So today in 4000 degree temperatures I thought I'd fit my racing seat to the 500.

Foolish boy.

First off, the shopping list:

- SM manufacturing alloy side mounts
- Corbeau Revolution carbon kevlar seat
- OMP Fiat 500 SubFrame
- OMP 4 point road legal harness

So, first up I remove the drivers seat. Fairly easy task. Unclip the seat sensors and the airbag cable. Remove the four bolts holding the seat on. Remove the seat.

Then mount the OMP subframe. Flat piece of metal with recessed bits to align with the original seat mounting holes and leaves a nice flat surface for the new side mount brackets to bolt on.

Now bolt side brackets on to racing seat at highest setting. So far so good.

Sit seat on the subframe and slide into previously measured position in relation to the pedals. Bolt side mounts to the subframe.

Squeeze arse into the seat.

Realise that even with the seat on the highest mounting points I'm still staring at the bottom of the steering wheel.

Swear a bit.

Drink some water.

Swear a bit more.

Get tape measure and compare passenger seat, removed driver seat and corbeau race seat. Come to the annoying conclusion that I'm about 3 inches too short as compared to my normal driving position.

Swear a bit more.

The lesson here? When considering a race seat remember that the 500 has a high belt line and you'll need something to fit in between the subframe and the side mounts to bring it up to height. At the moment I'm looking at square aluminium tubing, about 3inch by 3 inch to sandwich in.

Something else I learned along the way. The standard eye bolts that come with OMP and Sparco harnesses are 7/16's. Guess what there isn't inside a Fiat 500. 7/16's bolt holes. You need to order some metric eye bolts.

Bit of a bummer because I was quite looking forward to taking the baby for a country road thrash tonight. Oh well. Later this week.

Do you have any pics of the seat in the car?

I've got a few on the camera. I'm going to knock up a step by step guide for installing this type of seat in a 500 for the guides section at some point this week.

With any luck I'll get the alloy square tube day after tomorrow and I'll be able to continue.

Will unclipping the sensor cables cause warning messages/lamps to glow etc? Or can they be bridged or de-programmed or something?

I was at Nurburgring last week and I took the back seat and the front passenger seats out. The front passenger seat removal caused an "airbag failure - refer to handbook" notice to flash up on starting and the airbag failure notification light to illuminate. My guess is that removing the drivers side seat will have the same effect.

I'm reluctant to go fiddling with the connectors to see which ones cross in case I accidently set the airbags off.

Personally it's no big deal for me to live with the error light on the dash. It's possible that a code reader and reset tool could extinguish the warning light but I'd imagine it would pop up again on restarting the car.

If anyone knows which wires to cross to make the light go out I'd be interested to hear from them.

3" by 2" aluminium square tube arrived today. Had it cut to 2 x 16" lengths.

Got home and did some measuring.

Secured it to the OMP subframe in a highly technical (masking tape) way.

Took it outside and drilled some holes in it.

Bolted to subframe.

Lined seat with side mounts up to it. Perfect fit. Brilliant!

Drilled holes in the side of the square tube and bolted on eye bolts with the spreader plates. Nice and tight and ready to go.

Pizza arrives.

After pizza I'm going to go out, bolt the subframe with nice new extensions on it to the floor.

Then sit the seat on top of it and mark off where I need holes drilled, drill the holes and bolt it in.

Then fiddle with harness and woo hoo! Race seat will be fitted.

Or a wormhole will open and I'll get sucked into yet another irritating oddball 500 based piece of technical obscurata that prevents me from finishing the job.

Success! It fits and holds me like a glove. I'll post some pics tomorrow. Just went out for a drive and now I'm knackered.

It's a world of difference. I can concentrate on stuff other than hanging on when I go through the corners

It doesn't make for an elegant entry and exit though. I looked quite foolish contorting myself out of it at the petrol station.

Quick and ugly camera phone pic of the completed work:



Some fine tuning to do with regards to position. I might move it back a hole possibly lower the back by one hole. I'll have a fiddle on the weekend. At the moment I'm enjoying the on top of the controls race driver feel of it

ps: Anyone coming to the Ace Cafe tonight?

jnoiles said:

ps: Anyone coming to the Ace Cafe tonight?

Click to expand...

yes

Bloody hell, looks like it came off Rita Queen of Speed or something! Are there bars that come down over you automatically when you start the car?

looks mega, can you see sidewards though??

RobW said:

looks mega, can you see sidewards though??

Click to expand...

Yup, through the holes in the bits beside my ears. I've got a Corbeau Sprint seat on order which is essentially the same construction but less over the top race monster around the head. A better compromise for road/trackday use. It'll be in for the 'Ring trip.

This actual seat was more a trial run for the brackets/subframe/etc. This current seat will end up in the track Cinq at some point.

jnoiles said:

Yup, through the holes in the bits beside my ears. I've got a Corbeau Sprint seat on order which is essentially the same construction but less over the top race monster around the head. A better compromise for road/trackday use. It'll be in for the 'Ring trip.

This actual seat was more a trial run for the brackets/subframe/etc. This current seat will end up in the track Cinq at some point.

Click to expand...

cool

i found at the 'ring that spatial awareness was absolutely essential when being buzzed my GT3 and M3CSL

RobW said:

cool

i found at the 'ring that spatial awareness was absolutely essential when being buzzed my GT3 and M3CSL

Click to expand...

Oh yeah. Some manthay racing porsches went past me when we were there. Get in the way of one of them and the resulting accident would be messy.

yey for carbon/kevlar composite things :woot:

Is the frame aluminium too? Is the box section thick enough and the bolts heads broad enough to prevent pulling through the aluminium?

Using the original belts or a harness?

jnoiles said:

Oh yeah. Some manthay racing porsches went past me when we were there. Get in the way of one of them and the resulting accident would be messy.

Click to expand...

first time there in '05 this guy in an M3 buzzed me on the section just past the GP track, he was wearing a chrome helmet and the sound of the M engine made the hairs stand up on my neck

it was like being buzzed by a military jet

Hellcat said:

yey for carbon/kevlar composite things :woot:

Is the frame aluminium too? Is the box section thick enough and the bolts heads broad enough to prevent pulling through the aluminium?

Using the original belts or a harness?

Click to expand...

Box section is thick enough. Bolts and washers and load spreading plates to spread the load a bit and stop it popping through. Also the bolt holes I had to drill were tight so it wasn't flopping around.

Using OMP harnesses. 4 point road legal ones. The wide strap ones 4".

Concerned about roll over protection with you using a harness?

Hellcat said:

Concerned about roll over protection with you using a harness?

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how is it any worse than a seatbelt?

Harness holds you up straight in the seat... Or down straight if you're upside down - and I don't think I need to explain what happens if your head is the highest point in a car with a collapsed roof.

With a regular seatbelt one of the advantages of the design is you're likely to get pushed over to the side rather than held upright in a roll. Of course that's more of a side-effect than actual design feature - and there are lots of disadvantages.