Fixed back racing/bucket seat in 2010 MS3

[Reedy]

Thanks to Lewis and Brandon in the other thread I have had my own successful racing seat install in my 2010 MPS.

I hit a point at track days where the seat was noticeably holding me back. I need more feel from the car to be able to drive it consistently at the limit and I always find myself sliding around in the seat and having to constantly re adjust my position. Also bracing my knees against the sides of the footwell not only left bruises at the end of each track day, but also causes my entire body to tense up, further limiting my driving.

So I did some shopping around and found the Sparco Evo2 fitted my body shape better than the others. I also tried OMP, Velo and Cobra seats but the Evo2 stood out because it fitted my shoulders better than all the others.

Next step was to get the mounting hardware sorted and the best option for this car was a Planted base plate and side mounts. The problem I had was my car is right hand drive and I wasn't sure if their brackets that are made for US spec cars would fit. A quick email to the guys at Planted had them asking me for a photo and some measurements and they confirmed that their right side mount was the correct fit. Very happy with their service.

Bracket ready to go.


I also picked up a set of Sparco Sliders but they ended up being a dud purchase as they don't actually bolt up to this combination of side mounts/bracket/seat which I happen to have bought so I ended up bolting the seat in a fixed position.

Everything ready for install.


Test fitting the bracket.


Test fitting the side mounts and seat. Since I ended up going for a fixed seat position I needed to drill a couple of holes into the base plate to fit the brackets in the right spot.



Completed installation. I am picking up eye bolts and a 6 point harness on Friday so will have everything sorted to go racing this weekend.

[ChaunceyM]

Perfect timing on your write-up! I'm impatiently waiting for my roll bar to arrive, at which point I'll be doing this very thing. And this will be a nice reference point for my inevitable doubts.
Figured the best time to shoe-horn a roll bar inside the car was when both front seats were out. I should be getting a call from the shipping company any week now...

[shamie]

Sorry to thread jack but what roll bar are you installing?

[ChaunceyM]

I got the autopower Race Roll bar (model 60025) bolt-in bar. I've talked to guys that used similar bars on other non-Mazda's and were happy, so it should be good. Obviously not as sturdy as a weld-in, but more than sufficient for what I'm doing.
Once it arrives and install begins I'll post up a thread.

[Reedy]

[Reedy]

Track day come and gone. The seat performed really well. It's neat because you don't really notice it at all and can just concentrate on driving.

A few notes:
1. Long drives are not fun. A booster cushion would be handy for long drives.
2. Getting in and out is not fun.

All in all this seat is not really suited to daily driving. If I was slightly skinnier it would probably be ok but getting in and out of it is still painful.

I have put the oem seat back in since it's summer now and I won't be racing for a few months at least and now that feels like I am driving a bus. No bolsters, seating position is really high. It just feels kinda shit.

Oh well, can't have it all.

[sheston]

Looks good. I don't suppose you weighed both set ups to see what you saved?

[Reedy]

Yep. OEM seat is 25kg's. Sparco one is 15. Harness adds 3kg's to that.

[sheston]

Thanks, so about 20kgs is equal to about 45 lbs

Almost make up for my ass getting fatter

[MWalters]

Planted brackets are really cool, I used to work with them on my older civic. The good think about them is that they are universal so you can reuse them with other seats and on other cars in the future. They are made of 3/16 steel which very sturdy and should keep the seat grounded no matter what. You can choose either floor mount or side mount installation, here's an instruction in case someone need it: https://www.carid.com/planted-techno...tallation.html

[ChaunceyM]

Hee hee hee!! Just talked to the freight company and my Autopower roll bar is on its way! Delivery set for 12/21 b/t 3-7pm.
Just told my boss I'm taking 12/28-12/30 off for the sole purpose of getting the bar, seats, and harnesses installed.

[Reedy]

Alright, I have a permanent solution for the airbag light issue now.

For those playing along at home, when you remove the seat, you also disconnect and remove the seat airbag. This causes the airbag light to some on, and the airbag computer to throw an error code. Not only is the light annoying, but the error code in the computer also stops all other airbags from working properly, not the result you want.




After doing some reading, most airbags can be bypassed using a variety of 2.2-3.3 ohm resistors. I couldn't get any hard data on what the MPS does so I made a best guess based off other Japanese cars of the same era and grabbed a 3.3 ohm, 1W resistor.



Then jammed it into the airbag plug under the seat and started the car up. No airbag light, no more error code in the ECU. Great success!



The 1W resistors work well as the wire gauge fits snugly enough in the plug to hold itself nicely in place.

Next I grabbed some heatshrink and spaced the legs out to give the resistor a little bit of structure.



I ended up making 2 resistor setups, one of them has a 2A automotive fuse wired in series, while the other is just a bare resistor. The fused one should blow in the event of an airbag deployment while the unfused one will probably just let the magic smoke out and go pop. Either way, in that event i'll have much bigger problems to worry about but at least my airbags should be back to working normally now.

[ChaunceyM]

Perfect timing. After seeing the car sit idle in the garage for a month with no seats and a test-fitted roll bar, I'm home today to continue working on it. Step 1 is tightening down the bar bolts, step 2 is starting the seat install. This saves me the trouble of finding the previous threads that walked through this!
You sir, have given me back at least 30 minutes of my day off.

[Tomas]

Nice instal.
But your pedals and steering wheel are on the wrong side of the car. Searching MSF will teach you how to fix that.

[SaveMelMac]

Just for clarification an airbag light and code for that associated airbag will just cause that airbag not to deploy. All other airbags will still work.

[naoandlater]

On a gen one, the airbag will deploy where it needs to without any resistor and the airbag light on. I experienced it first hand with a aftermarket seat on the drivers side.

I'm not sure if its the same with a pu.

[Reedy]

Originally Posted by SaveMelMac Just for clarification an airbag light and code for that associated airbag will just cause that airbag not to deploy. All other airbags will still work.

That's great to hear. I thought that would be the case, maybe it's different with other cars, but I don't need the airbag light so the resistor trick is still a good idea.