Race seat fitting for a Mk3 ?

[ScorpKing]

Can anyone help please ? I'm wanting to fit a track / race seat in my Mk3 NC 2007 MX5 and want - if possible use the existing runners as the seat won't stay in permanently. I use the car for occasional track days and the aftermarket leather seats are so slippy it's hard work after a few laps just hanging on ! Has anyone bought race seats and mounting brackets that work ?
Any advise is appreciated.
Cheers

[MX-5 Lazza]

The easiest way would be to remove the seat & runners together and make up a floor bracket for the track seat. It would be a bit of a pain to remove the seat & runners, remove runners from seats, attach runners to track seat, attach seat to car every time rather than just remove seat & runners, bolt down track seat.

Will you be using harnesses or the stock seat belt? Reason I ask is, on Mk3 the seat belt stalk is attached to the seats, not the runners or bodywork as on earlier cars. If you remove the seats you will have to find somewhere else to attach the stalk.

[JQ]

MX-5 Lazza said:

The easiest way would be to remove the seat & runners together and make up a floor bracket for the track seat. It would be a bit of a pain to remove the seat & runners, remove runners from seats, attach runners to track seat, attach seat to car every time rather than just remove seat & runners, bolt down track seat.

Will you be using harnesses or the stock seat belt? Reason I ask is, on Mk3 the seat belt stalk is attached to the seats, not the runners or bodywork as on earlier cars. If you remove the seats you will have to find somewhere else to attach the stalk.

You don't re-use the runners, the track seat has runners attached it it permanently, sourced from a scrappy. This is exactly what I used to do on my Mk1 and Mk2 and it worked brilliantly. Would take 10 mins to swap the seats over the night before a track day and meant the track seat could be moved if someone of different size wanted a go in the car. It was simple process to attached the Mk1 runners to a bucket seat, but never having owned a Mk3, I can't comment on how easy it would be with Mk3 runners.

If you plan to use a harness, spreader plates can be used to attach the harness to the floorpan, assuming there is some strong metal down there. I'd have thought the issue would be attaching the shoulder harnesses - where would you propose to attach those? And are the roll bars on a Mk3 high enough to clear the top of a bucket seat and more importantly your head with a helmet on, if you're strapped into a harness?

[MX-5 Lazza]

Mk3 seats are similar to Mk1/2 seats in that they have flat bases bolted to flat runners. The runners are bolted to the floor but, again like Mk1/2 seats, the bolt holes are at angles from the runner.

[JQ]

OP - I'm genuinely interested in if you're able to do this. A MK3 is definitely on my radar over the next few years but only if I could put a harness and bucket in it for trackdays. I find trackdays without a harness and bucket very tiresome - you're expending energy trying to grip the wheel for dear life rather than feel what the wheel is doing.

So if you're successfull, please update this thread. Cheers.

[ScorpKing]

Thanks Guys,
I had thought about adapting the standard seat belt and also using a 4 point harness that was utilizing the revised floor mounts if possible. I'm sure now with the responses so far that there is no "after market" kit that's going straight in. I don't use the car as a daily drive so can take some time to remove the seat and develop some mounting plate / bracketry etc. I will probably look at a Tillet style seat - Elise size so that I can maximise the clearances and drive it with the roof up in the rain (helmet on). Again any ideas appreciated.

[roddo]

We have done this for some of our customers,
We either mounted it as a fixed seat or used a separate set of runners