Ideas for tiny racing seats

[Fat Brian]

I need two racing seats small enough to fit in Tamiya's Lotus Super 7. They'd probably be a similar size to something that would fit in a Model A or 32 Ford. Ideally something relatively modern but without a lot of crazy bolsters like a NASCAR seat.

[Cool Hand]

By you saying tiny, I think of the seats in this set. If you want some pics with measurements let me know.

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

In a real Lotus 7, you sit on a 2" thick cushion that's directly on the floor. The seat back is basically a padded plank. The side of the frame and the driveshaft tunnel are the seat-side bolsters.

And yes, I have actual experience here, as I owned and drove one for many years.

The cars (real ones) are built to fit a driver who's not much over 5'10" and 165 pounds.

There's simply no room in a real 7 (built to the original dimensions, like the Tamiya kit represents) for anything like a bucket seat from something else, or any normal "racing" seat.

I've occasionally seen molded seat backs, but that's about it.

Look at photos of real Sevens prepped for racing. MOST will have some variation of the cushion-on-the-floor-and-a-padded-plank seat.

Sometimes, you will see one with a manufactured seat, but this car is built considerably wider, taller, and longer than the Tamiya Seven.

EDIT: Again from my own personal experience, the interior of a Porsche 550 Spyder is cavernous compared to a Seven, and the fiberglass buckets represented in Cool Hand's post will fit a 550...they're in my current car...but still mounted almost directly on the floor.

No way in hell will they fit in a Seven as represented by the Tamiya kit without being all hacked up.

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Ace-Garageguy
CLARITY and ACCURACY

[Cool Hand]

50 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Again from my own personal experience, the interior of a Porsche 550 Spyder is cavernous compared to a Seven, and the fiberglass buckets represented in Cool Hand's post will fit a 550...they're in my current car...but still mounted almost directly on the floor.

No way in hell will they fit in a Seven as represented by the Tamiya kit without being all hacked up

Just curious are you referring to the actual Fujimi seats, or 1:1 seats ??

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 minutes ago, Cool Hand said:

Just curious are you referring to the actual Fujimi seats, or 1:1 seats ??

 

1:1 seats.

And of course, correctly-scaled model seats will fit (or not) the same in a correctly-scaled Seven model.

[Ace-Garageguy]

HOWEVER...this car is represented as a real S2 1962 Seven, essentially the same car as depicted in the Tamiya kit.

It shows what looks like a molded seat.

So from this photo, it appears a narrow enough molded bucket can be squeezed in...

EDIT: Here's a link to lots of photos of this car, including interior shots:

http://classiccarsexport.com/lotus/179995-authentic-1962-lotus-super-seven-series-2-rhd-race-car-sb1587.html

Edited December 14, 2021 by Ace-Garageguy

[Cool Hand]

Check out the Fujimi seats Bill. They ridiculously small, could pass for a go kart seat LOL!

 

[stitchdup]

Those fujimi seats fit the airfix 1/32 beetle kit pretty well so I would expect them to fit the 7

[mr moto]

Maybe a set of 1/32 seats is just what it needs.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I found the dimensions for the Lotus Seven chassis, and I dug through my warehouse for some fiberglass bucket seats.

The Lotus drawing is posted below, and the narrowest set of buckets I found measures 17" across...but they could be shaved down to 15" and reupholstered.

This is consistent with the scale dimensions of the buckets posted by Cool Hand.

SO...if you have about 15 millimeters between the frame and the side of the trans tunnel on the Tamiya Seven (NOTE: it's 16" on the drawing below), you're golden (I'd measure it, but my Seven kits are already in Az.).

 

[Fat Brian]

19 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I found the dimensions for the Lotus Seven chassis, and I dug through my warehouse for some fiberglass bucket seats.

The Lotus drawing is posted below, and the narrowest set of buckets I found measures 17" across...but they could be shaved down to 15" and reupholstered.

This is consistent with the scale dimensions of the buckets posted by Cool Hand.

SO...if you have about 15 millimeters between the frame and the side of the trans tunnel on the Tamiya Seven (NOTE: it's 16" on the drawing below), you're golden (I'd measure it, but my Seven kits are already in Az.).

 

Thank you Bill for all the real world experience, that's going to help me a lot with this build. The passenger compartment is 38mm wide and the transmission tunnel is 7mm wide so I've got 15mm on each side to work with for the seats. The reason I wanted to replace the stock seat pads in this build is that it's getting prepped for off road racing. I would like a little more padding for the several thousand miles of this event. The Fujimi seats look like they might do the trick if they were lowered a bit.

[Fat Brian]

9 hours ago, Cool Hand said:

Check out the Fujimi seats Bill. They ridiculously small, could pass for a go kart seat LOL!

 

Thank you for the measurements, those are exactly the right width. Is that pack still around is us it hard to come by now?

[Ace-Garageguy]

22 minutes ago, Fat Brian said:

Thank you for the measurements, those are exactly the right width. Is that pack still around is us it hard to come by now?

Kinda steep...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403073290290?hash=item5dd90a5032:g:RG8AAOSw~ZVgFg~p

[Fat Brian]

4 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Kinda steep...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403073290290?hash=item5dd90a5032:g:RG8AAOSw~ZVgFg~p

Yeah, that's hard to justify for just the seats, I really don't need the rest of it.

[Ace-Garageguy]

There are some in the Revell Anglia / Thames, and I think the same ones in the Henry J...which I just measured at 19 mm across, though they could be shaved to 17.5 or so and still look good.

[Ace-Garageguy]

12 minutes ago, Fat Brian said:

Yeah, that's hard to justify for just the seats, I really don't need the rest of it.

The set in the AMT Meyers Manx measure 17.3 mm across, and could be shaved to just barely fit the Seven.

[Fat Brian]

8 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

There are some in the Revell Anglia / Thames, and I think the same ones in the Henry J...which I just measured at 19 mm across, though they could be shaved to 17.5 or so and still look good.

Ok, I found a couple of things from the stash too. The seats from the 79 Pinto fit perfectly but they're not exactly racy but are more cushioned. Also the weird seats from the Surf Wagon might be shaped into something interesting.