Review: Cobra Nogaro seats (uniquely street friendly fixed back bucket seat)

[liam821]

The crunching noise has happened to me on OMP and Sparco seats as well on first install. Always assumed it was the nuts settling into place, and always unsettling.

liam821 have you looked at the dimensions on that other brand mentioned a couple pages back in this thread? Speed Engineering I think based in Germany. My main hesitation for not considering that brand is it wouldn't allow the seats to get low enough, but they *might* have more vertical height you're looking for. That's pure speculation on my part as I never reached out to ask. I'm currently a little fatigued by the hassles of importing parts which is also why I never pursued it further.

Edit: this post:

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...865#post194865

I saw that, yes. Looks like they can mount higher, but I want something I can move up and down without having to unscrew the chair. My wife won't think unscrewing and remounting the seat before each time she wants to drive the m3 is an acceptable solution... haha!

[Casa de Mesa]

The crunching noise has happened to me on OMP and Sparco seats as well on first install. Always assumed it was the nuts settling into place, and always unsettling.

liam821 have you looked at the dimensions on that other brand mentioned a couple pages back in this thread? Speed Engineering I think based in Germany. My main hesitation for not considering that brand is it wouldn't allow the seats to get low enough, but they *might* have more vertical height you're looking for. That's pure speculation on my part as I never reached out to ask. I'm currently a little fatigued by the hassles of importing parts which is also why I never pursued it further.

Edit: this post:

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/415-review-cobra-nogaro-seats-uniquely-street-friendly-fixed-back-bucket-seat?p=194865#post194865

[heinzboehmer]

Tried a few different things for seat cusions, including ripping the foam from my doner heated seats, but my hot wire foam cutter didn't really work at all there, need to buy a particular knife.

Try a bread knife from your kitchen. Sounds ridiculous, but works extremely well: https://youtu.be/xne0qjhFVNY

Also, did any of you hear an unsettling crunching noise while torquing the seat bolts?

Yeah same here. Stopped as soon as I heard it and disassembled everything. Looked fine so reassembled and torqued through the crunching. Went all the way to the 45 Nm that was listed on the seats.

Still don't know what that crunching was, but the seats are well secured. Tried ripping them out of the brackets after install and was unable to do anything. No more noises either.

[liam821]

On another somewhat unrelated note I like to reclined position of the seat but found that it sits me too low, in fact even in with the seat bolted to the top two holes I still sit down a bit too much for my liking, that is unfortunate as there really isn't a lot to do about that.

I may try shimming the rails up a bit, I'm 5'10", but I guess that's not enough, I love the seating postion of the Nogaros in the 996 GT3 but too low in the M3 for me.

I generally like a low seat position as I'm 5'11, but my wife who is 5'4" cannot see over the dashboard with low seats. And honestly, that's the biggest reason stopping me from ordering a set of Nogaro's today. I really wish somebody would make a height-adjustable seat mount for the Nogaros (or any aftermarket seat for that matter) for the e46.

[Cubieman]

Cubie - one other thing re: the seat height, have you driven the car? I like to be as low as possible and would go even lower if I could. I'm 6' even and don't see the height being an issue.

Drive it some, Heinz has similar observations as you and I believe he's come to appreciate the low height.

I don't need to tell you, but the M3 is a vastly different thing than your GT3. Even tho the seat is the same, it's definitely not an apples to apples comparison because the cars are so different. The M3 is a sedan masquerading as a sports car!

I have yet to drive the car, BK is sending me different brackets for the driver's side, the passenger side went I quite well, it seems like the seats tilts inward toward the trans tunnel as opposed to being staight on, but I could be completely wrong.

Tried a few different things for seat cusions, including ripping the foam from my doner heated seats, but my hot wire foam cutter didn't really work at all there, need to buy a particular knife.

May just go get another soft kneeling pad as that seems to be just about the correct thickness, or may buy what was suggested previously.

Also, did any of you hear an unsettling crunching noise while torquing the seat bolts?

