Looooong Sparco seat review & stock seats
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 363
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From: SoCal
Looooong Sparco seat review & stock seats
I'm going to be swapping out my friend's M3 stock seats with a Sparco competition seat. According to him, the M3 power seats weigh a little over 75 lbs. which will yield a huge weight savings. Since I swapped out my seat and had a couple of sparco seats available to me, I decided to see what the difference were in the side mount type seats, bottom mount type, and stock.
I was going to swap out both the driver and passenger seat, but the competition seats are difficult to get in and out of so I spared the hassle of the passenger.
Some weights:
-Sparco Corsa seat: 15.5 lbs. (pre-2004), after harsher FIA regulations, post 2004 seats are 22 lbs.
-Sparco Evo seat: 16.5 lbs. (pre-2004), post is 18.5 lbs.
-Sparco Sprint: 18 lbs.
The sparco evo, corsa, and other side mount seats are fiberglass and affected by the new FIA regulations which resulted in thicker fiberglass moldings and heavier seats. The sparco sprint, and ultra are steel tubing seats which are already very strong so it passed FIA regulations resulting in no modification needed or weight change. Also, with the steel tubing, both the sprint and ultra are bottom mounted which leaves out the extra weight of the side mounts.
Weights of complete car ready setup (seat+side mount+slider+base).
-Factory driver side Accord coupe power seat: 44 lbs.
(passenger side should be lighter since it's non-powered)
-Sparco Evo: 37.5 lbs.
-Sparco Corsa: 36.5 lbs.
-Sparco Sprint: 33 lbs.
The side mounts that were used for the review were the steel versions, the lighter aluminum side mounts didn't come in so no comparison could be done.
In the end, the heaviest competition seat was the lightest overall.
Seating properties of the the different seats:
-Sparco Evo: it's probably the average of all the seats. Good support all around. The Rev model is the same except more narrow. The evo2 is wider for bigger people and the evo3 is even larger.
-Sparco Corsa: it has the highest back of the fiberglass seats, so for those who have tall torso's, the shoulder harness loop should be at an acceptable height. it also has the tallest thigh support. (see pic)
-Sparco Sprint: surprisingly, it also has a high back so the shoulder harnesses are at a good height for tall torso peeps. Since it's a bottom mount, there's no tilt adjustment that can be made. I'm fine with that.
In car review and factoid:
-The side mount seats are not really meant for sliders. It's meant to be bolted directly to the floor of the car. So after the base and sliders are added, you sit almost at the stock height of the factory seating. I didn't like it, but the seat itself feels great, supported and probably the most comfy. In addition, if the fabric starts wearing out or you rip a hole, all is not lost. You can purchase the outter cover seperately to replace.
-Sparco sprint: although the cheapest, i like this the best mostly because you sit almost 4" lower than the factory seating height. i can put on my helmet and not worry about hitting the ceiling. It also puts the dash higher which tends to force you to look ahead where you're driving (Very important for road racing or autocross. You won't be staring down at the road in front of you.)
-With both the side mount type and bottom mount type seats, cornering hard feels less than what you're really doing since it's holding you in place. Even more so with the sprint seat since you're situated lower in the seat (lower center of gravity).
Ok, i'll shut up now.. here's the pics..
Corsa front & side (note the thigh support height):
Evo front & side:
Sprint front & side:
All 3 front:
All 3 side view:
Evo in Accord:
Sprint in Accord:
I was going to swap out both the driver and passenger seat, but the competition seats are difficult to get in and out of so I spared the hassle of the passenger.
Some weights:
-Sparco Corsa seat: 15.5 lbs. (pre-2004), after harsher FIA regulations, post 2004 seats are 22 lbs.
-Sparco Evo seat: 16.5 lbs. (pre-2004), post is 18.5 lbs.
-Sparco Sprint: 18 lbs.
The sparco evo, corsa, and other side mount seats are fiberglass and affected by the new FIA regulations which resulted in thicker fiberglass moldings and heavier seats. The sparco sprint, and ultra are steel tubing seats which are already very strong so it passed FIA regulations resulting in no modification needed or weight change. Also, with the steel tubing, both the sprint and ultra are bottom mounted which leaves out the extra weight of the side mounts.
Weights of complete car ready setup (seat+side mount+slider+base).
-Factory driver side Accord coupe power seat: 44 lbs.
(passenger side should be lighter since it's non-powered)
-Sparco Evo: 37.5 lbs.
-Sparco Corsa: 36.5 lbs.
-Sparco Sprint: 33 lbs.
The side mounts that were used for the review were the steel versions, the lighter aluminum side mounts didn't come in so no comparison could be done.
In the end, the heaviest competition seat was the lightest overall.
Seating properties of the the different seats:
-Sparco Evo: it's probably the average of all the seats. Good support all around. The Rev model is the same except more narrow. The evo2 is wider for bigger people and the evo3 is even larger.
-Sparco Corsa: it has the highest back of the fiberglass seats, so for those who have tall torso's, the shoulder harness loop should be at an acceptable height. it also has the tallest thigh support. (see pic)
-Sparco Sprint: surprisingly, it also has a high back so the shoulder harnesses are at a good height for tall torso peeps. Since it's a bottom mount, there's no tilt adjustment that can be made. I'm fine with that.
In car review and factoid:
-The side mount seats are not really meant for sliders. It's meant to be bolted directly to the floor of the car. So after the base and sliders are added, you sit almost at the stock height of the factory seating. I didn't like it, but the seat itself feels great, supported and probably the most comfy. In addition, if the fabric starts wearing out or you rip a hole, all is not lost. You can purchase the outter cover seperately to replace.
-Sparco sprint: although the cheapest, i like this the best mostly because you sit almost 4" lower than the factory seating height. i can put on my helmet and not worry about hitting the ceiling. It also puts the dash higher which tends to force you to look ahead where you're driving (Very important for road racing or autocross. You won't be staring down at the road in front of you.)
-With both the side mount type and bottom mount type seats, cornering hard feels less than what you're really doing since it's holding you in place. Even more so with the sprint seat since you're situated lower in the seat (lower center of gravity).
Ok, i'll shut up now.. here's the pics..
Corsa front & side (note the thigh support height):
Evo front & side:
Sprint front & side:
All 3 front:
All 3 side view:
Evo in Accord:
Sprint in Accord:
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 812
Likes: 0
From: chicago, il, usa
Re: Looooong Sparco seat review & stock seats (syclone)
didn't get a chance to read the whole review but wow i thought there would be a greater weight savings going to non-powered racing seats
also, did you mount your harness' to the floor?
also, did you mount your harness' to the floor?
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 363
Likes: 0
From: SoCal
Re: Looooong Sparco seat review & stock seats (azian21485)
if you mount the side mounts directly to the floor without a base and without sliders, the whole assembly should weigh only 20 lbs.
i mounted my harness to the stock seatbelt locations.. it's a snap-in kit so i can remove them when they're not needed..
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/syclone1/harness.htm
i mounted my harness to the stock seatbelt locations.. it's a snap-in kit so i can remove them when they're not needed..
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/syclone1/harness.htm
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