I have caught the track time bug after attending a couple HPDE events in the fall. I currently drive a 5th gen prelude and have a headroom issue. With my helmet on I don't fit. I have to tilt my head to the right to fit in the car. I know that this is not good. I am willing to purchase aftermarket seats or whatever to make myself fit in the car. It is cheaper than going out and buying a car that I fit in to start with. If anyone can help please do.


[Modified by DBurke, 3:26 AM 1/3/2002]

 

Depending on the class you run in, you may have to get a reclining race seat which can cost quite a bit of money. Generally, Hondas feature a fairly low seating position to begin with compared to other manufacturers, so the gains may not be very dramatic. If your car has a sunroof, one option would be to have it removed and filled in with a steel plate, then get a headliner from a Prelude without a sunroof. This should grant you another inch or so of headroom.

Or you could also stop taking in calcium and iron in your diet, thereby triggering bone density loss and possibly shrinking until you fit.

Anthony "Mario" Crea

 

That of course, is the easiest solution, hehe

 

If you improperly install your harness.. and then get into an accident... you can loose 1 to 2" of height.. then you will fit

get a different seat.. and custom make a bracket for it.

 

I believe there are several options here. As mentioned, any quality aftermarket seat (or even a DelSol seat for that matter) will give you some more room, especially when coupled with some custom fabricated brackets to keep it as low as possible.
Another option is to take your seat off and have some of the padding professionally removed from the seat cushion (or even take out all the stock one and replace with smaller, denser padding) That way you can keep your stock seats and have some more room. I think this would work best if you only need a little more room (maybe like an inch) as I am not sure just how much headroom you could gain by doing so.

HTH

 

I'm a former prelude owner whose head touched the ceiling in the mornings.

I ran across a site where a guy took the seat apart and used a dremel tool to grind down the seat-bottom adjuster. You know, the one that makes the seat-bottom tilt, that you probably never move. Well, it turns out, that if you grind it down some the seat will tilt further, giving you a little more headroom. I can't find the link now...

This is obviously only an option if you don't want to spend the money on aftermarket seats.

 

I would like to lower myself about 3-4 inches. I just don't see an inch or two doing it. I was looking around under the seat and there is like zero room for the seat to go down any lower. Fabricating brackets for the stock seat doesn't seem to be an option as it would be a complete and total waste of time because of the negligible gain offered. I have looked around at some seats, the ones that I liked the best were Recaro SPGs. Felt really solid in them and they were comfy to boot. But if I spend the $$$$$ to get one and put it in my car am I going to fit? I am aware that no one here can answer this. I don't mind spending the $ on the seat, I mind making it a big dollar experiment though.

 

Aftermarket reclining seats usually don't give much of a headroom gain, especially if use their adapters to retain the stock rails.

If you can put up with a non-reclining seat, you may get more room. They tend to have less padding and less seat. But make sure it's comfy enough for daily use, some are tight. My Momo makes my leg fall asleep if I keep my wallet in my pocket, but is great otherwise.

The cheapest/easiest option is probably to get the stock seat padding cut down or replaced.

 

I've got a set of Recaro SRDs in my Civic Si. Compared to the stock civic seats, the Recaros are noticeably lower when set in the lowest position. If i had to guess, i'd say it's probably about 3".
The Recaro's use their own rails, not stock rails, plus the bottom seat cushion is about half the thickness of the stock one.

hope this helps!
-Xerxes

 

The recaro rails that are in my car have 3 height positions on all four corners probably about 1.5 to 2" of adjustment
I have it on the highest in the front and the lowest in the rear,
this sets me back a few more degrees



[Modified by Crazydave, 11:40 AM 1/3/2002]

 

That's what I wanted to hear. I too have clearance problems in my teg but I only need about a inch or two. I was going to get the Recaro SRD seat but I didn't know if I would gain any clearance with it.