lowering a MK1 MX5 seat?

[MElliottUK]

I looked at a MK1 the other day to see if i could fit, as im quite tall. Mk2 was too small so i took up peoples advice here and tried a MK1. The Mk1 was actually quite roomy except with the seat back my head was abit to close the metal bar which forms part of the roof structure.

Can i lower the seat somehow?

Thanks

[Toecutter]

Fit an Elise seat directly to the floor is a option a few owners have done.

[speedychrissie]

yeah you can fit the elise seat and i think most people say it will gain between one and 2 inches in headroom. i think it might be possible to remove some of the padding from the mx5 seat but i dont know how much room this would give you.

[MX-5 Lazza]

You can remove some of the padding from the seat base & back but that will only give you 1-2cm headroom and a touch more legroom.
With the Mk1 you get more knee-space on cars with power-steering as the non-pas
The Mk1 & Mk2 both have the same amount of space but the Mk2 has thicker seats which rob some of that space (Mk2.5 - 2001+ face-lifted Mk2 is even worse).

I have fitted S1 Elise seats in my car which has given me at least an inch, possibly 2 of headroom and probably an extra 6-8 inches of legroom. These seats are not particularly comfortable as they only have about 1.5cm of padding. They are pretty cheap to buy (mine cost me £100 for a pair of good condition leather seats) but that's because S1 owners remove them to fit S2 or after-market seats.

[redgriff500]

I fitted the Elise 111s / Exige seats / Mk2 (all similar) have more padding and a great compromise.

I fitted the Elise runners to the floor and gained at least 3" headroom.

Email me and I can send some pics if you want.

I'm 6' and I actually raised it back up 0.5" as I couldn't see well enough to park !

Also identical MK1 seats can have at least an 1" height variation in them.

[MX-5 Lazza]

I fitted mine to the stock MX-5 runners as I wanted to be able to adjust the seats. When I'm sitting in the seats my butt is about 1cm above the runners now (which should give you a good gauge as to how low I am now.
This has also given me the benefit of extra space under the seats as although the Lotus seats are lower they don't extend below the height of the runners like the stock seats do. I now have my stereo power amp under the driers seat and my eManage piggy-back ecu under the passenger seat which I couldn't do with the MX-5 seats.

[redgriff500]

Mine adjusts too... on the Lotus runners.

Fitting to the std ones is WAY easier but I particularly wanted to be as low as possible as std feels too high.

[MX-5 Lazza]

redgriff500 said:

Mine adjusts too... on the Lotus runners.

Fitting to the std ones is WAY easier but I particularly wanted to be as low as possible as std feels too high.

I didn't get runners with my seats

[MElliottUK]

Thanks for all the great info, I've been on holiday so this will make my weekend reading.

Thanks again much appreciated, looks interesting, fitting elise seats to the MK2's especially as i had rejected them because of space issues.

[MX-5 Lazza]

You are welcome to have a test-sit in my car if you're ever down this way...

[MElliottUK]

Just a quick question if i wish to mount elise seats on the MX-5 runners will i need to fabricate a mounting kit, if so do you know of any links or guides to a tried and tested method?

I also like the idea of using elise runners as the lower the better but as mentioned above keeping the MX-5 runners maybe alot simpler.

Does changing the seat mounts have an effect on the MOT, ie are there rules and regs on the safe fitting of a seat (bolt types, thickness ect)

Thanks

[MX-5 Lazza]

Read this to see how I fitted mine.
I've since changed the aluminium rear mount for perforated steel (as you can see in the picture above).

I haven't had mine MOT'd since fitting the seats but I can't see that there would be a problem as they are mounted securely and the seatbelts operate as normal.
Note that all later MX-5's (I don't know from which year) had the seat-belt stalk mounted on the runners while earlier cars had them mounted on the transmission tunnel. If you have a later car and want to get rid of the stock runners you'll have to drill a hole in the transmission tunnel and weld a nut & strengthening plate on the back Not a problem on earlier cars except that if you lower the seats on earlier cars the seatbelt stalk might be a bit too long.

Edited by MX-5 Lazza on Friday 21st September 22:24