Elise seats in a Europa TCS

[Grumblebuns]

This is a follow up to a seat thread a few months back:

http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=1525.0

I pulled the passenger seat from my 05 Elise this week end to clean out 10 years of dust bunnies and crud from under the seat. I remembered the discussion of alternate seats from the earlier thread. I took some photos of the Elise seat in my TCS. The Elise seat will definitely fit, in fact it fits quite well in the Europa. From the pictures, the Elise seat is a lot taller, narrower, lower and has less back rake. It shouldn't be too difficult to fabricate seat runners to fit.

The seat will be out for a couple of weeks while I replace the brake lines and fix a leaky RF caliper bleeder valve. If any one needs additional measurements or pictures end me a PM.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca
     

[LotusJoe]

Good going Joji! I always thought they would fit. If you like I would be happy to make rails for that conversion. 
I thought they might be an alternative to the stock seats.

[jbcollier]

There're pretty upright.  You'd need to on the shorter side to fit in.  Can you recline them?

[EuropaTC]

There're pretty upright.  You'd need to on the shorter side to fit in.  Can you recline them?

None of the variants I've seen have had reclining seats, maybe something from one of the higher models (Evora ?) might have that option. 

The seat runners and base are quite thin and you're sitting low in the car so it wouldn't surprise me to find there is more room than the standard seats, despite how high the headrest looks in the photos. It might be a tighter fit in the S2, didn't that have slightly less headroom ?

Brian

[Grumblebuns]

There're pretty upright.  You'd need to on the shorter side to fit in.  Can you recline them?

None of the variants I've seen have had reclining seats, maybe something from one of the higher models (Evora ?) might have that option. 

The seat runners and base are quite thin and you're sitting low in the car so it wouldn't surprise me to find there is more room than the standard seats, despite how high the headrest looks in the photos. It might be a tighter fit in the S2, didn't that have slightly less headroom ?

Brian

I've attached a few more photos of several side to side comparisons betrween the stock TCS and the Elise seats. I also weighed both seats on a bathroom scale. The TCS stock TCS seat weighs in at around 25# (11.3 kg), Elise is at 20# (9.1 kg).

A few observations on the Elise seat in the TCS. The seat definitely fits quite well in the Europa. If the seat is centered between the stock bobbins, there is anywhere between 2"- 4" inch of clearance between the seat and the sides of the cabin. The Elise seat runners at the front fit between the stock bobbins. At the rear, the inside runner is splayed out a few degrees so that the runners just covers the rear bobbins. The Elise seat is a couple of inches lower than the stock seat, you are essentially sitting on the floor. For taller drivers, this may be an asset but you have to be slender of girth. The narrowest section of the seat, where the seat bottom merges into the back rest, measures just 12.5". My final observation is that the Elise seat just doesn't look right in the Europa, it's simply too tall to my eyes.

I've always thought that the floor on the TC/TCS were lowered for more head room, I'll try to confirm that.

Hey Joe, at this time I'm not looking at using the Elise seats. I did the comparison to satisfy a curiosity since I had both seats available and my TCS has a stripped interior.

[jbcollier]

Yup, floor was lowered making the headroom somewhat less marginal.  Try it before you spend time making mounts.

[buzzer]

Joji,

That's some great work there. I have been looking at exactly this. Not made my mind up yet. The issue with the Europa seat with the roll cage you have (like the one in mine) is the passenger seat is way too forward and the Elise seats with the steeper rake fit better.
The other option is to fit something like a Corbeau seat or buckets seats or seriously adapt the std seat. I will have to work out my options in the next month or two. Some more examining your pics I think. As you say not sure on the look, but the fit looks good.

Dave