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

[mrgizmo04]

I have found a set of manual/heated seats from an E46 Sedan for $100 a few hours away and wondered if it is worth my time to drive 2 hours and load 2 full seats or just find someone who can ship just the rails and not have to drive a 4 hour trip.

I was hoping that I could use the wiring harness's from the non-M seats as well as the seat heats and maybe even get myself a functional occupancy sensor.

My goal is to not modify my wiring in any way shape or form, I am willing to have an upholstery shop sew in both seat heats as to keep it more factory.

Can I use anything from the non-M seats beyond the rails?

From what I've seen, they are not super easy to find (the rails) unless your full time job is scouting junk yard sites. Plus you can use wiring and other elements off of them, so prob worth a drive.

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[Casa de Mesa]

Hey Cubieman I'm following your posts and looking to do essentially the same setup as you. Just pulled the trigger on the Nogaros last night. I sourced some E46 power seats bases months ago in anticipation of this mod, but second guessing the power bases for at least the passenger side, maybe the driver side too (that is, thinking about going manual sliders in both).

Can't wait to get some proper seats in the car!

[heinzboehmer]

From what I've seen, they are not super easy to find (the rails) unless your full time job is scouting junk yard sites. Plus you can use wiring and other elements off of them, so prob worth a drive.

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+1. You're gonna spend 2-3x as much if you want to get just the sliders shipped to you.

At that price I'd probably plan a weekend trip and go grab those seats

[Casa de Mesa]

+1. You're gonna spend 2-3x as much if you want to get just the sliders shipped to you.

At that price I'd probably plan a weekend trip and go grab those seats

Besides who doesn't like a good road trip?

[mrgizmo04]

Can't wait to get some proper seats in the car!

That's assuming you like how upright and unpadded they are on your drives .

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[Casa de Mesa]

That's assuming you like how upright and unpadded they are on your drives .

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I have a good bit of experience with race buckets and my driving position with any factory seat is probably a lot more upright than most. I think I'll dig these!

But valid point/assumption.

Edit: I just reread this thread a little farther back. I see what you did here now

[mrgizmo04]

More comments on belts. Again, this is not specific to these seats.

The Pro version (red one) has a cam lock with an opening on the bottom to accept a substrap. You can also see how the shoulder straps come in a bit closer to the cam lock to properly hold a HANS.

The regular version (blue one), has a regular male to female buckle mechanism and can not accept a substrap. You can also see how the shoulder straps get farther apart the closer to the buckle you get, that will not properly secure a HANS.

In my OPINION, I would not run these (or any regular 4pt) on the street/canyons, unless it is a Pro version (or other belt with substrap to help keep the lap belt down) with a substrap. The issue is not the submarining, because you won't with either of these belts due to built in ASM (anti submarine) mechanism, but more of how to keep the lap belts down across your hips/pelvic bones in a case of an accident. As mentioned previously, lap belt portion rides up onto the stomach when you put forward pressure on the shoulder straps and your internals are not made to take the force.

See on a regular 3pt, when the top of the shoulder strap locks, there is a sliding mechanism by the buckle so that when forward pressure is applied, it actually tightens the lap belt to keep it properly across the pelvis (since the belt is all one continuous "string" vs in 4 points there are individual segments that secure to the cam lock/buckle).

I'm not sure why a similar sliding mechanism is not adapted for left lap/shoulder belt attachment and right lap/shoulder belt attachment, so that it forces to tighten the lap portion when forward pressure is applied at shoulders. It would need some sort of upper limiter so that the cam lock/buckle doesn't ride up to your throat, but I won't solve that problem here, I'm sure smart people have considered it and how it would make the body flail around and shift when one of the ends has less tension. But in either case, the current 4pt designs are probably not that great on the street, even though the company who sells them (in business of selling products) says they are. Again, personal opinion here. I know there have been plenty of debates on 4pt harnesses vs stock 3pt for street use.

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[heinzboehmer]

More comments on belts. Again, this is not specific to these seats.

The Pro version (red one) has a cam lock with an opening on the bottom to accept a substrap. You can also see how the shoulder straps come in a bit closer to the cam lock to properly hold a HANS.

The regular version (blue one), has a regular male to female buckle mechanism and can not accept a substrap. You can also see how the shoulder straps get farther apart the closer to the buckle you get, that will not properly secure a HANS.

In my OPINION, I would not run these (or any regular 4pt) on the street/canyons, unless it is a Pro version (or other belt with substrap to help keep the lap belt down) with a substrap. The issue is not the submarining, because you won't with either of these belts due to built in ASM (anti submarine) mechanism, but more of how to keep the lap belts down across your hips/pelvic bones in a case of an accident. As mentioned previously, lap belt portion rides up onto the stomach when you put forward pressure on the shoulder straps and your internals are not made to take the force.

