mx5cartalk.com

Morning all,

The seats in my NA are about stuffed and I'm wanting to upgrade soon-ish, so I'm chasing the opinions/experience of others.

People with the Mazdaspeed Type F, how is it? And if you don't mind getting too personal, relevant dimensions of your fine self? How did it compare against any other seats you've experienced?

Part of me says to just take the simple option and buy some new Sparco Sprints, but I do like the less obvious (hopefully less likely to be defected) aspect of the Mazdaspeeds. The car is my daily but I have had fixed buckets in a daily before so I'm not too worried about that.

Any other options I should be considering?

Cheers,
Joe

I've sat in someone else's around Winton.

They're big and bulky, if you're tall or have long legs, don't go there.

They sit a little higher than the standard seats.

It's harder to access the seatbelt.

Apart from that, they hold you very nicely.

I got the Type F,
Yes you sit slightly higher but it took me a very long while to notice this, most importantly they hold you in great

As Matty noted though, you need to loop the seatbelt around the shoulder wing of the seat (you'll quickly understand this when you own one)
Unfortunately putting up the top up from inside the drivers seat will become very difficult as the shoulder bolsters will impede

I'm about 175cm but built very slightly and still have no trouble being gripped by the seat
I'm abit of a gorilla though... long arms and short leg stature

I think the Type F was built for my sort...

I've got these seats and I love em.
They're a good compromise between street and track.
They do sit you a little bit higher and further forward, but honestly, not that much.
I'm 6 ft and weigh just under 100kgs, I guess you could say I'm solid.
The seat is snug around the arse but not to the point you can't sit in it. Some seats sit tight aroung the 'spare tyre' reagion, like some of the 'bucket' seats I've owned, but these don't.
As far as seat belt access, my seat belt sit's around the front of the shoulder support when not in use, so it's easier (not harder!) to put the belt on.
I don't know what seat belt arrangment was going on in the car you sat in Matty, but it sounds like the were doing wrong



In this pic below you can see how far the seat base is from the armrest. There's not that much difference from stock, but there is a difference.

And seconded from me. That's pretty much the run of it. A couple of quick points though...

Although the back is adjustable, don't expect to be able to do it easily. I've found you need to have the door open to be able to grab the knob to rotate it properly. That being said, it really is a set and forget thing.

Using it as the daily seat is great. I haven't found any problems with it. I actually find it useful to have the shoulder wings to help push yourself out of the car.

Size wise, I'm a relatively small dude, and I actually find I sit better and more hugged up in the JDM NA seats than the Mazdaspeeds, but I reckon on a long haul (eg from Sydney to Wakefield) I'd be a lot more uncomfortable in the JDM NA seats as compared to the Mazdaspeeds.

Marcusus makes a good point... even for long hauls these are a great seat to be in

Before in the stock seats long trips were abit of a pain in the lower back
But short sprints around the track... road trips to other cities etc. the Mazdaspeed is very comfortable

The height issue may be down to the design of the brackets, so if you adapted your own set you may even be able to bring them back down

One point to note though if you have the seat full back it will rub up against the body frame leaving a little notch of wear over long periods of time.
My seat has this presumably from a taller previous owner

PUR157 wrote:The height issue may be down to the design of the brackets, so if you adapted your own set you may even be able to bring them back down

And to add a bit more info to this, the factory supplied mounting brackets (along with the seat of course) do make you sit a bit higher. This height difference is good for me though, as I'm a bit of a short arse. I still fit in the car no problems with my race helmet on.

PUR157 wrote:One point to note though if you have the seat full back it will rub up against the body frame leaving a little notch of wear over long periods of time.
My seat has this presumably from a taller previous owner

Same again for me, although it's on the passenger side. Basically, if you can do it, I'd set both seats to one knotch off touching the seat belt towers. Much better than having them rub.

Cheers guys, I'll have too look into it.

How did you all go with fitting?

Easy Peasy!
Did it myself... and as Wun would say... I'm a "week little azn boy"

But do your lower back a favour and get a friend... one to do the lifting while you do the horizontal pulling or vice versa
Find a little space too or else youll be juggling the seat trying not to drop it on your car...

Also be careful if you have speakers in the seat (and maybe even if you don't)
I found out that I had speakers in my headrest by lifting the seat only to have it tug back on the connecting cable...

Otherwise... if the brackets are straight as the day they were made (mine needed a little massaging) it will drop straight in

Jeo wrote:How did you all go with fitting?

This all depends on whether you have the factory brackets. The story goes like this...

Mazda sold these seats to anyone who wanted them. When you bought them from the factory they asked you what Mazda you had, and supplied fitting brackets as appropriate. What you need to keep an eye out for is what car the seats came from. If they didn't come from an MX-5 to begin with, you might be hard pressed finding a set of the fitment brackets, as Mazda no longer sell them (they also no longer sell the seat... makes sense).

So, long story short, if your seat comes with the brackets, it's easy. Simply unbolt the old, and bolt in the new. If they don't come with brackets, expect to have to put up with either waiting for some brackets to show up on Yahoo Japan auctions, or be prepared to get someone to fabricate up some mounting brackets here.