Seats?

Kai SRT10

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What do folks think of these seats?

The stock seats are quite nice, but I'm curious if anyone has put in any aftermarket seats, like these from Sparco.
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valentine_viper

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The Sparco seats are nice, but considering how good the factory seats are, it seems like a waste of money to replace them. Just my opinion.
 

Andrew/USPWR

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I like it. does it come in black?
I'd love to have cloth seat. Leathers to damn hot.





2005 Silver SRT/10
2000 Steel Gray GTS (sold)
 

Nader

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If I remember correctly there is a person on this site named Dallas that has recaro seats installed. I think you can search for "Startech" in this forum for pics of the interior. It was in the last month of so.
 

Vipera Russelli

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That's funny. I've been considering aftermarket seats as well. To answer your questions, yes, someone has done it, as suggested by Nader:

http://www4.forum.viperclub.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB21&Number=685086&Forum=UBB21&Words=seats&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=250&Old=3months&Main=684539&Search=true#Post685086

I'm interested in saving weight, getting a perfect fit, and improving my seat-of-the-pants feel of the car and track. I’d be interested to know what your research is turning up.

As for fit, I've sat in a lot of race seats at my local track shop and it is amazing to me just how many of them don't fit my hips, although there is nothing remarkable at all about the build of my hips. You'll have to try them out first, or have a seat custom fitted.

The seat you've posted above doesn't look much lighter than stock. What does it weigh?
 
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Kai SRT10

Kai SRT10

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That's funny. I've been considering aftermarket seats as well. To answer your questions, yes, someone has done it, as suggested by Nader:
I'm interested in saving weight, getting a perfect fit, and improving my seat-of-the-pants feel of the car and track. I’d be interested to know what your research is turning up.

The seat you've posted above doesn't look much lighter than stock. What does it weigh?

The seat I posted is heavy. It wouldn't be much of a performance improvement over stock. It would not be my choice if I were looking for new seats. If you don't need a seat that reclines, there are lots of 12-14 pound seats available. I like the recline feature, myself.

The best seat I've found with a reclining mechanism is made by Cobra seats and is called the Misano.
http://www.cobraseats.com/
It's 24 pounds, with a carbon fiber/aluminum frame, and upholstered in leather and alcantara.
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At the end of the day, it's the mounting system that is the issue. You will end up having to get something custom fabricated, and you will lose your front/back adjustability.

I'm actually not that serious about changing out my factory seats. It's a lot of money for not a whole lot of weight reduction. It's on my list of things to do someday, when my wife stops being mad at me about all the $$$ I've spent on my engine. (Which will likely be a long long time.)
I would like to do something to brace the Northwind lowering kit brackets I'm using, however, as the seat has been very wiggly and sloppy since I installed the Northwind 1 inch lowering kit.
 

Vipera Russelli

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Thanks for the reply. I don't need adjustability forward or aft, or reclining as long as it's the right fit from the get-go. And although I would like to save the weight, the big perk I'm looking for is more feel of the track.

I would like to do something to brace the Northwind lowering kit brackets I'm using, however, as the seat has been very wiggly and sloppy since I installed the Northwind 1 inch lowering kit.

I noticed the same thing about the 1-inch kit from NWE. And that's one of the big perks of switching to the NWE 2-inch kit. It's rock solid.
 

NoRice

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Could you take the NWE kit into someone and have them weld it once you have it set in place and setup for your car? That might take some of the slop out of it.
 
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Kai SRT10

Kai SRT10

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Thanks for the reply. I don't need adjustability forward or aft, or reclining as long as it's the right fit from the get-go. And although I would like to save the weight, the big perk I'm looking for is more feel of the track.

I would like to do something to brace the Northwind lowering kit brackets I'm using, however, as the seat has been very wiggly and sloppy since I installed the Northwind 1 inch lowering kit.

I noticed the same thing about the 1-inch kit from NWE. And that's one of the big perks of switching to the NWE 2-inch kit. It's rock solid.

I'm not sure I would be able to get my Team Tech belts in and out of the car if I wasn't able to flip the seat forward. I will have to try it and see.
I would go with the NWE 2-inch kit, but I don't need the seat to be 2 inches lower. I wish they made a 1-inch kit along the same lines as the 2 inch. The slider mechanism on the 2 inch kit is so poor (even after replacing their flimsy wire with a turnbuckle) that I don't ever bother to slide the seat back and forth anyway, so I would buy a 1 inch non-adjustable kit if it was available.
 

PhoenixGTS

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For a lower cost seat this looks like a decent option:

Sparco Roadster

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Has lower sides for a one-piece so you would be able to get in and out and use stock seat belts.
 

Vipera Russelli

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I'm not sure I would be able to get my Team Tech belts in and out of the car if I wasn't able to flip the seat forward. I will have to try it and see.
I would go with the NWE 2-inch kit, but I don't need the seat to be 2 inches lower. I wish they made a 1-inch kit along the same lines as the 2 inch. The slider mechanism on the 2 inch kit is so poor (even after replacing their flimsy wire with a turnbuckle) that I don't ever bother to slide the seat back and forth anyway, so I would buy a 1 inch non-adjustable kit if it was available.
I use the Team Tech belts too, but I never take them out; I just tuck them out of the way when driving on the street. And I used to think the one-inch kit was just right, until I tried the two-inch kit (which my track made me put in to get me further below the roll bars). I like the two-inch kit more. I'm 5'9" and have a 30-inch inseam (long torso).
 

britospeed

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The wiggle in the NW 1" kit is in the base bracket. It is just a flat bar for the rear mounting points. If you weld another flat bar on top of that bar so that it forms the shape of an upside down T then it feels much more solid.
 

