Saabaru: Adding Race Seats

As I mentioned in the last post, Nik had some Sparco Pro2000 race seats still in the bag that he offered to me for a great deal. The Saabaru has no seats currently; the originals were victims of the flood.

The deal was made. I had race seats.

saabaru-sparco-pro2000

The normal way to mount these in the car is to buy the Sparco seat adapter, which is like a flat plate with legs that bolt to the car, then mount a slider to the plate, then mount the seat to the slider.

There are a couple things I don’t like about that.

  1. It raises the seat up a lot, which is not great for helmet clearance to the roof.

  2. It’s a lot of pieces and a lot of fasteners, which can cause problems. More things to loosen and fall apart.

So I found these all-in-one low profile mount and sliders.

sparco-pro2000-seats-sliders-in-box
low-profile-seat-slider-saabaru

They weren’t crazy expensive, but they weren’t crazy cheap either, so I was hoping they wouldn’t be too crappy.

low-profile-slider-close-up-junk

Okay so they look extremely crappy. Whatever, just gonna send it.

On a much more annoying note, they don’t actually fit. The “gussets” on the sides interfere with the body sheetmetal on the transmission tunnel, right about here:

seat-slider-interference-saabaru

So I got out a hammer…

saabaru-hammer-tunnel-to-fit-seat-rails

… and an angle grinder. I ground down the gusset until it was no longer hitting the body and then painted it.

saabaru-seat-slider-after-angle-grinder-and-paint

And then I bolted up the seat and installed it.

I really like how it looks. Maybe the white piping is what seals it? Not sure.

sparco-pro-2000-installed-in-saabaru

With the seat bolted in, I decided to be brave and take the car around the block for it’s maiden voyage.

I figured some fresh gas wouldn’t hurt- and we made it!

saabaru-first-trip-to-gas-station

There seems to be something wonky with the steering; early indications are the firewall bushing/bearing has popped out of place. The throttle is a bit sticky. There is some strange whining noise when the clutch first starts grabbing, but goes away as soon as fully engaged. 

Since it was dark out, I had no gauges, the steering was wonky, and it hadn't been seriously driven in 10 months, I didn't go far or fast.

I realized I hadn't driven a manual car in years - feels good to be back!

I'd call the first drive a success. It definitely needs a bath.

saabaru-saab-9-2x-aero-side-view

I guess next is to install the passenger seat. And figure out some seatbelts. And some gauges, to see what’s going on with this thing.

Thanks for reading!

damen

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