Aftermarket Sport seats. Any Favorites other than OEM?

[3rd02]

My 75 '02 (not a race or track car, BTW) came to me 13 years ago with Miata seats that are just OK.

Since Im in the process of replacing the carpet and rebuilding the heater box, I'll be trying to replace the Miata seats with something like the Corbeu GTSII, or good used VW seat.

I had a set of refurbished Recaros, but sadly sold them to make room in my garage. dumb.

Anyone have any favorite conversions from OEM?

[Dave919]

After the 1000 mile drive to Midamerica I am following this thread!

[John_in_VA]

https://www.classiccarseats.com/

[colorobo2002]

 

 

[Teelinger]

I'm partial to the ProCar Rally seats myself. 

https://www.bmw2002faq.com/blogs/entry/2079-new-seats-are-installed/

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Teelinger

[wheelieking]

I also went with Procar seats. The local auto upholstery shop near me had them.  I considered their Elite model, but went with the Pro-90 because it wasn't quite as "big" or tall looking, and could pass for something that looks OE.  In hindsight, my car is now too sporty handling for the Pro-90 seats, but I still like them.  I ended up having the rear seat recovered to match. I'm 6' 4" so my biggest wish/plan is to cut the factory seat mounts a little to try to mount the seats 1-2" lower. 

 

 

 

[3rd02]

Thank you. I like to have a little more side bolstering. Funny, my Miata seats were installed they cut out to OEM car seat mounting plates,,,probably because the miata seats were too high for the OEM...? I wanted to put supports that match the OEM seat base because I thought it would give me more seat options -- all Id have to do is buy seats/seat sliders that fit a 75 bmw.

Its so complicated Im going round and round...

[visionaut]

Vintage P-car seats (911, 944) fit nice, IMO 😉

[Rodolfo Lasparri]

I have a set of Flofits, quite similar all around to the E21 Recaros and they are quite good. If you can find them, typically 1/2 the cost of Recaros.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Rodolfo Lasparri
typo

[Teelinger]

The ProCar Rally seats have a TON of side bolster 😀

[7502]

 

I'm really happy w/ a pair of Recaro Idealsitz LS I picked up a while back. Not sure, but I think they were possibly out of a VW from the 90's maybe?  I had to make mounts so I could use the original sliders and bottom attachment points. Since your bottom mounts are removed you will be able to mount them as low as you want.  It's definitely a puzzle to fashion custom mounts but well worth it in the end. These have great support, are fairly light and fit well in the 2002.  Think I paid $700 from a fellow FAQer. 

 

Good luck.

Eric

[HobieDog]

I just finished mounting my replacement front seats. These are sport seats found in a late model 2 or 4 series.
 

I love the seats (they’re the same seats in my daily driver) and personally think they don’t look too modern and out of place in the car, which is a problem for a lot of later model seats.  They clearly don’t look period correct but aren’t as bad as say a pair of e36 M3 Vader seats. 
 

I looked for a long time to find them with only manual adjustment and in red leather. 
 

the rears  will require a bunch of modifications to work, but I think I can get it done. Maybe a project for next year since I want to drive the thing asap.  
 

I think you’ll find that most (all?) non original seats mounted to the factory mounts will be too high, and the bump out in the trans tunnel prevents you from lowering them too much without getting pushed off center.  Like others, I modified the trans tunnel to make this work.  

[Vicleonardo1]

Got my Recaros from a second gen Jetta GLI owner. I bet is he very sad now for the price he sold them to me. I bought them a few years ago. Had them redone by Dave Varco at Aardvarc. He sent them back with the adaptors installed and plugged in easy peasy. Fit easily with 320i  adaptors. (Need to check if the bottom rail is compatible). The only rub(at the time) was finding a fresh set of the plastic side covers. They kinda of get buggered up when you remove them. Got lucky and found a set of OEM from a seller in Greece. 

Was originally shopping for new seats and it seemed the Corbeau's were affordable Recaro clones (at the time)  and may fit with the 320i adaptor. Stopped looking when I found a pair of the VW Recaros on Craig's list. 

[popovm]

13 hours ago, Vicleonardo1 said:

Got my Recaros from a second gen Jetta GLI owner. I bet is he very sad now for the price he sold them to me. I bought them a few years ago. Had them redone by Dave Varco at Aardvarc. He sent them back with the adaptors installed and plugged in easy peasy. Fit easily with 320i  adaptors. (Need to check if the bottom rail is compatible). The only rub(at the time) was finding a fresh set of the plastic side covers. They kinda of get buggered up when you remove them. Got lucky and found a set of OEM from a seller in Greece. 

Was originally shopping for new seats and it seemed the Corbeau's were affordable Recaro clones (at the time)  and may fit with the 320i adaptor. Stopped looking when I found a pair of the VW Recaros on Craig's list. 

 

I ended up with the same seats in great shape, but bought them from a guy that was going to put them in his fox body Cobra. Someone offered him a chunk of change for his Cobra when fox bodies were going up in price, he bit, and had these seats laying around. Even without recovering they match the velour back seat that I had in my 76 really well. 

 

As you said, Vicleo, one gotcha with these is that some seats (I don't know which years or if it was a certain trim level or what) have a Jetta specific base (seen on these seats) and one has the standard Recaro bolt pattern. Don't buy the Jetta specific ones unless you want to sign up for cutting off the old frame and fabbing up a new frame that fits our seat mounts. 

 

One little bonus with these is that the VW guys want the sliders that come off of the seats that have the Recaro bases. I sold mine locally for $50 and the guy was shocked that I was selling them so cheap. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by popovm