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

[SQ13]

I think most bucket seats are shaped like that, even the OE Porsche LWBS. FWIW I’ve found every fixed back seat I’ve run uncomfortable until I added lumbar support. With lumbar support I can drive for hours without any problems, while I struggled with OE seats even with lumbar. Wing supports pushing shoulder forward is just something you have to get used to, and if you have your seat positioned right, your shoulders should curve anyways when holding the wheel at 3 and 9 o’clock. These are features of a fixed back racing seat, and the Nogaros are essentially racing seats designed to be more street car friendly.

Body shape and size is also important obviously, hence why it’s a good idea to try and sit in a seat before buying. Sparco, Cobra, Racetech, and Recaro FIA seats fit me well, while Sabelt seats are meh and OMP seats are terrible. I was worried about Nogaros working for me, and thankfully BTB let me sit in his. I’m a midget at 5’7 160-170ish lbs with wide shoulders and a natty bodybuilder shape (cuz that’s another overpriced hobby of mine).

Dang it-- any idea if the 'pre-facelift' Nogaro is still available? Was thinking I'd get a matching one for passenger at some point ...

FWIW I like the white/gray stitching though the black is looking good too

Cobra and HMS are very flexible, so I’m sure you can order the old style center cushions.

[Pklauser]

Dang it-- any idea if the 'pre-facelift' Nogaro is still available? Was thinking I'd get a matching one for passenger at some point ...

FWIW I like the white/gray stitching though the black is looking good too

Not sure, reach out to HMS and report back what they say. Maybe they have leftovers?

Just went for a drive with seats installed as-is. Unfortunately these are putting up a fight with my body. I don't know if I've sat in a less comfortable seat 😂
I'm going to try and describe what I'm feeling in case it helps anyone considering these seats:

It's not that the angle between the seat base and back is too upright, it's that the seat back has a curve to it. If you looked at the seat from the side you'd see a profile like: _). I find my lower back is collapsing into that curve, and my upper back is being pushed forward. I'm basically being forced to slouch. I think the lumbar support will help part of this problem, but then it will net out that I'm still too far forward.

It looks like there is room underneath the seat to recline it further, granted that will move my head down vertically. I may give this a shot as an attempt to better support my thighs, while also mitigating it feeling like my upper back is being pushed so far forward. Ideally I would add a mounting hole to the front of the mounts to raise the front instead of lowering the rear, as my substrap is also interfering some with my carpet like repoman89 , but alas there is not enough material left in the mounts to add a hole there.


To credential myself slightly: I race in Champcar in a Racetech seat of some form mounted in an E36 without sliders. I drive 2 hour stints with less discomfort in that seat than I had in the Nogaro after 20 minutes driving around town. This isn't me bashing the seat, as they're so subjective, but pointing out that I do have some understanding of fixed-back seats and my body.

[BTB]

Just installed one of these today and wanted to share the differences featured by a Nogaro ordered from HMS as of late 2024, and my impressions.

Stitching is all-black now, cushion pattern is parallel instead of the previous curves, and the logo has shrunk dramatically. I was told by HMS this was their doing, which is great because it means an off-the-shelf Nogaro now looks a lot better imo, while not needing the cost of a custom seat.

Sitting in the seat in the car, I'm finding that there's what I would describe as "negative" lumbar support. Playing with the seat in my house, I could mitigate this greatly by increasing the amount the seat is reclined. I know heinzboehmer has also tackled this with custom cushions. I'm still pondering my angle of attack here, but would it be ill-advised to potentially add another rear hole to the BK mounts, allowing for more lean-back?

Dang it-- any idea if the 'pre-facelift' Nogaro is still available? Was thinking I'd get a matching one for passenger at some point ...

FWIW I like the white/gray stitching though the black is looking good too

[SQ13]

Forgot to mention the cushion pattern/shape changed to be less "curvy" than it was, another welcome change imo.

Yea I'll give it some time. Ordered an ebay lumbar pad to experiment. Not ruling out the "official" Cobra lumbar option, but want to try something cheaper first.

I use this. Works great for me.

https://corbeau.com/inflatable-lumbar-support/

[Pklauser]

Stock black stitching seems like a good update.

