Lotus Europa Forums > Garage

Elise Seats

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LotusJoe:
Has anyone considered or put a set of Elise seat into a Europa.

benbeames:
I did a lot of searching for some lighter seats last year, and found that any modern seat either didn't have enough rake to it or if it had an adjustable recline, wouldn't slide back very far because of the reclining mechanism would hit the back of the cab.  Though mind you, I'm 6'1" and would like my 6'3" father to also be able to get into the car

I ended up with economy fiberglass seats from Speedway.com, but in a couple weeks I'm going to try making my own creafoam bead seat just to see if I can do it.   When I try it, I'll post about my experience.

Ben

LotusJoe:
I would think these might fit. Seems like they are about the same size as Europa seats. I know the Miata crowd buys the seats up pretty quick when they come up for sale.

benbeames:
I've seen some modern style seat in one before. It could have been for an Elise. I wish I had sked at the time.

EuropaTC:
Joe, I wouldn't even consider it, honestly.

We're fortunate in that we've got an S1 Elise alongside the other cars and trust me, those Elise seats aren't as comfortable as they look. True they are very light and in the later (S2) form they have more padding but even so they aren't as comfortable as the Europa ones. Not a problem if you're racing but literally a PITA on a road trip more than an hour or so.

After a few years I decided I needed to do something and I even measured to see if Europa seats would go in but IIRC they were too wide. (which makes me think they would fit into a Europa, I can measure again if you wish). In the end I took the Elise seats apart and re-trimmed the central section with an alcantara-like material and more padding, which is ok but still not a patch on the Europa ones.

Brian

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