Hi all
Has anyone fitted a different seat to the Elan.
My back plays up big style with the original seat and find it difficult to get comfortable.
Regards
G
That’s a shame and bad luck.
Generally the seats are actually rather comfortable, surprisingly so given their elementary construction. I suspect it is down to the seating position, once one is installed.
A number of folk have found that the Mazda MX5 seats fit. They may be worth you exploring.
My seats are original. I have found putting a thin pad of closed air cell matting, like that used for exercise mats, under the seat between the hessian and the springs rather effective. I then use genuine sheepskin on the back and the seat, which provides not only additional padding, but effective cooling and warmth when required. I guess if you have a lower back problem it would not be too tricky to insert some form of lumbar support into/onto the seat back.
Tim
I have some S1 Elise seats which I am planning to reupholster and fit at some point. They have headrests (one of the main drivers for changing them - I also have a rear roll cage with sill bars and feel more comfortable with those two safety concessions.) They are non adjustable (other than a lumbar support.) As a bonus though they’re pretty light.
In the Elise I find they’re installed a bit too upright so will tip them back a little when fitting them. I fitted some in an integrale which was my daily driver for years and they were quite comfortable. Making the stock Elan seats more upright would be easy; more involved to tip it back (by extending the legs or making some spacer blocks) but that could be worth experimenting with.
On a tangent as Tim says I find the original 2 seater Elan seats pretty comfortable, so it could be that adding foam or changing the existing foam to a firmer or softer variety might improve it for you. Good luck!
I am running a pair of leather Elise (possibly Exige - not sure about the difference)
I had some subframes made to support them and they nestle nicely within the rear roll cage.
I spent a lot of time setting up the position and angle and it was Tim well spent.I think that they are really comfortable.
Hope it helps
Gavin
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Thanks guys
A Pause for thought on the ideas mentioned.I also have a rear roll cage so I will look into it a bit more,
G
When I was researching alternative seats I discovered that some of the ‘thicker’ alternatives either fouled the cage or didn’t allow the seat far enough back. I wanted the leg room because Im 6 feet and didn’t want to impede the driving position.
I understand that Elise seats are fixed at an angle so if you decide to use their subframes, you may need to modify them to square them up and fix the rear properly - otherwise they wont slide well. I need to modify my sliders because they aren’t great which I will do in the warmer weather but the driving position is for me perfect and I wont change that.
Gavin