bucket seat

[Piston2022]

I am looking to buy bucket seat for e36. I am little clueless as what brand to buy and whether it should have recliners etc.

no race but using car for track days and drift. what would you buy?

i see some sparco and cobra ranging from £200 + to £2000

I like recliner but think fixed ones will be better as it holds the driver well when drifting etc .

[WelshRich]

[Piston2022]

Lol 😂

[sideshowfred]

Personally I would see if you can go and sit in some and find out what fits you best. I've previously had a range of bucket seats from Recaro Pole Positions, Sparco Circuit's, Recaro Pro Racers, Sabelt Titan Carbonio's and Sabelt GT-130. I fitted in them all differently, shoulder support position being the biggest influence to comfort.
Overall the Sparco and Sabelt Titan seats were the most comfortable for me. I'd also recommend fixed back seats as they keep you locked in place, makes a huge difference on track!

[Piston2022]

Great thanks

I don’t have many places around me where I could attend and try them

I want to not spend much initially and do see seats listed for £200-300 and they look good from sparco and cobra

Is there anything you recommend one should try when buying online?

[Cambs_Stuart]

Stick to recognised brands (Sparco, OMP, Cobra etc).
Apologies if this is stating the obvious, but make sure you factor in a way of mounting the seats and seatbelts/harnesses. Buckets are normally side or bottom mount (sometimes both), you'll you'll also need a sub-frame and sliders and side mounts. If you car is currently road legal and has airbags in the seats, you'll need to code out the airbag error light for MOT, and possibly a seatbelt warning light when you remove the seats.
If you're going for harnesses, get someone with experience to fit them, you may need a harness bar if there isn't something suitable in your car already.
But proper seats makes a world of difference. Really worth it.

[generationx]

Many of the major manufacturers of racing seats have extensive line-ups so you need to choose how “racey” you want to go. They also offer several width options, the dimensions can usually be found on their websites, such as

https://www.ompracing.com/en_gb/hte-one-lite.html

Personally I would be budgeting considerably more than a few hundred quid, I’ve seen broken seats before…

Also consider the mounting, will you want a Demon Tweaks-like runner adapter kit or do it properly with fixed brackets? Then there’s the routing and type of belts, which is so important as they are all components in the safety restraint system.

[MrC986]

Remember that you'll need side mounts to bolt the seat to the floor so factor this cost in. I've just seen a pop-up on social media that Cobra are having a Black Friday sale so they've 25% off and they offer both FIA and non FIA seats by the looks of it.

You'll need to post a general location for where you are in you want assistance on where might be the closest place to try seats BTW.

[QBee]

Try before you buy.

So what if you have to invest a day and 200 miles each way to get the right seat?
And take your track car with you if it is road legal - it will help the experts work out what you need, not only in terms of runners/brackets, but also harnesses .

[1781cc]

These guys are great and very helpful, they have a showroom you can go to and sit in all the seats, take your time. find something that fits your frame, I settled on some sparco LFA Circuit II seats after sitting in loads and found I needed wider seats as im quite a big guy at 6' 3" and 103kg - half of the seats I looked at online beforehand I couldnt actually fit into

https://www.sportseats4u.co.uk/

[CKY]

Piston2022 said:

I like recliner but think fixed ones will be better as it holds the driver well when drifting etc .

For what it's worth i'd steer clear of recliners, having seen a couple of seat backs break off at the base during violent impacts it's not something i'd be looking to experience 'first hand'!

[QBee]

One further question if you are buying a bucket seat and harnesses for track day use.
What's the collective's opinion on the merits of Hans devices?

[C70R]

1781cc said:

These guys are great and very helpful, they have a showroom you can go to and sit in all the seats, take your time. find something that fits your frame, I settled on some sparco LFA Circuit II seats after sitting in loads and found I needed wider seats as im quite a big guy at 6' 3" and 103kg - half of the seats I looked at online beforehand I couldnt actually fit into

https://www.sportseats4u.co.uk/

Great advice. I did exactly the same, as I'm a similar size to you, and was largely disappointed by how uncomfortable some of the seats I'd spied online were.

[BertBert]

QBee said:

One further question if you are buying a bucket seat and harnesses for track day use.
What's the collective's opinion on the merits of Hans devices?

A Hans device needs the seats and harnesses to be fitted quite specifically. If you can achieve that there's nothing wrong with going Hans. If you can't get the fitting right, definitely don't go Hans. For me a track day shouldn't/doesn't necessitate using a Hans.

[C70R]

BertBert said:

A Hans device needs the seats and harnesses to be fitted quite specifically. If you can achieve that there's nothing wrong with going Hans. If you can't get the fitting right, definitely don't go Hans. For me a track day shouldn't/doesn't necessitate using a Hans.

Indeed. A lot of trackdayers will try to convince you that you'll immediate burst into flames if you don't run a HANS, but they are an extra level of safety kit (like a plumbed extinguisher) that are a nice to have on trackdays. I did run one when I had harnesses, but I wouldn't say they are mandatory.

I was helping a friend into his car with his new HANS device, and spotted that his harness had been installed too short (and cut/trimmed/wrapped) so that he couldn't get the 2" section to line up with his shoulders. He hadn't spotted this, and it would have been largely useless in the event of an accident.

[tombstone]

Did you get a seat yet? I've got a Corbeau seat I've just removed from a customers Z3 that he wants to sell, comes with a subframe and a retractable harness.
More than welcome to come try it etc, I'm near Portsmouth

[PerformanceMINIR53]

Tillett, Tillett and er... Tillett. I've run various buckets (fixed) since 1999 and crashed a lot of cars lol, and although I haven't crashed in them (yet) the Tilletts are on a different level in terms of stiffness and build quality.

Also on HANS, they're so cheap now I don't know why people wouldn't run one, ie. there are zero disadvantages to running one. If it's fitted correctly.

[C70R]

PerformanceMINIR53 said:

Tillett, Tillett and er... Tillett. I've run various buckets (fixed) since 1999 and crashed a lot of cars lol, and although I haven't crashed in them (yet) the Tilletts are on a different level in terms of stiffness and build quality.

Also on HANS, they're so cheap now I don't know why people wouldn't run one, ie. there are zero disadvantages to running one. If it's fitted correctly.

On the HANS thing, I think it's more than it's a byproduct of making a car very compromised, rather than a something to do in isolation.

You'd need to have a cage (for the correct harness angle), the right harness (with 2" sections), the right seat (so that the harness runs at the correct angle) and the right (relatively expensive) helmet before you could run a HANS.

If you have all of those things, then adding a HANS is a no-brainer. But by that point you've basically built a pretend racecar, rather than something that might see an occasional trackday.

[Piston2022]

tombstone said:

Did you get a seat yet? I've got a Corbeau seat I've just removed from a customers Z3 that he wants to sell, comes with a subframe and a retractable harness.
More than welcome to come try it etc, I'm near Portsmouth

Not yet but planning to travel to showroom and pick one. What is your customer asking for?

[phazed]

I have used lotus Elise seats in a three cars. They are pretty good, certainly hold much better than a standard seat and only weigh about 1.5 kg each without the fittings.

Sadly, people seem to realise this and prices have gone up from my first pair which were about £100 to ridiculous money. Worth a look on eBay just in case there is someone local selling something at a sensible price.