Got the call from VMC that my new seats were in! I ordered them a few weeks ago for my Intermeccanica Roadster. The comfort seats in the roadster are too wide to get the legroom I want, so I ordered up some new speedster seats. Greg and Ana were great to work with and two weeks later I have my color matched heated seats! My question for the group...Has anyone elevated the front of their seats to get more comfort? I am planning to fab a bracket to raise the front 2", creating a pitch to the seat. Being a fixed bucket, I feel like this wont change the ergonomics of my lower back posture at all, I am thinking zero gravity chairs they charge a fortune for. Anyone try this and have any feedback? On my living room floor its WAY more comfortable having the angle. Greg mentioned some people add some shims but I am thinking more dramatic pitch. Just had the car tuned to perfection and brakes refreshed for summer fun! Also added a nice stereo set up, it's all coming together!
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@benster, I know that @Stan Galat has done exactly what you're planning, so hopefully he'll chime in here.
@Lane Anderson posted:@benster, I know that @Stan Galat has done exactly what you're planning, so hopefully he'll chime in here.
I've got to walk out the door, but I've done this with several different seats. My advice is to keep in mind that raising the front without dropping the back will make you sit pretty high in the car (defeating the purpose).
Get the back of the seat as low as you can go, and raise the front to suit. The trick is in doing this and keeping your adjustable tracks - they have to go parallel with the floor, not with the seat bottom - else moving them fore and aft also moves the seat up and down. It's far, far easier to bolt them in a fixed position than to try for seat sliders.
I have had the same seats in two Spyders. In the first car, they were mounted flat to the floor. I the second, I added an inch and a half lift on the front, and about 3/8" in the rear. This allowed me to actually adjust my crotch straps on the five-point belts. I'm definitely more comfortable tilted back a bit, my thighs are better supported and I feel more "in" the car.
All of this depends on your torso and leg length though. In both of my cars I did not install sliders, the seats are fixed. But the car is for me and me only. I did also make a set of 4-5 inch pedal extensions for the wife, though! She has yet to use them.
A Speedster has a slightly higher cowl and windshield so you are afforded a bit more room to work with.
My seats came with those sliders. I wanted to be as low as possible, (I have a Spyder) so I ditched them and bolted the rear of my seats to the floor and raised the front with spacers.
I wanted to minimize the holes drilled in the floor, so I mounted some flat stock to the bottom with a few holes in the rear for future adjustments. I just had to drill two new holes for the front since I was using the existing rear holes. This leaves me with just two unused holes, but having some holes in the floorboard is good for drainage.
Maybe one day I'll replace that stack of spacers with a nice peace of wood or aluminum. I also did the same to the passenger seat.
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The '70-76 Porsche 914 had a clever seat adjustment that had both tracks for back/forward and a toothed cog that allowed the front to be raised/lowered. Blue is the back hinge and the red is the toothed cog for height adjustment. Lever on side adjusts height and a D shaped handle is on the top sliding track - not shown here.
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I had 914 seats and the glides that Greg shows were pretty neat. Remove them from the seat, get them positioned on the car's floor where you want them, anchor them down and then the seat can be slid onto the glides from the front, zip-zap.
If you need to remove the seats, just glide them all the way forward where a spring-loaded tab keeps them from falling off of the track, push the tab spring up to release the seat and push it forward off the track and lift it out of the car.
Pretty slick.
Those seat rails were one of the things I loved about my 914. I like the tilted back setting, and removing the seat for cleaning or whatever, was SO easy. If only modern cars were so easy.
But, when you slid the seat forward in the tilted back position, this made you higher. This wasn't an issue in the 914 and it might not be an issue in a Speedster. Just something to keep in mind.
I love this group. I'll have the car back today and will start the fun. I dig the idea of mounting direct to floor, at 6'3" I will take every bit of space I can get. I did reach out to IM to see if I could purchase complete seats before going to VMC, I was unsuccessful. IM has helped me in the past, but I also figured a local pick up option would be smarter than shipping bulky items from out of country, so I didn't follow up. VMC HQ is 45 min away.... I Will reach out to IM about the tracks they make if I don't have a homemade solution worked out. Thanks everyone!
Talk with Greg at VMC, there are many taller owners that have seats on tracks. I have a CMC flared here now that was owned by a tall big guy , with the speedster seat all the way back and at 5'7", I can hardly touch the pedals and feel like I'm sitting on the floor.
@Alan Merklin I did ask him about tilting and he mentioned shims in the front of the seat. To me, this is the fun stuff to work out!
Thx again everyone for your input!
For every couple of shims, the tilt back lowers your torso position and lowers your line of sight.
Here's drivers side 914 seat tracks on eBay - just missing the toothed cog - $60 OBO
It's completely possible to have the tracks, just not very easy or useful. If Ben is 6'3", I'd recommend just doing what Carlos did. At the very best, tracks add an inch of overall height to the bottom of the seat.
Al is right, your line of sight is (obviously) reduced the lower you go in the car- but this is vastly superior to having the top of the windshield at eye level. A person with a long torso WANTS to be sitting on the floor.
@benster, it's just as well that IM didn't want to sell you seats or tracks. You have a pan-based car, and the seating area and mounting points on an IM car are wider than what you've got. Their setup won't work in your car.
@Stan Galat my car is the IM roadster, it’s a tube frame. I just bought the seats from VMC is all. I got some great input here. Car comes back to me today I’m excited to mess woth all the options. I’ll most likely go fixed position on the floor. In the rare instance someone has to drive it and they can’t reach the pedals, a pillow will do!
I've used standard tracks with a stack of washers under the front bolt on many of my cars including Intermeccanica's
-=theron
I'm using the tracks and comfy seats from VMC in a pan based IM. I put the seats in the car and figured out how much I wanted the fronts to be raised. I bought longer, hardened bolts to accommodate the height. I bought some stainless spacers that gave me the height I wanted. I ground off the short bolts that came on the tracks and replaced them with the longer bolts and spacers (with a fender washer on the seat base side). It's been working fine for me. Good luck!
Well if it is a pan your going in the right direction. I have a very long torso and my eye level is mid windshield and my head is below the top of the windshield. At times I have to pull up or adjust the rake to get a less slouched vision but crusing on the highway is really laid back and Come for the bull.
Ahhhh dang it. Been doing the mock up the past few hours on the passenger seat ( I have a canyon drive this weekend and don’t want to be without driver seat). After a lot of shimming and moving etc I got it pretty comfy. Then I took a step back and realized how bad the speedster seat looks in the roadster. The reason is the reclined top. It’s far more bulk than the speedster top. It looks pretty bad in my opinion. I decided to walk away ron it for the night and try fresh eyes in the morning. I had the pictured seats in my last beck, can someone telL me what style these are? Even better, anyone want to trade for some brand new heated speedster seats?? Dang it. Maybe tomorrow will bring forth new ideas.