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Or if you're tall enough you can look over the halo. I actually sat in one of these recently and it is a very comfy seat. My eyes were actually just over the top of the halo. Honestly between the rollbar and how far back I have my seat I need to lean forward and look out the window to see on my left anyways. This would however make more of a blind spot for the right side where I can easily see out the back glass.
I'd also look at the HTE-R 400 seat if going this route as it has the same dimensions of the regular one with a slightly more narrow halo so it won't hit the HT/window.
Or if you're tall enough you can look over the halo. I actually sat in one of these recently and it is a very comfy seat. My eyes were actually just over the top of the halo. Honestly between the rollbar and how far back I have my seat I need to lean forward and look out the window to see on my left anyways. This would however make more of a blind spot for the right side where I can easily see out the back glass.
I'd also look at the HTE-R 400 seat if going this route as it has the same dimensions of the regular one with a slightly more narrow halo so it won't hit the HT/window.
I forgot about the 400. Good idea. I don't think there would be any issues fitting that seat in the car.
I'm pretty sure it will still have the console clearance issue as any high bolstered seat seems to have but the shoulders and halo are narrow enough they should work no problem. It's also a very comfy seat. If my car was more of a track car it's the seat I would buy.
Yeah if this was my dedicated track car I would definitely look into a seat like the 400 or something similar with the halo style. The champ R seems like a great seat for a compromise between daily and track driving. Looks like there's a real low seating position and the leg support looks incredible. All of OMPs seats look so comfortable, that will probably be what I upgrade to in the future, if I go that route with the car.
A friend has a pair of Champ-R in his car and the seats are definitely nice. The issue is that fitment isn't that great in the S. They don't seem like a bolt in affair (forget which rails he tried) which is a big turn off for me. I don't want to spend a whole day trying to make them fit. At this point I want to just bolt one in and be done w/ it. I know one other person on this board had to hammer in the transmission tunnel to get them to fit..
If someone wanted to post up their findings and exactly what rails/etc fit with the Champ-R that'd be great. Maybe I'll have to order some PCI rails/sliders and ask him if he'd leave his passenger seat at my house for a couple weeks..
So it's been a while since I've updated this thread and figured I catch this thread up to date. Since my last post I've attended 6 more track days, swapped my intake setup, and put my stock seats back in since I've been daily driving it more and the buckets are just too uncomfortable for me outside of the track. I'm just about done with my career in the military and going back to school full time, so this thread probably won't have too many updates for the near future.
In terms of the intake setup, I've enjoyed my K&N intake for 5 years now but finally bit the bullet and ordered a Mugen intake. I've always wanted this setup for as long as I've had the car, but just didn't have the money to spend on an intake. I finally got the intake in and also ordered an ASM carbon cooling plate but the first one showed up damaged, but Tommy at GoTuning hooked it up and had another order put into ASM. I got the new cooling plate in about 2 months later and finally had that wrapped up, so I was really excited to have that done. I also recently picked up a new TCT from Billman and was glad to have the piece of mind behind his product. My factory unit honestly wasn't going bad, but I did notice a slight improvement on noise and idle so I guess it did help some.
In terms of the track days that I attended, I once again went to my local track Carolina Motorsports Park and my instructor clocked a 1:55 with me in the car which had me feeling pretty good. Yeah, there's still room for improvement, but this was the second event with the squared setup and first with the buckets, so that was a big upgrade for me. It was amazing how well I could feel the car out through turns and braking and really get a feel on it moving around on the track. Since I no longer had to brace my knee against the door and could relax in the seat, I could actually improve the smoothness of the inputs driving and really get the car to rotate just enough without losing the rear end. I did have a spin the second day on a turn which I took a little too much curbing over but managed to keep it on track and keep going. After that weekend, I went back out to Road Atlanta in November for another weekend. I hadn't been to RA in 2 years so the first two sessions out, I was a little nervous, but I hadn't been able to experience the difference with a square setup, bucket seats, and the front end chassis bracing. Once I got some confidence back, I really started to make improvements all around the course. I'm still not getting up to full speed on the back stretch, but have really been testing out braking points at 115-120mph into 10a &10b. I'm always trying new lines and braking points around the track just to get different perspectives on the course and in the car, plus with the traffic in these events, you can't always have the perfect line. Really being able to loosen up on this track with the seats and focus on proper inputs and feedback from the car really allowed me to push things without feeling like I was going to lose it. I ended up running a 1:47 for my best lap that weekend that I had on camera, since I don't have a lap timer. That time was still good for me and honestly I probably ran a little faster the second day but didn't record because I ended up cracking my front driver side rotor all the way through, so I got to drive home 4 hours with that which was awesome. I finally finished off my Project Mu Club Racer pads and they were great. They honestly pushed me to drive a little faster out of the gate to get them up to temperature, but I was really impressed with them. Not sure what pads I'll try next, but I'll worry about that before my next event.
Now that most of everything is caught up for what I can remember, here's some pictures and videos:
Oem seats back in for now
Buckets waiting to be installed
New intake setup and cooling plate, also had to trim the factory hood which I felt came out pretty good
Can't forget Billman's TCT
Hit a rock on the back stretch of Road Atlanta running 100+mph and even though the ASM lip took some damage, it held up pretty well. Still sucks though!
Some new rotors for the front end as well, Stoptech slotted replacements.
Some videos from the track as well.
CMP spin over the kink at 100mph or so (my fastest yet)
07-19-2016, 10:59 AM