Viper X

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I haven't tried the one-inch kit but the two-inch kit can be very solid if you attach it correctly and tighten everything up. I have it on both sides now.
 
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Kai SRT10

Kai SRT10

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The wiggle in the NW 1" kit is in the base bracket. It is just a flat bar for the rear mounting points. If you weld another flat bar on top of that bar so that it forms the shape of an upside down T then it feels much more solid.

I'm not sure I follow what you are talking about. Where does the bar go?

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Kai SRT10

Kai SRT10

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I was looking at the stock seats and noticed that there is a sensor wire that plugs into the seat.

Is that for the airbag? The seat belt alarm? Anyone know? Looks like something you would have to deal with if you're going to replace the stock seats.
 

Vipera Russelli

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I'm pretty sure it's the seat belt sensor. Try unplugging it (it's easy to do without removing the seat) and going for a spin to see what happens. Maybe it doesn't have to be plugged in.
 

Nader

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Seat belt sensor and air bag sensor so the airbag doesnt deploy if no one is in the seat.
 
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Kai SRT10

Kai SRT10

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Seat belt sensor and air bag sensor so the airbag doesnt deploy if no one is in the seat.

So, if you install an aftermarket seat, you lose your airbag?

I wonder how hard it would be to move those sensors to an aftermarket seat.

Anyone ever try to do it?
 
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Kai SRT10

Kai SRT10

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It seems like the solution is to disconnect the wire and have a friendly electrician measure the resistance. Then, you have to go to an electician's supply store and buy jumpers with the correct resistance. Put the jumpers on the wire and fool the BCM into believing that there is somebody in the seat.

Otherwise, you lose the airbags if you install an aftermarket seat.
 

Vipera Russelli

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Put the jumpers on the wire and fool the BCM into believing that there is somebody in the seat.
That sounds right to me, with the only downside being that your passenger air bag may go off in a collision unnecessarily, and, under those circumstances, who cares?

And now that I think about it, why would the driver's side air bag be somehow dependent on a sensor indicating that someone was in the driver's seat? Just in case your parked car gets hit head on?
 

Viper X

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Just checked the 04 Viper manual. I did a search for air bag sensor and came up with no results.

I'm pretty sure that the small plug you are talking about is to let the computer know if the seat belt is fastened. There doesn't seem to be any connection between this plug and the air bag or any air bag sensor.

Dan
 
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Kai SRT10

Kai SRT10

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So, the two obstacles to installing an aftermarket seat are:

1: fixing the airbag sensor and
2: getting a mounting bracket custom made. o

The first seems like an easy fix. The hard part is figuring out how many ohms of resisance you need. I will have to look in my shop manual and see if it has the answer. If not, I guess you'd have to measure it.

The bracket issue is a bit more problematic. No seat maker I have come across sells brackets to fit the SRT-10. Northwind makes an adapter to fit the Comp Coupe seat (made by RaceTech) into the SRT-10.

http://northwind.viperclub.org/northwindsummer05.pdf

http://www.racetechseatsna.com/race_seats.html

Unless you get the Northwind/Racetech combo, you're going to have to get a sub-frame bracket custom fabricated somewhere.

Because the seat belt buckle mechanism is integral to the stock seat, you will likely have to custom fabricate a seat belt connection to whatever sub-frame bracket you end up getting.

So . . . Maybe there's a reason (other than cost) that nobody is putting aftermarket seats into their Gen III Vipers. It doesn't look like there are any options out there that are truly out of the box compatible with our cars.

I think I will try and convince Daniel Lesser of Viper Specialty Performance that he needs to replace his stock seats with those beautiful Cobra Misano AL's. That way, he can do all the engineering and experimentation with brackets and resistors, and I can just buy the kit from him when he's done. (Like I have with my accusump system and my clutch.)
 
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Kai SRT10

Kai SRT10

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Just checked the 04 Viper manual. I did a search for air bag sensor and came up with no results.

I'm pretty sure that the small plug you are talking about is to let the computer know if the seat belt is fastened. There doesn't seem to be any connection between this plug and the air bag or any air bag sensor.

Dan

I am pretty sure that it does both. For one thing, if the Viper airbag is similar to that on other cars, the airbag is designed to vary its response depending on whether or not the occupant is wearing a seat belt.

I also seem to remember that when I forgot to plug that little plug in (when I first installed my team-tech belts) that I got an airbag/SSR error light.

A while back, there was a guy posting on the board that designed the Gen III seats. He was asking if any of us had any questions. Wish he were here now.
 

britospeed

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The (2) 3/16"X 1" flat bars that attach the seat to the rear mounting studs on the floor. Weld another flat bar on top of those forming the upside down T.
Hope that helps!
 

Racer Robbie

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Quote: Just checked the 04 Viper manual. I did a search for air bag sensor and came up with no results.

I'm pretty sure that the small plug you are talking about is to let the computer know if the seat belt is fastened. There doesn't seem to be any connection between this plug and the air bag or any air bag sensor.

I have left mine disconnected and the seatbelt light stays off. As for the airbig light, I have been told by my viper tech that he can program the light to stay off as I have removed the drivers air bag so as to install a race wheel and have also turned off the passnger si9de air bag with my key inside the center console.
 

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