I stopped at 22ft lb. (just under 30nm) as it sounded as if the threaded inserts in the seat were going to break loose, I'm sure I'm just being paranoid and they are well secured.

Cobra has 45nm listed on the seats, when I bought seats for the GT3 HMS Motorsports recommended 40nm max and 35nm minimum.

[heinzboehmer]

I'm 6'3" and I can't see the hood. Seats ride surprisingly low, but in a good way.

Drove to t-hill today for over 3 hours, the back was getting sore along with the shoulders. I stuffed my jacket around lower/mid back and it was infinitely better. When I drove to Laguna a few weeks back it was not as noticeable, but that drive was only about 1 hour for me. Need to figure out a cushion/pillow situation that works. Will try something from the house couch, I am not sure I want to splurge on the Cobra branded pump cushion for $150 at this point (saw some very similar items on Amazon for like $20).

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Have a bunch of foam and fabric from making cushions for mine if you want any. The difference in comfort between the seats as they came from Cobra and the seats with the extra back cushion is ridiculous. Can sit in them for hours without issues now.

Oh and I also ordered some ebay lumbar inflatable things to stuff into the lower back cushions I still have to make. No idea about the quality, but they were like $10 each so worth trying out.

[SQ13]

I'm 6'3" and I can't see the hood. Seats ride surprisingly low, but in a good way.

Drove to t-hill today for over 3 hours, the back was getting sore along with the shoulders. I stuffed my jacket around lower/mid back and it was infinitely better. When I drove to Laguna a few weeks back it was not as noticeable, but that drive was only about 1 hour for me. Need to figure out a cushion/pillow situation that works. Will try something from the house couch, I am not sure I want to splurge on the Cobra branded pump cushion for $150 at this point (saw some very similar items on Amazon for like $20).

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Could use small pieces of something like this in between the cushion and seat to add support for your back. For my short kings and queens, this’ll also work well to boost the seat bottom cushion.

https://www.joann.com/22-x-22-x-2in-high-density-chair-pad/9207838.html

[mrgizmo04]

I'm 6'3" and I can't see the hood. Seats ride surprisingly low, but in a good way.

Drove to t-hill today for over 3 hours, the back was getting sore along with the shoulders. I stuffed my jacket around lower/mid back and it was infinitely better. When I drove to Laguna a few weeks back it was not as noticeable, but that drive was only about 1 hour for me. Need to figure out a cushion/pillow situation that works. Will try something from the house couch, I am not sure I want to splurge on the Cobra branded pump cushion for $150 at this point (saw some very similar items on Amazon for like $20).

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[heinzboehmer]

Drive it some, Heinz has similar observations as you and I believe he's come to appreciate the low height.

Yep! Definitely liking the seating position a lot more now.

Cubieman if it's still too low, you can always stuff a towel or some foam in between the lower seat cushion and the seat.

[Casa de Mesa]

Cubie - one other thing re: the seat height, have you driven the car? I like to be as low as possible and would go even lower if I could. I'm 6' even and don't see the height being an issue.

Drive it some, Heinz has similar observations as you and I believe he's come to appreciate the low height.

I don't need to tell you, but the M3 is a vastly different thing than your GT3. Even tho the seat is the same, it's definitely not an apples to apples comparison because the cars are so different. The M3 is a sedan masquerading as a sports car!

[Casa de Mesa]

Hey Cubieman glad to hear BK is listening. That says a lot about them.

The rear floor bolts were cantered out a bit, but not horrible. I guess I'm used to generic side mount / seat mounts so I was expecting it to be worse, actually. I was ready for battle and didn't even get to break out a pocket knife.

I can't help but wonder if some of what BK is dealing with are the tolerances of another manufacturer (i.e., the Cobra seats). Your case seems a bit extreme though.

Also, I reread my last post. No clue what combo of words I chose ended up putting links to Nam3's home page, ha

Obioban - Yeah, I thought about opening up the "good switch" to reverse the arrows, but I think I'm gonna put it in the passenger seat so I can mess with anyone who sits there 😜 ...at least until I get manual sliders.

