Sparco Side Mounts or Speedware? Opinions puhlease

[e30sd]

hhok, so sparco decided to have a garage sale today at there HQ in irvine, basically turning out all of their overstock/scratch and dent for up to 70% off. it was like the nordstrom's half yearly sale for guys. ended up picking up a clean evo, also between friends got a corsa and sprint, all fia cert, and some harness pads for $750. i want to mount the evo in my e30, and after researching for a few hours, i found a couple of people, one over on s14.net, that just bolted the sparco steel side mounts (45 bucks from bimmerworld) to the stock e30 seat rails, and voila, sliding seats again.






but after some more reading, it seems that this combo might be a bit high, i.e. they might present some roof/helmet clearance issues. i came across some other e30 m3 guys that utilized side mount brackets from speedware motorsports (100 bucks)



i dont mind spending the extra 40 bucks, after all if im not comfortable then it's all gone to hell. im just wondering if anyone has any firsthand experience with sidemounted seats in an e30, or these sparco brackets. i did a search, but i couldn't really find anything specific. thanks in advance.

[SR20Fastback]

had I known you would have gotten a seat I would have sold you my speedware mounts I bought and never used :(

[e30sd]

well you suck balls.

[Digitalwave]

That first setup looks killer high, but I don't have any experience with the second mount. Doesn't Sparco make an E30 specific bracket? For my Corbeau Forza, Corbeau makes a bracket/slider combo just for E30s and its awesome.

[e30sd]

That first setup looks killer high, but I don't have any experience with the second mount. Doesn't Sparco make an E30 specific bracket? For my Corbeau Forza, Corbeau makes a bracket/slider combo just for E30s and its awesome.

sparco makes bottom mount sliders, but this seat is side mount, hence the side mount brackets.

they have a seat track set



but several people said the sparco rails are uber crappy. they do look uber low pro, but they're universal.

[mgold]

Re: Sparco Side Mounts or Speedware? Opinions puhlease

Pardon my ignorance but it looks like that bracket is mounted backwards (it seems like the shorter side should be in the front to better clear the side padding). In addition, it looks like the seat could be mounted one notch lower on that bracket. Just my 2¢.

[jflower]

yeah, those side plates are backwards.. and that bracket is a little hokey.

almost all side mounts are pretty close to the same size... if you drop the seat to the lowest position, usually the bracket will stick up into the harness passthru.. this is bad and will cut the harness in probably 30 minutes. if it lasts that long. you can whizz them off with a grinder, but that's ugly.

the lowest setup i've seen is the VAC brackets with 3578458 holes in them ($179), coupled with the sparco runners ($50) & whatever side plates you want (~$50-135).

gets expensive.

i'd recommend either buying a wedge or recaro bracket. you can usually modify them easily to fit any seat.

[e30sd]

thx jay