Finding more interior space - lowering seats

[StephenH]

As my S2 has a roll bar that eats into how far you can push the seats back, I have been trying to gain a few mm here and there.
Today I started lowering the seats by converting to a fixed side mount, anyone else that drives the car will just have to use my position.

Have made 1 mistake, decided to buy some commercial aluminium side mounts from Velo and modify to suit.
These work OK but as they are 6mm thick, limit how much I can drop the seats compared to using something like 3mm steel.

I have dropped about 10-12 mm and this has given me more space for my knees and clearance for my head.
May yet go back to scratch and use steel, worked out that with 3mm sheet and a little nibbling on the seat I can get the seat base to sit on the floor itself.
That will be about another 5mm from what I have at the moment and should give me plenty of leg and headroom.

I did actually allow for about 25mm of forward adjustment, but that is by removing the seat and moving the sidemounts forward to a second set of holes (fiddly but possible in 15-20 minutes, hopefully).

Need to tidy up the drivers seat and will try and get an image or two for anyone interested, then duplicate for the passenger side.

[EuropaTC]

Hi Stephen,

If interior space is that much of a problem with the roll bar, and presumably you must have the roll bar for competition (?) then why not look at fitting an alternative driver's seat ?  You can get bare fibreglass shells to trim yourself, or maybe look around what's supplied for modern day kit cars or the Lotus 7 type as they're usually narrow and slim.  I only know the UK suppliers and most of the UK dealers show dimensions alongside the seats so you can work out if they'll fit in your car - a random example for instance;

http://www.europaspares.com/interior-parts/seats/voyager-seat-in-black-vinyl-with-coloured-piping-options.html

I realise lowering the existing seat is "free" but you might be better off space-wise with another seat. (and a modern one is probably much lighter as well ?)

Brian

[StephenH]

You are correct Brian, new seats would be a 'better' solution and might happen further down the path.
For the moment I'm happy to make this small change (lowering the seats) while I focus on getting used to the car and sorting out some (minor) niggles.

[Mecky]

Hi there,

we also have fitted a roll cage into our Europa S2. It is modified for historic racing (FIA Appendix K). Our seat is this one: http://shop.sparco.it/en/racing/seats/sprint-v.html. But it is necessary to tilt the seat around ~20 degrees.

Best regards

Stefan