[Obioban]

Lol at the switch!

iirc you could reverse the arrows on the switch when you have it opened up.

… I eventually ended up using manual sliders on both sides.

[Cubieman]

Got mine installed today. I'll detail it out on my build thread at a later date, but wanted to share a couple of things:

• I wish I had gone the manual slider route. I'm regretting the power slider decision...
• The quality control on MTC switches leaves a lot to be desired. They are terrible.
  • One had the arrow labels on the buttons pointing the wrong way (towards each other). It worked though.
  • The second switch was shorting to ground. After spending 4 hours blowing fuses, rechecking wires, tracing things back with multimeter, I finally figured out that the brand new switch was bad.
• I had to clearance the holes on one of the seat mounts like others have. They were off by about 2-3 mm.
• I bought the fabric marker pens to dye the thread but haven't done it yet.

The end result is awesome. With the seat in the most tilted back position (lowest holes on the back, highest hole on the front), they are perfect and almost identical to how I drove the car with the stock seats. I sit pretty upright.

I haven't driven with the seats yet (34 degrees and raining today) but can't to give these a shakedown.

MTC Switch Home (reversed labels/arrows):



MTC Switch Forum I opened it up after I figured out what was going on and you can see where it was shorting.

Very nice, did you have any issues as far as the brackets kicking the rails out at an angle causing the bolts/studs for the seat rails to not line up?

Brey Krause is sending me another set of brackets to try out as mine are so far off. I sent them a few measurements they requested and they were indeed quite off from the response I received.

On another somewhat unrelated note I like to reclined position of the seat but found that it sits me too low, in fact even in with the seat bolted to the top two holes I still sit down a bit too much for my liking, that is unfortunate as there really isn't a lot to do about that.

I may try shimming the rails up a bit, I'm 5'10", but I guess that's not enough, I love the seating postion of the Nogaros in the 996 GT3 but too low in the M3 for me.

[Casa de Mesa]

Got mine installed today. I'll detail it out on my build thread at a later date, but wanted to share a couple of things:

• I wish I had gone the manual slider route. I'm regretting the power slider decision...
• The quality control on MTC switches leaves a lot to be desired. They are terrible.
  • One had the arrow labels on the buttons pointing the wrong way (towards each other). It worked though.
  • The second switch was shorting to ground. After spending 4 hours blowing fuses, rechecking wires, tracing things back with multimeter, I finally figured out that the brand new switch was bad.
• I had to clearance the holes on one of the seat mounts like others have. They were off by about 2-3 mm.
• I bought the fabric marker pens to dye the thread but haven't done it yet.

The end result is awesome. With the seat in the most tilted back position (lowest holes on the back, highest hole on the front), they are perfect and almost identical to how I drove the car with the stock seats. I sit pretty upright.

I haven't driven with the seats yet (34 degrees and raining today) but can't to give these a shakedown.

MTC Switch Home (reversed labels/arrows):



MTC Switch Forum I opened it up after I figured out what was going on and you can see where it was shorting.

[Cubieman]

It's a few mm, but it's enough to require a crowbar to hold it in a position that brings the rail away from tranny tunnel to fit the bolt in. Just holding crowbar while starting the bolt is not enough, there is enough tension in the entire assembly that I can feel the threads scrubbing if I screw it in without holding the rail with a crowbar the entire time. Definitely not in a state where I am comfortable taking the seat out several times a month...I guess bolts are replaceable, at least I haven't converted rears to studs yet (and prob won't with this fitment).

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Yeah, I hear that, I worry about the bolts going in sideways and damaging the female threads which would be a shitty state of affairs.

Finally got some seat heat action that works pretty well, a factory E39 M5 mat provides heat to the bottom and lower back. The great thing is the connector on the M5 seat heat will fit a stock E46 harness with one little tab shaved off.

Added a third pin to what was a 2 pin connector and stuffed the seat heats into the cushion, no upholstery work required for this which is awesome.