just be sure to pick one up when you start whooping on everybody ;-)

Yeah, I'm going to ask. Other than the catless mid pipe and soon the seat, my car will be almost 100% stock and running street tires. Probably even all seasons the first few events since that's what's on the car now.

I usually run my Miata in ES but the work it would take to get me under a roll bar wasn't worth it which is why I went with the 8.

Really good to know about the harness holes on the corbeau though. I plan on running with seat belt for now. Considering an bolt in 4 point so I can run harnesses, but I may ended up still waiting until I can have a cage fabricated. I'd hate to have to spend more money on a seat in the future just to fit harnesses.

Hope to see you sometime this season. I'm also looking into running up at summit point possibly this year. Really going to depend on how much I end up sinking into the 8 though.