SIM seat or reall car seat?

Kurvz · Mar 7, 2021

Hi just wondering what people are using for a set on the rig.

I started off with a GT Omega RS9 seat, and found it quite uncomfortable after longer sessions, I then thought that my real seat in my car was much more comfortable and decide to give a real car seat a try.

I ended up getting a seat from a 2006 Audi A3, and it was way much better than my RS9 and also was able to raise or lower these at a great plus.

I used the seat for 4 years and the slider cable assembly broke, I replaced it for a few weeks with the RS9 and really missed.

Last week I got a great condition A3 sport seat which is much better than the other A3 seat I have and also has a seat cushion angle coupled with the other adjustments can make and amazing choice of seating positions an added bonus.

I scrubbed and disinfected my road seat and let it dry out for 5 days and its great was a bit of faffing around to get in on my F1C rig some sawing, filing, swearing and drilling got the job done.

Have two bass shakers on the bottom chassis and two on the back panel its awesome.

Wow, if you read all of this sorry for the waffle.

RCHeliguy · Mar 7, 2021

A Sparco racing seat is a real car seat. It's just for a racing car.

I think your question should have been do you use a "road car" seat or a "racing car" seat. Unless you were only targeting the low end sim only seats. SimLab also sells sim seats, but they are much more like a racing car seat.

I've used both. I started with the fully manual seat out of a wrecked VW Passat. It adjusted vertically, reclined and had lumbar support. It was a very comfortable seat. I was also able to mount a transducer to the sprung metal plate that supported the bottom cushion and it worked extremely well. It was also great when people came to visit because everyone could fit on it easily.

So why did I change to a fiberglass fixed racing style seat?

Initially I was mostly playing in Dirt Rally with a set of Fanatec V3 pedals (with PBK). In rally you are not on the brakes nearly as much and the hand brake also plays into things. All was good.

Then I started to drive more on the track and got a set of HE Sprints that I still run around 55kg. The combination of using my brake a lot more and at a higher brake pressure changed how well that seat worked for me. My back started to bother me after I drove for a little while.

That's when I got a Racing style seat. The different was immediate my back pain disappeared. Initially the seat felt different to me but now that I've had it over a year I can't imagine going back. It fits me like a glove. I get great support and I can race for hours in perfect comfort.

So if you are a sock racer without much pressure on the brake pedal this won't matter to you, but if you get in to a harder brake and are using it more, you may find that you need firmer back support. I have much better brake control with a firmer load cell brake than I did before and I enjoy the experience more.

The major downside for me is that I have friends larger than me who won't fit in my seat. The major upside and that it is incredibly comfortable for me and I have no back pain.

Kurvz · Mar 7, 2021

Yes I didn't figure in the Racing seat, I recently upgraded from V3s to HE sprints running very stiff also haven't witnessed back paid from racing I get shoulder pains from an old mountain bike accident when racing hard and long I do have my DD2 set up with quite high resistance.

The back on this chair is way firmer than my last one, i do get back pain now and then from old age but its usually at work and I just take a few days off the rig, glad you found a good solution, Happy racing m8

Kurvz · Mar 7, 2021

Yeah will change poll cheers

stigs2cousin · Mar 7, 2021

I´m using an old ( roadcar) Recaro Sportster CS, a leftover from an old car of mine.

It ticks the boxes long time comfort, adjustability and is ( almost ) stiff enough for my quite heavy loadcell brake.

It has a little play in the sliders which I can forgive because it has experienced 430.000 km under a heavy driver ( me

)

Next step will be a slider delete because my simrig doesn´t see guests.
That will play cut more than in half, the rest I´m prepared to live with.

The lumbar support and seat ventilation/cooling beat the added rigidty of a bucket seat.

And for tactile:
this works great on the sportster CS, an Aurasound AST-2B-4 is bolted under the seat pan, a Dayton puck fits into!! the lumbar support. I could have gone bigger there, but I won´t open the cushions again for the foreseable future.
And a single strip of rubber between slider and seat was enough isolation to keep the virbations in the seat, all you notice is a humming sound, mostly from the pedals.

Big advantage Recaro: its all modular and you don´t have to be leather worker to open and close it without trace

.

Yesterday I spend 6h straight in my Simrig, first some practise, then a video conference, some more practise and than a race. My shod back didnt complain

MFG Carsten