Some more parts I added to the build in 2012 were a pair of lightly used Racetech 4009 seats. These are probably my favorite seats next to Recaro SPG which look almost identical. I like these better because I see a lot of racers using them. And well if I'm going to pose I'm going to pose hard. The seller said he has had both and feel the Racetech's were more comfortable.
They were off a Subaru and came with Wedge Engineering brackets for a WRX. I sold those, but since Wedge is local I decided to try their E36 brackets. Here's what they look like if anyone is considering them.
I have a long review of these brackets that you can read here. I'll basically go over the same problems I encountered when using these brackets.
The WE brackets tend to only use Recaro Sliders. There are two types of Recaro sliders. You have to speicify which kind you have. I had the kind with the tabs and 3 holes. Someone had cut down one of the tabs pressumably to fit with their application. I put them on the scale. 5lbs 13oz.
Wedge also makes their own seat mounts. No one bothered to paint these so there was some suface rust. 4lb 8 oz for these bad boys.
Now the bracket itself comes in at 9lbs 9 oz.
All that being said we're looking at 19.8lbs of hardware per side. That's a little hefty. The seat itself only weighs 20lbs.
I cleaned up the seat mounts with some sand paper.
Set up my ghetto paint booth.
mmmmm gloss black...
Bye bye vaders. I love you but you have to go. We will see each other again one day. :(
It was really hard to sell the vaders but there just wasn't any more room. They're one of my favorite parts on the interior of the e36 M3.
I prepared the interior for the new seats.
Alright, so here is where the problem with the brackets begin. Wedge designs them so that you can use your stock seat belt recepitcle. To do this you need about 2" of room by the tranny tunnel. Guess what? This moves you over 2" from the center of the steering wheel. Which sucks. There was no way I was going to live with that. Also this seat is a little more narrow than the stock width their brackets are measured for.
I call them up to ask what I can do. They're aware of the problem and said to bring the brackets back in with the measurements of how far over I want the seat mounted. Since wedge is in Long Beach about 30 min from me, it wasn't a problem. Over the phone with shipping etc. forget about it. Use someone local or buy the VAC plates. They're not that much more when you start to break it down.
So I get down there and tell them I need it moved over 1.75" I figured this would be enough and there is room on the seat mounts to adjust side to side about 1". The way the brackets work is with recaro sliders. I don't know how else you would use them. The sliders attach to 2 tubes that the weld to the frame.
Here's the only picture I have of the custom mount. He just welded a tube 1.75" over from the right. My seat was able to use the location of the original tube on the other side so he didn't have to weld on an additional one. Narrowing the width obviously changes the width of the slider bar, so they cut that down and reweled it. Above you can see the original width which will be the passenger bar and the new driver's side bar. Also you can see the "old" tube not being used to the right side of the slider.
It was like right at lunch time and they were kind of pissed or in a hurry to do the work so they charged me $20. He bascially gave me a wet painted slider bar. I held it there waiting for it to dry...
Would I go with Wedge again. Probably not. They're ok dudes, but I mean they make mass market drag car seat mounts. Down and dirty. A race seat mount is going to be custom for every driver and VAC gives you that DIY customization on the fly with the flat aluminum seat bases with a hundred holes. That's why they're so popular. You don't have to sit at some industrial fabrication shop in the asshole of Los Angeles watching Judge Judy, breathing metal fumes watching a teamster eat King Taco sipping down 64oz of his favorite sugary beverage while it's 110 degrees outside when you should really be at work, but you said you're going to drop your parents off at the airport, and when you get back you've spent 2 hours each way in traffic, but at least you have a seat bracket that points you directly at the seat. So yeah they're local, but it's a pain in the ass. So unless you're already buddies with you friend who does fab and it's more enjoyable experience to watch him weld shit up, go with a VAC mount.
So I was able to get the seat the driver's seat the way I wanted it. When I did a test fit with my helmet my head hit the headliner. Without a helmet in a kind of slouched down driving around town position the height was ok. But with the harness and everything in race position it was no good.
I hit up racetechna (which seems to no longer be in business?) to buy the 2-piece seat which is the older version. I also prefer this look to the one piece bottom. Maybe because it looks more like the Recaro. I don't know. It's about 1.5" lower than the one piece seat which is intended to be more comfortable. The height of the seat mount in combination with the sliders could make the whole seat a little taller than most people want it. I'm 5'11" but made it work with the lower seat.
I happened to have another Schroth Rallye 4 that I bought as a pair but never installed. So that went on the passenger side.
So that's about it. They are amazing. I now have baby seats in my car as my wife calls them.
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