Tall People Solutions?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Pat

So now what?
I ordered the Sportster GT, Recaro sliders, and Planted bracket last week.

You're probably okay at least in terms of fitment. The rails/sliders I posted are so low that any little thing could be causing interference. I think I saw that you couldn't even use the rear floor mats.

- Andrew

[steved]

@Racecomp Engineering

Any updates on your seats/sliders or ETA?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by steved

@Racecomp Engineering

Any updates on your seats/sliders or ETA?

Waiting on my seats, probably for a long time.

Slow boat from Japan, etc. I should have ordered them a while back but hopefully I'll get them in a month or two. Gahhhh.

- Andrew

[Pat]

I installed a Sportster GT in my ZD8, using a Planted base and Recaro sliders. My headroom seems to be nearly identical to the OEM setup. I might sit a few millimeters lower, but it is not a significant difference.
Also, I used one of the supplied spacers on each side of the front of the seat for more thigh support. I suspect that makes a tiny bit of difference in headroom, but again...probably insignificant.
EDIT: After living with the seat for a week it seems to have compressed just a little bit. I might have an extra half inch of headroom now vs. the OEM seat.

[steved]

@RT-BRZ

I noticed in https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144534 you installed Braum seats and gained quite a bit of headroom. How have the seats held up over the last couple years? Do you find the thigh bolsters are good enough for track work or do you find yourself knee bracing like the stock seats?

[RT-BRZ]

Originally Posted by steved

@RT-BRZ

I noticed in https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144534 you installed Braum seats and gained quite a bit of headroom. How have the seats held up over the last couple years? Do you find the thigh bolsters are good enough for track work or do you find yourself knee bracing like the stock seats?

They have held up great. I definitely do more autocross than track but I've been at the track as much as I can and they were great there.

The bolsters on the back are great. I use a Schroth harness and they definitely work well together. The thigh bolsters are only slightly larger than the stock ones but since the seats are more firm they do work better. Overall it's really a case of my being a bit too big for standard seats. My legs tend to sit a little on top of the thigh bolsters which makes them less effective but that's not really Braum's fault. I also did this so that I could sit a little more upright and a little closer to make steering easier and they definitely do that.

[steved]

@RT-BRZ

Thanks for the reply, very helpful - for the sliding restriction, do you see any way to measure the difference to stock seats? Im only 5'11 but have a long torso and like to sit very upright so my guess is I'd be fine, but others in this thread might need the leg room.

Also when you were selecting the Braum model, did you determine if all their reclining seats have very similar dimensions which would yield the same increase in headroom? I noticed there is at least one model that is full cloth and has much more significant thigh bolsters.

[steved]

@Pat

Have you looked into fix mounting the GT to the planted bracket? Wondering if that's even feasible.

[RT-BRZ]

Originally Posted by steved

@RT-BRZ

Thanks for the reply, very helpful - for the sliding restriction, do you see any way to measure the difference to stock seats? Im only 5'11 but have a long torso and like to sit very upright so my guess is I'd be fine, but others in this thread might need the leg room.

Also when you were selecting the Braum model, did you determine if all their reclining seats have very similar dimensions which would yield the same increase in headroom? I noticed there is at least one model that is full cloth and has much more significant thigh bolsters.

Well, I do have sliders on them but they definitely don't slide like the stock seats. However, I don't mind it because the slightly reduced leg room just means that I'm a little more "poured" into the cockpit.

I honestly didn't pay much attention to the dimensions of the various seats. I really stuck to the visuals because I already knew that too much thigh bolster would have been very challenging so I stayed away from those types of seats. I also only chose a reclining seat because I don't have a roll bar. I also ordered these during the height of the pandemic so I was a little stuck on choices.

The bottom line here is that at 6'4" and 255lbs. I still find that it works just fine for me. I'm generally a larger frame guy too so while I'm not all torso, I'm gangly enough that all of the usual challenges people run into can be an issue for me too.

I'm on my local region board so I'm driving in a few different things and I'm adding Time Trials to the list this year. Depending on how that goes may send me down the rabbit hole of a roll bar and fixed back seats and harnesses so I'll likely be changing again.

[Pat]

Originally Posted by steved

@Pat

Have you looked into fix mounting the GT to the planted bracket? Wondering if that's even feasible.

I haven't looked into it, but expect I could get it to work somehow. I haven't ruled it out as an option, but would prefer to have seat with fore/aft adjustment, as other people drive my car periodically.
After living with the seat for a week it seems to have compressed just a little bit. I might have an extra half inch of headroom now vs. the OEM seat. Maybe.

[steved]

@Racecomp Engineering any update on your seats/rails? yes I'm going to keep nagging

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

Waiting on my seats, probably for a long time.

Slow boat from Japan, etc. I should have ordered them a while back but hopefully I'll get them in a month or two. Gahhhh.

- Andrew

[Racecomp Engineering]

Seats arrived surprisingly early, rails arrive next week.

- Andrew

[Re_Invention]

Originally Posted by steved

@Re_Invention does it seem possible to separate the headliner fabric from the shell? I'm thinking if you could, potentially an upholstery shop could offset the cutout, build up the gap, and then wrap the headliner in new fabric.

I might need to do this for helmet space, it seems the new chassis has almost 0.5" less headroom than my FRS but I might start with a headliner from a wrecker.

Steved - sorry for the incredibly late response. Yes you could - but I think it would be even easier to get a larger piece of the flat fabric (it's a generic color/texture) and glue it on layering it enough to blend with the original. I had thought about mickymousing something like that myself for aesthetics but laziness got the best of me, and then an e-buyer got the car because the family wanted a pool and the numbers were too good to ignore. A replacement headliner from Subaru new in box cost me something like $300 from an OC dealer.

I still have a cut headliner, among many other parts, if anyone would like it - headliner is free with pickup in Corona. Shipping would be a pain, unfortunately - it's a big piece!

Should a new engine come out on the next model I'll be picking up another twin and doing the same; steering wheel extender, headliner cut but will not remove those basket springs - seat was more comfortable with the flat bottom than gaining that extra 0.x" of space at the expense of uncomfortable pressure points. Will be right back here talking about how to get more room!

Cheers all.

[timurrrr]

Good news #1:
I think it's easy-ish to gain 9 mm of headroom.

For some reason, they slapped a 9 mm thick "post" between the bottom of the rail and the floor where the rear bolts go:





There's plenty of space between the rail and the floor in front of the post.
It gets a little tighter at the back, but I can still squeeze my finger between the rail and the floor there:



The only explanation I can think of is that they needed a gap for the most useless thing in our cars: the rear left floor mat.

Someone can try to shave that post off? In the worst case, slap some washers to raise the rail back a few mm.

Good news #2:
I believe I found a way to drop the factory seat further by making custom mounting brackets.
I'm starting to design them and if the project is successful I plan to share my design so anyone can order through Sendcutsend.
Stay tuned!