If you look, I suspect there isn’t space under the seat to lower the rear hole. That said, most people recline WAY too much— I bet if you give it a week, you won’t even want to recline it more anymore.

Cobra has an adjustable lumbar pad.

Forgot to mention the cushion pattern/shape changed to be less "curvy" than it was, another welcome change imo.

Yea I'll give it some time. Ordered an ebay lumbar pad to experiment. Not ruling out the "official" Cobra lumbar option, but want to try something cheaper first.

[Obioban]

Stock black stitching seems like a good update.

If you look, I suspect there isn’t space under the seat to lower the rear hole. That said, most people recline WAY too much— I bet if you give it a week, you won’t even want to recline it more anymore.

Cobra has an adjustable lumbar pad.

[Pklauser]

Just installed one of these today and wanted to share the differences featured by a Nogaro ordered from HMS as of late 2024, and my impressions.



Stitching is all-black now, cushion pattern is parallel instead of the previous curves, and the logo has shrunk dramatically. I was told by HMS this was their doing, which is great because it means an off-the-shelf Nogaro now looks a lot better imo, while not needing the cost of a custom seat.

Sitting in the seat in the car, I'm finding that there's what I would describe as "negative" lumbar support. Playing with the seat in my house, I could mitigate this greatly by increasing the amount the seat is reclined. I know heinzboehmer has also tackled this with custom cushions. I'm still pondering my angle of attack here, but would it be ill-advised to potentially add another rear hole to the BK mounts, allowing for more lean-back?

[Obioban]

Obioban

Sir I just found your post on google about the cobra seats. Can you say these were the lowest seats you tried compared to pole position? I am tall and tired of my head hitting the headliner! Amazing looking car by the way..

thank you.

Seat height, for fixed back seats, generally depends more on the mounts than the seats.

If you really want to go as low as possible, the BK mounts that don't use sliders (direct to floor) are going to be your best bet. A good friend of mine is 7'1, and they allow him to sit upright in the car with a helmet.

[1284712]

Obioban

Sir I just found your post on google about the cobra seats. Can you say these were the lowest seats you tried compared to pole position? I am tall and tired of my head hitting the headliner! Amazing looking car by the way..

thank you.

[nachizl8]

Splice it with something like this

Thanks man, I was overthinking it. This worked perfectly well, loving the seats. Can’t wait to get some real seat time 😁

[OldRanger]

I have this exact same set up as DvSkD4 and just tried to wiring it up.

My seat harness only has one thick ground wire…could ground be another thick wire from the harness? Hope that makes sense lol

Splice it with something like this

[nachizl8]

Looking at your setup. You’ll need to connect the red/brown power terminal back to the main yellow connector. The connector circled in yellow looks like the wiring for the motor that i used. You can find the corresponding colors from my wiring. Only the two thick wires from the motor are used. The other two thinner yellow wires are for memory settings.

Your switch harness seems to have 5 wires. But the two brown look like ground. I would use the thickness of the wires to determine which ones to connect to the motor. I recall them being different thicknesses.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have this exact same set up as DvSkD4 and just tried to wiring it up.

My seat harness only has one thick ground wire while the E30 switch pigtail has two- just like in DvSkD4 picture. I connected the motor wires (2), power, and one ground (all my seat harness has) from the seat harness to the E30 switch. As suspected the seat only moves in one direction which would mean one ground is disconnected (the one I didn’t plug to the switch). But again, my seat harness only has one thick ground. Am I missing something? Could ground be another thick wire from the harness? Hope that makes sense lol

[OldRanger]

Seeing the BK issues worries me some. No one has installed them in the last 6 months though so I do not know if the QC has improved.

I have installed BK products in the last six months.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/229250-2023-installation-supplement-cobra-nogaro-seats

[Cronenberged]

Seeing the BK issues worries me some. No one has installed them in the last 6 months though so I do not know if the QC has improved.

What issues with QC are seeing?

[Ubaderb]

That’s probably less hassle 😜

Seeing the BK issues worries me some. No one has installed them in the last 6 months though so I do not know if the QC has improved.