I'm planning to replace my OEM driver's seat with a racing seat on my daily/track car. As we all know, the OEM seat have the side airbag setup. And I was told if I take the seat off, the 'failed airbags' warning light with stay on at the console. My question is will this cause me to fail the state inspection. Btw, I stay in NJ which requires state inspection every two years.

 

If you bought your car new you will not have to get it inspected in Jersey till its four years old.
Before you spend any money on this read the posts in the search below. I didn’t have an easy time getting a ‘racing seat’ set up in my 8. It takes me less than 15 minutes to swap the stock drivers seat for the Kirkey I now use for track days. Having a similar set up would ovoid any possible inspection problems.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=43784
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/install-lower-seat-improve-headroom-63097/
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/removing-lower-seat-cushion-back-seat-70496/

 

>If you bought your car new you will not have to get it inspected in Jersey till its four years old.

I realize that too.

>I didn’t have an easy time getting a ‘racing seat’ set up in my 8

I've heard of that too. I'll probably go to a race shop to help me with this issue.



I'm thinking of this all because I'm planning to put in a proper harness for track use. So unless I'm clear on the implications of a racing seat on the state inspection, regardless how remote it is, I will not get the harness in place.

 

>It takes me less than 15 minutes to swap the stock drivers seat for the Kirkey I now use for track days.

Don't you have a custom made seat rail installed? Is the stock seat fit well onto the new seat rails too??

 

The bracket below is custom made by Wedge Eng for the drivers side of the RX-8. It bolts right up to the OEM nuts. The OEM seat belt buckle also attaches to the bracket, still working on getting a 5-point. The Kirkey I use is bolted to that bracket. The threads I posted before have more info.