This is a pretty unique seat that's marketed as a super lightweight full carbon bucket that can be used for street (ABE certified) and racing (FIA homologated) use. that's doesn't mean much practically to a lot of street drivers, but certifications are always better than no certifications.
This seat came out right around when Covid hit so supply has always been a problem. I personally wondered why it hasn't been that popular outside of it's high asking price (2 seats for the price of 2 seats!) but now i suspect it's the weight that is the big red flag (will elaborate more on at the end of this post).
here it is compared to my outgoing recaro pole position.
- dimensionally they're pretty much identical. I was able to use the same BK seat slider adapters to mount them.
- comfort wise they're pretty much identical. the Podium cushions feel a bit more firm and memory foam like.
- the seat comes in two sizes (M and L), but the shells are all the same. buying a Large sized seat will get you cushions that are slightly thinner in order to fit a larger body into the seat
gotta love the speed holes!!
fits into our cars identically compared to a pole position. being able to slot the seatbelt buckle through the harness holes is a plus, although there have been some cars sold in america that have had you buckle over the bolster so i guess the DOT is ok with that.
functionally if you're used to getting in and out of a bucket seat in these cars it shouldnt feel any different than a pole position.
there's always a downside to having a lot of carbon fiber in your interior. NVH always increases when you add hard surfaces in your car. if you ever have rear seat passengers it's only a matter of time before they make enough incidental contact with the seat to damage it. luckily you can ppf carbon fiber and i would highly recommend doing that before mounting it. One last downside is that my elbows make incidental contact with the carbon side bolsters when i take my hands off the wheel and bring them down to my lap. This is something that isn't noticeable when you have a full fabric seat to cushion the contact. but you definitely notice the bone on carbon contact.
now onto my personal disappointment with this seat.
the Podium was marketed as being super lightweight. here are some weights for comparison
recaro podium - 13.4 lbs / 6.1 kg (advertised)
recaro pole position (leather) - 19.6 lbs / 8.9 kg (my seat measured)
recaro sportster cs (leather) - 34.5 lbs / 15.6kg (my seat measured)
when i got my seat in and got it on a scale i was disappointed to see it was heavier than advertised.
recaro podium - 13.4 lbs / 6.1 kg (advertised)
recaro podium - 16.1 lbs / 7.3 kg (on my home scale)
I won't go into the specifics of the communications between the authorized dealer i purchased the seat from and Recaro themselves. but at the end of the day, Recaro told me to go kick rocks, and the dealer eventually admitted that they were too concerned about their working relationship with Recaro to press the matter further on my behalf.
one of the ways they tried to dismiss my concerns was to say that my scales are probably inaccurate and theirs are not. well, i just so happen to work in a lab and have access to calibrated and validated scales so that was an easily refutable point (not that it mattered to them). i'll attach a pic of my overweight seat for the sake of posterity
at the end of the day i'm super happy with the seat even though its a few pounds heavier than advertised. more concerning to me is how much lower my opinion is of Recaro the company itself. The seat isn't manufactured by them (3rd party mfg in Latvia), and their mismanagement of the advertised weight of the seat and customer service is probably one of the many reasons they're going bankrupt.
This seat came out right around when Covid hit so supply has always been a problem. I personally wondered why it hasn't been that popular outside of it's high asking price (2 seats for the price of 2 seats!) but now i suspect it's the weight that is the big red flag (will elaborate more on at the end of this post).
here it is compared to my outgoing recaro pole position.
- dimensionally they're pretty much identical. I was able to use the same BK seat slider adapters to mount them.
- comfort wise they're pretty much identical. the Podium cushions feel a bit more firm and memory foam like.
- the seat comes in two sizes (M and L), but the shells are all the same. buying a Large sized seat will get you cushions that are slightly thinner in order to fit a larger body into the seat
gotta love the speed holes!!
fits into our cars identically compared to a pole position. being able to slot the seatbelt buckle through the harness holes is a plus, although there have been some cars sold in america that have had you buckle over the bolster so i guess the DOT is ok with that.
functionally if you're used to getting in and out of a bucket seat in these cars it shouldnt feel any different than a pole position.
there's always a downside to having a lot of carbon fiber in your interior. NVH always increases when you add hard surfaces in your car. if you ever have rear seat passengers it's only a matter of time before they make enough incidental contact with the seat to damage it. luckily you can ppf carbon fiber and i would highly recommend doing that before mounting it. One last downside is that my elbows make incidental contact with the carbon side bolsters when i take my hands off the wheel and bring them down to my lap. This is something that isn't noticeable when you have a full fabric seat to cushion the contact. but you definitely notice the bone on carbon contact.
now onto my personal disappointment with this seat.
the Podium was marketed as being super lightweight. here are some weights for comparison
recaro podium - 13.4 lbs / 6.1 kg (advertised)
recaro pole position (leather) - 19.6 lbs / 8.9 kg (my seat measured)
recaro sportster cs (leather) - 34.5 lbs / 15.6kg (my seat measured)
when i got my seat in and got it on a scale i was disappointed to see it was heavier than advertised.
recaro podium - 13.4 lbs / 6.1 kg (advertised)
recaro podium - 16.1 lbs / 7.3 kg (on my home scale)
I won't go into the specifics of the communications between the authorized dealer i purchased the seat from and Recaro themselves. but at the end of the day, Recaro told me to go kick rocks, and the dealer eventually admitted that they were too concerned about their working relationship with Recaro to press the matter further on my behalf.
one of the ways they tried to dismiss my concerns was to say that my scales are probably inaccurate and theirs are not. well, i just so happen to work in a lab and have access to calibrated and validated scales so that was an easily refutable point (not that it mattered to them). i'll attach a pic of my overweight seat for the sake of posterity
at the end of the day i'm super happy with the seat even though its a few pounds heavier than advertised. more concerning to me is how much lower my opinion is of Recaro the company itself. The seat isn't manufactured by them (3rd party mfg in Latvia), and their mismanagement of the advertised weight of the seat and customer service is probably one of the many reasons they're going bankrupt.
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