See on a regular 3pt, when the top of the shoulder strap locks, there is a sliding mechanism by the buckle so that when forward pressure is applied, it actually tightens the lap belt to keep it properly across the pelvis (since the belt is all one continuous "string" vs in 4 points there are individual segments that secure to the cam lock/buckle).

I'm not sure why a similar sliding mechanism is not adapted for left lap/shoulder belt attachment and right lap/shoulder belt attachment, so that it forces to tighten the lap portion when forward pressure is applied at shoulders. It would need some sort of upper limiter so that the cam lock/buckle doesn't ride up to your throat, but I won't solve that problem here, I'm sure smart people have considered it and how it would make the body flail around and shift when one of the ends has less tension. But in either case, the current 4pt designs are probably not that great on the street, even though the company who sells them (in business of selling products) says they are. Again, personal opinion here. I know there have been plenty of debates on 4pt harnesses vs stock 3pt for street use.

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I would never run a 4 point harness on the street. I see no safety benefits over a regular 3 point seatbelt (especially on a car with airbags) and —in my mind— you're only introducing extra variables to the equation that you can get wrong (not tight enough, lap belt rode up, etc.). If you're driving fast enough to need a harness to keep you in place, you're probably not driving safely anyway. Save that for the track.

Plus, I find that wearing a harness correctly (i.e. tightly across the lap and shoulder belts tight enough for the HANS) is extremely uncomfortable unless you're actually going fast and being pressed into the seat. I usually end up switching to my harness a couple minutes before going on track because even cruising around in the paddock with the harness on is not fun. For it to be comfortable, it needs to be way too loose, which is a great way to crush your internal organs in a crash (like you've mentioned before)

[mrgizmo04]

Plus, I find that wearing a harness correctly (i.e. tightly across the lap and shoulder belts tight enough for the HANS) is extremely uncomfortable

And you feel like a T-Rex because you can't reach anything without unbuckling . Sometimes even closing the door after buckling in first requires unbuckling again to reach the handle.

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[Pklauser]

I see you're framing a lot of this with street use, do you apply your same concerns to track use of the Quick Fits?

[mrgizmo04]

I see you're framing a lot of this with street use, do you apply your same concerns to track use of the Quick Fits?

Most definitely.

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[SQ13]

I see you're framing a lot of this with street use, do you apply your same concerns to track use of the Quick Fits?

I didn’t like mine and wouldn’t recommend bc they’d ride up without a sub strap. Wouldn’t be a good time if you crash at 100+ MPH

[mrgizmo04]

Sorry ^ that was probably the shortest reply I've ever posted .

For the track gang and tire fitting into the rear seats...

So to mount the seat, the seat itself has 1 hole per corner, while the mount has 2 per corner (one above the other). So you can mount the seat in 4 positions - highest where you use the two top holes on the front and rear of the mount, lowest where you use both bottom holes on the front and rear of the mount, very upright/forward leaning where you use lower hole on front of the mount and higher hole on rear of the mount, and the more reclined/backward leaning where you use the top hole on front of the mount and bottom hole on rear of the mount.

I mounted my seat in the more reclined position - top hole in front and bottom hole on rear of the mount. With power slider I felt I had to use the higher hole in front to make room for the motors, plus with the substrap bar, you can see in picture in one of the previous posts above, the hump in the floor just starts interfering with the substrap bar "handle" using higher hole in front (it would interfere more and stop the seat further back if I used the lower hole). With the seat as far forward as it will go and rear side cards out and the bpillar cover out I was not able to fit 265 tires between the seat and the bpillar.

I can try mounting the seat in the highest position (basically just moving the rear to the top hole on the rear of the mount) and see if that helps. Otherwise, as Ian mentioned before, it's just 4 bolts to remove the slider from the floor and 1 plug.

It might get old unbolting the seat before going to track to load tires in, bolt it back in for the drive, unbolt again to remove tires at track, bolt back in for passenger, then reverse at end of day to get tires back home. But I guess I decided on this route for now, before fully committing to doing hitch/small tire trailer combo.

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[heinzboehmer]

It might get old unbolting the seat before going to track to load tires in, bolt it back in for the drive, unbolt again to remove tires at track, bolt back in for passenger, then reverse at end of day to get tires back home. But I guess I decided on this route for now, before fully committing to doing hitch/small tire trailer combo.

You need something like this:

[mrgizmo04]

You need something like this:

Ha, that was considered, but putting up 4x 40 lbs wheels at the end of the track day, and then when I get back to my garage tired, remembering that they are there before I drive in...plus one of my mounting holes for the roof bar is stripped, so I didn't want to deal with it.

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