Kirkey seats anyone useing them? Options

[rfuerst911sc]

This past weekend I picked up a Kirkey 09200 seat for $20.00 without the cover. For the money I couldn't pass on it as I may use this in the 914 for AX and DE's. So any of you guys using these? If yes how did you install them? I believe Kirkey says NOT to use sliders? Any pics of installs? I figure if I don't install it in the 914 I can always display it in the " man room ". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Richard Casto]

I am 6'5" and had considered getting the Kirkey Intermediate seat due to the ability to mount very low. Some people love aluminum seats (such as Kirkey) and others hate them. I suspect it's mostly just a personal comfort issue. Ideally you should sit in any seat before you buy it to make sure you like how it feels.

Two extra points…

First, I suspect that if you plan to use a Kirkey at a track event or for racing that you will need a back support. This is because I believe that many (most? all?) sanctioning bodies require a back brace to be in place on any seat that is not either OEM or has FIA certification. I don’t think any of the Kirkey seats are FIA certified and am pretty sure the cheaper ones are not. I also can’t imagine how a back brace for a non-FIA seat will work with seat sliders (as for the back brace to work the seat need to be in a fixed position). I didn’t want the extra cost and hassle of the back brace so I went with a composite FIA seat which while more expensive should be able to be mounted as low as the Kirkey. But I am sure you can mount and use a Kirkey safely.

Second, again if you are planning on this for a track car, I don’t know if the group you run with has an “equal protection” rule for instructors. The idea being that both the driver and passenger have equally good safety equipment. They don’t have to be identical and what is considered to be “equal” can be debated, but Puff Adder above may eventually run into an instructor who may not want to ride in his car with that drag seat. Point being I think you should consider having two equal seats (such as same level of side impact protection) if you plan to have an instructor in your car.

[tomeric914]

I am 6'5" and had considered getting the Kirkey Intermediate seat due to the ability to mount very low. Some people love aluminum seats (such as Kirkey) and others hate them. I suspect it's mostly just a personal comfort issue. Ideally you should sit in any seat before you buy it to make sure you like how it feels.

Richard, what seat did you go with and how did you fit it in? I checked your blog, but didn't see any details there.

[Richard Casto]

I am 6'5" and had considered getting the Kirkey Intermediate seat due to the ability to mount very low. Some people love aluminum seats (such as Kirkey) and others hate them. I suspect it's mostly just a personal comfort issue. Ideally you should sit in any seat before you buy it to make sure you like how it feels.

Richard, what seat did you go with and how did you fit it in? I checked your blog, but didn't see any details there.

Hopefully they will show up on the Blog in a few months when I start mounting them (test mount prior to painting).

In addition to height issues, I am also a big guy so I can't fit in a "regular" sized seat due to the width of my hip bones. So the need to move up a size made it really hard for me to try out seats as most places only have regular on display and most of my friends have regular sized seats. Because of this, I wasn't able to follow my own advice and try out a seat prior to buying it.

So I rolled the dice and bought a seat that based upon the published measurements would fit both me and the car. As it turned out, the seat fits me very well. I went with the "Momo Super Cup XL". The "XL" just means it's the large size of the regular Super Cup seat. Seats were about $500 each. Which are more than something like a Kirkey, but I don't have to buy or fabricate a back support and it's nice to know it's an FIA seat. I know the "MOMO Start" is also very popular and is also cheaper than the Super Cup. Unfortunatly I don't fit in the MOMO Start. Both the Super Cup and Start are FIA seats composite fiberglass seats.

I purchased mine from http://www.ltbmotorsports.com/ which has good prices, but currently they don't list either hte Super Cup or Start. Not sure why.