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I’d sold my Fox Red M3 seats a month ago (thankfully the buyer is a top bloke and will let me keep them until my race seats are in!) and was therefore 100% dedicated to buying some race seats.
In my previous posts I’d indicated all of my possibilities and had eliminated the Recaro Profi XL’s as the harness holes would be too low, the corbeau’s didn’t offer enough lateral support (might as well stick with M3 seats) and weren’t much lower, the Cobra I sat in felt OK but wasn’t right.
I’d eliminated it down to two choices Racetech and Velo GPT3.
Whilst I was in Sydney over the xmas break I managed to try a Velo Apex XL out at MSCN @ seven hills (highly recommend this shop the guys there were great!) and the seat was really well made (much better then the Cobra’s IMO) and it felt great to sit in. It was a tad too narrow across the shoulders, and slightly firm on hips but going to a XXL GPT3 would be perfect! (I’m 6’7 40” waist and 115-120 kegs)
So the decision was made to go with Velo for a few reasons.
They’re cheaper than the racetechs, manufactured in South Australia & were great to deal with and they would raise the harness holes to suit my dimensions. Velo ask for you to sit on a timber bench and measure the height from the seat to your shoulders to determine harness hole heights. (Having the harness holes at the correct height is imperative to your safety if using a harness in the event of a major off)
Velo have an ADR approval for their seats, hence they’re ‘street legal’. This will help with insurance matters more so than preventing an overzealous officer keen to slap canaries on as many modified vehicles as he can…
Velo were also happy to supply the seats at a slightly reduced price (-$100 ea) untrimmed with just the shell and foam padding.
I’d had in my mind I wanted to retrim the seats with soft nappa leather to provide that premium bespoke touch to my car and also make it appear OEM+. Price is $3000 for the two seats to be trimmed in nappa or slightly more for alcantara.
I’m still deciding on having them trimmed in just nappa leather or have them trimmed in BMW performance livery in alcantara and leather sides… (I do have the BMW performance OEM handbrake and shift boot and steering wheel so that scheme would tie in nicely)
Velo will be manufacturing the seat for me this week, and I hope to have it by 1st Feb, so I need to decide what way I’m going!
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