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Making more headroom in a 2g (racing seat brackets)

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Get a Spyder. Then you can just drop the top and peeps out over the windshield!

Haha yes a Spyder would help you a lot, though taking the headliner off would probably do the trick if your just drag racing.
 
This was 1 reason I don't like my DSM but I may try this before I decide to sell it... Plan on replacing carpet and seats anyway so it'll be a perfect time... Will update!

SUBSCRIBED!!
 
i built a custom bracket on the front of my seat and it gave me more tilt and i got 3 in of clearance and i am 6' 2 "
 
I removed the chair sliders and headliner.

Headlinder gives you a bit of room but make sure it's not possible for your head to hit it, there's some pretty nasty edges. Maybe you'd have to custom low profile headliner, or at least in the spot where your head will be.
 
Yeah, I'm 6'5" so I definitely know what you mean. Fortunately for me I just put the top down... but I guess that helps very little on track days anyway. I will definitely follow this thread though since I could stand to gain some head room myself.
 
Hopefully bumping this old thread can help the guys that are still around and sub'd here or future 2g owners looking for more headroom with their stock or aftermarket seats. I couldn't find much info out there so after purchasing a Sparco Evo II seat it took a lot of trial and error.

Before you keep reading, if you're in the market for an aftermarket racing seat be sure to get one that fits YOU! Taking your waist size and your ass to shoulder height into account is necessary to get one that's safe for you in the event of an accident. This was a good article specifically sizing the Sparco series race seats. ---> OG Racing : Race Seat Fitment

Currently (2016) there are only a few different bolt-in seat bracket options that utilize the stock seat mounting points but allow you to bolt down a side mount seat bracket to them, Weapon-R and Planted Technology. Wedge makes one too but I had already seen/heard of their hit and miss fitment issues so I didn't even bother. Honestly, I wanted one of these two options to work giving me enough headroom (with a helmet) so I could install the Sparco seat on track days and pull it and install the OE driver seat for street duty. Sometimes though that famous saying, "you can't have your cake and eat it too", applies.

The Weapon-R seat bracket (~$100 for both a driver and passenger bracket) fit like shit, the bolt holes didn't line up on the studs for the front mounting and if you forced it the back of the bracket didn't sit flush on the floor board. Poor quality, I don't recommend even wasting your time. Trying to return them to Weapon-R wasn't easy either as they were trying to accuse me of having a damage chassis which created the mis-alignment on the front studs. :f-u:

The Planted Technology bracket was awesome (~$140 per side), something I'd trust to bolt my ass down to and in a serious accident I could trust to keep the seat in place. It dropped perfectly into place on the OE mounting points too, problem was once you get the seat on there you're up into the head liner even without a helmet on (without sliders). Here are a few shots I took with the Planted Tech. brackets so you can get an idea of seat height.

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Another important thing to note is side to side clearance on the door panel and the aftermarket seats shoulder wings. Head clearance with the Planted Tech. bracket was none existent but even after pushing the seat as far inboard (towards the center console) as I could it was barely high enough to clear the door panel. So if I drop the seat lower so my head is out of the ceiling of the car the it poses a different problem, door panel clearance.

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Fortunately for me I have a good grassroots fabricator who builds certified cages and does dozens of custom seat brackets a year and only lives 20m away. Of course he doesn't work for free but he knows how to make a seat fit to the driver AND the car without compromising safety, which is something worth paying for. To budget accordingly so you know what you're looking to pay a fabricator (keep in mind he's cheaper than most shops that are local to me) he charged $450 to mount the seat.
To fix the head clearance issue he did exactly what @Iroc_g had in mind in his OP, removing the OE floorboard seat bracing. These were a quick job with a carbide spot weld bit remover, just remember once they're gone you lose the stock seat mounting locations so you can't go back. After dropping it to the floor the door panel to seat clearance (on the shoulder wings) was the issue, to fix it the seat needed to move inboard as much as possible. He ended up removing as much of the driveshaft tunnel as possible (you can see where the unmodified tunnel ends just after the staging brake) which pushed the seat mounts 2"inboard. I told him I wanted to retain the factory 3pt seat belt, as using a 4 or 5pt harness is bad news without a roll cage. In the event of a crash, the OE 3pt seatbelt allows you to fall towards the center of the car if the roof collapses. In a 4 or 5 point harness, you don't have that option of falling forward because it holds you up upright and in place, and the crushed roof meets your head first so if you're not installing a roll cage I recommend doing the same. The seat belt connection I used was from the back seat's as is a few inches shorter than the front seat belts and are also cloth instead of hard plastic, making them easier to plug into.

As far as the weight savings benefits of this, they aren't too bad either and I ended up needing the heaviest of the Sparco seats to fit me.
Stock power leather seat - 47.6lbs
Stock seat bracing/hardware - 2.8lbs
---------------------------------------------------
Sparco Evo II seat - 20.5lbs
Sparco aluminum side mount brackets - 3.3lbs
Floor mount seat bracing - 4lbs
Total weight loss - 22.6lbs

Also, don't forget welding/removing spot welds exposes the bare metal so everything needs painted to prevent corrosion so you can't just cover it with carpet. The last thing you want is the floorboard rusting out of the car. Rustoleum in your color choice is a good option, I'll be shooting mine over the summer once I pull the dash, etc. to do a bit of cable (wire) management.

Onto the pictures, it fits! Any questions, ask, I'll be more than happy to help or take measurements/pictures if you need them.

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Onto the pictures, it fits! Any questions, ask, I'll be more than happy to help or take measurements/pictures if you need them.

You're making me want to install a staging brake.
 
You're making me want to install a staging brake.
It's not plumbed yet but it's going to be tough from pulling on it once it is, while I'm driving. It's just in a spot that's easy to reach, I wish the shifter was right there. LOL

Honestly though, I'm going to have to figure out a lock-out so I don't unintentionally pull that thing back while I'm driving or it could be bad. Need like a "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" lock-out pin.
 
So are there any less involved solutions to gaining more head clearance? I'm 5'10" and my helmet hits the headliner
 
Corey, I can't see your first two pictures.
Thanks Eric, didn't realize as they worked for me. Hopefully they are working now but I fixed it with my phone so no promises.

So are there any less involved solutions to gaining more head clearance? I'm 5'10" and my helmet hits the headliner
Nothing less involved as the only other solution I've seen is to buy a 2g without the factory sunroof, which isn't an option for most.
 
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