Lotus Elise Seat Mount GB EOI

[ManiacLachy]

I managed to get the drivers side in on the weekend. Extending the holes was harder than I thought, stainless steel is tough stuff! I made a bit of a hash on it on this first mount, but in the end I just used a carbide bit in a drill to grind away the extra material. Doing the next one should be more straight forward.

I haven't taken any measurements yet, but will do so soon, both of the dimensions of the modified holes, and seat position comparison to my old Flipside brackets. I can share first impressions though.

The setup is quite easy. I put the naked seat rails into the car, then mounted the base to that. Sliding it back and forth allowed easy access to the underside of the rails and I could tighten the base to the rails easily. Then I pulled the rails with the mount attached out of the car to fit the seat. You could probably even do this in the car.

The mounts have 3 positions to allow for seat tilt. I used the middle position, this places the seat slightly more upright than I had previously by a few degrees, and I already had a fairly upright position. I think the lower setting would actually tilt you forward. I might see what the upper position is like for the layback, but this will have the affect of raising the knees slightly. Unfortunately you cannot use the NB rails as hoped, at least not on the drivers side, no biggie.

The seat is nicely centred in the car. But best of all is the added leg room! The seat slides all the way back now, and combined with the thin back of the Elise seats gives a ton of room. I actually have to move the seat forward a little to be able to fully depress the clutch, I have much more knee room between the wheel now thanks to having more extended legs. The steering wheel is a little too far away for me now, I can reach but I like it a little closer, there's a fellow in Italy that makes spacers (that allow you to retain airbag and all) for just such a purpose, so I'll look into those.

I'll take some actual photos and measurements soon.