3 Decades of Recaro Seats

[sln583]

I got a new set of Recaro seats lately and when I was removing my old Recaros, I realized I had a unique opurtunity to compare 3 sets of recaro seats. None of these seats were OEM on a Saleen Mustang, but I know some of the guys with a seat fetishes simular to my own would find this interesting. (My fetish has resulted in 7 Recaro seats in my garage, and 9 headrests )

You have all heard me complain about the original Flofit seats that came in my car and how the "Memphis" lean caused me both physical and emotional pain . Since I sold them off years ago and installed a used set of Recaros, I have wanted to recover them in the same material as the Flofits and make the interior look original again.

1989

These are the first Recaros I installed. I paid $500 back in 1997, out of the local want ad. They came with Mustang Brackets, and the guy had a Saleen poster with the #19 racecar on it that he threw in. I think I was more excited to get the poster than the seats.



They have "Shelby" embroidered in the center section. I found out a couple of years ago that these seats are originaly out of a 1989 Dodge Shelby CSX VNT. They were a rare factory option in these cars, and less than 3 hundred of these seats were produced. From what I have been told, the Shelby embroidered fabric makes our Flofit fabric seem easy to find.

For comparisons sake, these seats are structuraly the same as the Recaros from the 1992-1993 Saleens. The biggest difference being the Wide netted headrest that came on the Saleens. The bolstering on these seats really keeps you in place in the twisties, and I loved them when I was open tracking the car.

The seat adjustment knobs on both sides, and the latches on both sides mean you can swap the drivers and passenger seats around. I prefer an upright seating position and the infinatly adjustable seat back meant I was no longer driving with a gangsta lean.

The round Knobs and "Made in W. Germany"(Warms the heart of this cold war warrior) are indicitive of seats from this era. I dont know when the "West" disapeared from the covers, I assume at some point after october 1990.
Fantastic seats, but kind of tough to climb in and out of, not to mention I couldnt wear my duty belt in them because of the large bolsters. And too rare and valuable to ruin by recovering.

1979

I started looking around for another set of seats and noticed the Recaros from the 1979 Mustang Pace car seemed structurally simular to my original Flofits. They had the halo netted headrests and the thigh extensions.

I got 3 of these off Ebay for $250 shipped. With 2 passenger seats and one drivers seat, I figured there would be enough parts to make 2 good seats.

This is one of the passenger seats.
One thing I have noticed about mass produced Recaros like these, and the mass produced LXFs (What the 1990s version of these seats was called in the Recaro Catolog. Now they are called "Specialist") that were installed from the factory in Volkswagens and BMWs, is that the seat back release and the adjustment knob is only on one side, making the seat back weeker in my opinion and preventing the seats from being swapped back and forth.

You can also see that the seat back release knob is lower down on the 1979 era seats.

There is a plastic trim piece that covers the hinge on this side. this one was broken.

The bottom support on these seats leaves alot to be desired, these 3 bands strech out over time and you end up with your @$$ on the floor. Replacements are available from Aardvark Racing.

The frames were structurly sound, but very rusty when I took one of the seats apart. I think these seats were outside in the elements for a while.

The foam was in bad shape, the bolsters were coming through in several places, and the spongyness was gone and it was moldy and discolered. I dont beleive anyone reproduces foam for these seats. The thought of spending $850 dollars on having these seats recovered, and reusing the same musty and moldy foam put me off.

1999

I check out every set of recaro seats that goes up on eBay and a cople of months ago I spotted these.


The blue color put most of the bidders off and I managed to grab the pair for $620 shipped. The best part was, they were brand new, still in the original Recaro Boxes. Cloth Recaro Specialist seats retail for $800 each, plus shipping.
Short money for seats that no one ever farted in before.

When my wife saw this box on the steps, the day after my new wheels arrived, her reaction was something like "If you 'won' it on eBay, why do you still have to pay for it".


Another plus, these were designed for Police use.

Recaro comfort without the giant bolsters that kept me from driving with my utility belt on.


The original paperwork was included also, with useful instructions on how to remove the headrests.

A little research revealed these seats were OEM equipment on 1999 Chevy Lumina Police package cars. Unlike the factory seats I found pics of online, these have the dual knobs and seat back releases on both sides, which leads me to beleive these where produced as spare or replacement seats. The seller told me he found them abandoned in an old police warehouse, but did not elaborate on which department.

As on the 1989 vintage seats, the bottom webbing is much more suppotive.
The hinge covers seem to be a little cheaper plastic than the 1989 seats, and the triangular knobs arent as nice as the round ones. But they are very comfortable. More so than the 1989 seats because they are easy to get in and out of and they are not as restrictive on a long trip.

Headrests

The halo fishnet headrests from the 1979 seats are interchangable with the 1999 seats

As you can see in the instructions, removing the headrests is a 2 person job.

These cotter pins hold them on


As you can see, the cotter pins dont need to be removed, just pressed in so the headrest posts release.

Mounting Brackets

I currently have 3

The 1979 seat bolt pattern has 4 metric threaded holes

The shelby and police seats have six metric threaded holes, but the patterns and therefore the mounting brackets are interchangable.

The Shelby seats had two different adapters when I got them.


The passenger side had an adapter onto the original Ford seat Tracks


Thr drivers side had a complete Recaro rail that mounts to the floor, in fact the adapter looks identical to the ones Saleen used on the Flofits.

Here it is seperated from the seat, Im going to look into getting another one of these for the other side, they are very stout. In fact compared to the Ford brackets, I would think these adapters will add quite a bit of reinforcement to the
floor board where the rear seat bolts go. One of the weakest area of the floor pan. So weak that on the SSP cars, ford put a reinforcement plate there, because the big heavy (fat) cops where splitting the floor boards.

With the 3 Pace car seats I got one set of rails. I assume these are original. Simular but different to the adapter on the passenger side Shelby Seats. I never had these in the car so I dont know if the seats sit at the same hieght or not.



Finally, here they are mounted in the car. As you can see, the passenger seat sits Higher than the drivers seat, which annoys the hell out of me and is due to the different brackets. Marcus has mentioned that the Recaros sit higher than the Flofits, I would guess this is a result of using adapters with the Ford sliders(like on my passenger seat)than with the seats themselves. Im going to look into getting another Recaro mount like on my drivers side.
I know the blue cloth clashes with the grey interior of my car, but my plan all along has been to recover whatever seats I have to look like the originals. Maybe next year when the Saleen fund builds back up again.
I hope this was useful info for someone.