Bucket seats

[Cjop17]

I’ve been looking for a few bucket seats for my clio 182, the car will be used for track days but mostly on the road.

I originally wanted recaro pole positions but obviously there’s a huge amount of choice about, is there a big difference in safety from OMP and the likes of motamec/recaro or is it just general quality?

I’m also 6ft 5 and 18st which isn’t helping this search, never bought a bucket seat before so I’ve just been looking for XL seats

[The Rotrex Kid]

Mirco seats are pretty decent value. I’m not a small chap and I had a Mirco RTS in my car for short while and it was decent enough and just about comfortable but I couldn’t deal with a bucket on a daily driver car.

[Cjop17]

I’ll have a look mate cheers, yeah this is a second car thankfully, had 2 172s as dailies in the past and they didn’t last long

[kambites]

Anything FIA approved should be fine in terms of safety. Beyond that you're paying for superficial quality (nice surface materials, etc.), brand and in some cases lack of weight. If you want something you can use with a three-point belt that limits your choice somewhat.

If you go for something which isn't FIA approved, you need to be a bit more careful in terms of strength and hence safety but there are still some very good seats out there and they do tend to be cheaper. Can't really help you regarding models because I'm 5 inches shorter than you and 7 stone lighter so my problem tends to be finding seats I don't rattle around in rather than ones I can actually fit into.

ETA: If it's mostly for road use, avoid anything with big "wings" to constrain head movement (which means most FIA approved seats). They're a nightmare for visibility in a road car. I would avoid going harness-only for the same reason, it quickly loses its appeal on a road car.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 31st May 22:32