Seat Lowering Rails

photo courtesy of james.today

Happy New Year!

The photo above in the “Seat Lowering Rails” thread on the 124Spider.org forum caught my attention, in that it appears that a good 2″ drop was accomplished on this driver’s  seat, by substituting the factory seat slider rails with new brackets from Paco Motorsports, created expressly for taller drivers needing a little more headroom (or auto-crossers needing to wear helmets 😉 ).   Although Recaro seat bottoms are said to sit a little taller than the stock seats, this could be a substantial improvement – regardless of which seats you have!  You can get a good idea of what is involved in installing these brackets, by reviewing Paco’s installation instructions here.

I remember writing an article back in 2017, that involved lowering the seat height by “meshectomy”– unfastening one side of the load-bearing seat-bottom mesh, which essentially transfers all of the seat support to the outer covering only, allowing the occupant to sit only a ½” lower.  By giving up the ability to readily adjust the position of the seat, these brackets provide a significant gain in headroom (along with a 6½ pound weight savings per seat), and seems to be a much more practical solution.  You will need your wrench to alter the position of the seat with these brackets, but it can be done.

these photos courtesy of murix

I’m plugging in a link for a very informative guide for replacing the driver’s seat with a racing seat, since it has so much information regarding the electrical connections (did you know the wiring is there for seat warmers?), bolt hardware, etc.

Murix’s comments:

The good,
Feels really good, i need to test fit with my helmet but i’m sure i can fit with the top closed and pass the broomstick test. your butt is lower with your thighs higher, its alot like a fixed back racing seat, you feel “in” the car. no wiggles or rattles. feels like a sports car seat now. reminds me of the BRZ i test drove when i cross shopped these two. these rails and the 2in steering spacer makes the car feel so right. you are in the car and have a touch of recline.

The meh,
I had to remove the plastic guard to the right of the recline lever. exposes this shiny tube thing, i think it has to do with the airbags from what the plug looks like. might need to trim the plastic or paint the “tube thing” black. aesthetically unpleasing.
The second meh has to do with adjustment. all the bolts that need to be loosened and tightened are in hard to reach area where you have to use and open box wrench to twist 1/32 of a turn at a time. not impossible but if you can stay focused i’d figure at least 5 min per bolt to loosen and then 5 min minimum to tighten. not alot of room to work.

The ugly,
the bolts on the rear of the rails that bolt to the car. i would love if Paco can reply with the exact tool he recommends to tighten these. mine are half-arsed tight at the moment. you will need some sort of 14mm stubby open end wrench and alot of blue collar language. they are very hard to get started and you cannot see a darn thing.

Now Homer Simpson will fit 🙂 (art courtesy of Serge Maillet)