Street Faction Engineering E46M3 Rear Seat Delete

[STAATS]

Back on M3Forum there was a good post when the Group Buy from Street Faction was on where people loaded up some photos and weights of the Rear Seat Delete they got from Street Faction.

I am looking for people to upload some photos and pass on some details and reviews again if possible.

I thought during the Group Buy there was an option to get the RSD in Aluminium and there was bolster deletes. I have recently been in contact with Street Faction Engineering and the current setup they sell doesn't have the bolster delete as an option and apparently only comes in 18ga Steel, no selectable option for Aluminium either through the site or direct contact.

So I would be interested to know from the people who were on the Group Buy, what setup they purchased, what it weighs, how much weight they saved when the installed it, anything they did to help reduce road noise without piling more weight back into the car, any photos of the setup, etc.

I'm toying with the idea of getting one, I think if I did then when I end up installing a Rear cage with some Cobra Nogaro Clubsports I will re-wrap the side bolsters with a cutout for the cage mounts and to match the Nogaro Clubsport finish.

Anyway, flood me with photos and details please fine people of NAM3Forum.

[Tbonem3]

Member Good installed the fold down one recently and I checked it out. Looks very nice, fits well, good hardware. Saves you about 35lbs or so I think.

I'm thinking of doing one, and I would definitely get some sound deadening foam and line the edge that sits against the car body. Wouldn't bother for all out track car.

[STAATS]

Well I have spoken to Street Faction and they have told me their off the shelf setup is 18ga Steel as I said before and they said the rough weight is 33-34lbs (that was for the fixed back option as I assume the fold down option is slightly heavier with additional hardware)... From my math and weighing of the parts I have the Rear Seat sections being replaced are only 50lbs so their current off the shelf option only saves 16-17lbs by their own math... There is some additional savings if you remove the seatbelts, seat latch mechanism and headrests I guess as my comparison was just seat back and bottom vs the rear and bottom panel kit from Street Faction but they wont remove too much more. I am kinda dumbfounded how a product like this would be sold default in Steel when Aluminium is clearly the best cost to weight option for this kinda piece... I mean obviously weight wise Carbon Fibre or Fibre Glass may be better but far more expensive. TBH is HARD Motorsport just have a bottom piece to match their seat back panel I wouldnt even be entertaining this Street Faction option but seeing as Street Faction did a full 3D scan and made a full kit I am definitely interested in a made to fit setup just want the weight to be less haha

The person I spoke to at Street Faction said they would look into their old Aluminium drawings and see what they can do for me but I imagine that means its going to jack up the price... so if enough people are interested then maybe we need to look at trying to set up another group buy to get another run of Aluminium panels without having to mess around or pay a premium. So maybe we should also expend this discussion to cover people showing interest in a Group Buy for Street Faction RSDs again and then see what happens.

[Tbonem3]

Oh I thought it was much less than 33lbs.

[STAATS]

Oh I thought it was much less than 33lbs.

Well yer they said the shipping weight was 35lbs so that is a direct measurement they took and she just estimated packaging weight at ~2lbs and that's how she got to the quoted 33lbs... I would definitely prefer to see people actually weighing just the kit when they get it and reporting their numbers (also if its fixed back or fold down and whether or not they got the group buy Aluminium kit or the new standard 18gs Steel kit.

We lost it on M3Forum but I believe a guy who got a fold down Aluminium setup as part of the group buy claimed the kit he had weighed 25lbs so basically a 25+lbs saving which is what I was hoping to achieve but I noticed they didn't mentioned Steel or Aluminium in the product page so when I contacted them to confirm that's when they came back with 18ga Steel and the 33lbs number...

I would definately like to hear actual numbers and setups from people who have it and I am still waiting to hear back from Street Faction. I will feedback when i do.

[STAATS]

Anyone with first hand experience and weights?

Also anyone interested if I investigate a group buy at Street Faction for an Aluminium run again?

[robgill]

I got one of the original aluminum ones from the group buy. I wasnt concerned about weight and I eventually wrapped them in Alcantara. Also swapped the OE rear deck back in as I preferred the look. My build thread is gone but here are the pics from my flickr account. Hope that helps.

[STAATS]

I got one of the original aluminum ones from the group buy. I wasnt concerned about weight and I eventually wrapped them in Alcantara. Also swapped the OE rear deck back in as I preferred the look. My build thread is gone but here are the pics from my flickr account. Hope that helps.

Yer nice you did the bolsters and all. When I saw it advertised I did think the rear parcel shelf was a bit of a waste... surely it doesnt actually drop any weight over the stock part... I feel like to drop weight there you would just remove the sound foam underneath the rear parcel cover. The bolsters are kinda nice, although seeing your photos of them installed now I think I would keep my stock ones and modify them to go around my cage and then extend the bottom "tail" of them to fill in that gap between the rear door card and the bottom panel delete and then re-wrap in a anthracite or a leather or other material to match my front eats when i decide what to go with for them.

I definitely think this delete panel and bottom panel are the best given they are made off legit 3D scans of the car, I just want the lightest incarnation of them as possible before i install... they still haven't responded... see what happens...

[STAATS]

Well I just got a response from Street Faction Engineering:

You are looking at a total weight of about 23-23.75 lbs for the aluminum Type 2 RSD with a fixed back panel.

We've made the aluminum option available on our site for you to review:
https://streetfaction.net/products/r...33437724704856

That weight is more like what I was expecting based off initial reviews and weights from people on M3Forum so they must have been initial Group Buy Aluminium orders.

I am going to query the price some more (as the quoted price seems a bit much) or investigate a Group Buy if others are interested - but at least getting it posted as an option is a start.

[Tbonem3]

Ya I'm just looking for a fixed back, no deck or lower portion, but $400 no thanks. Hard motorsport's is $210 and is alu.

http://www.hardmotorsport.com/hard-motorsport-bmw-e46-coupe-rear-seat-bulkhead-filler-panel/

[Obioban]

I don't think the back seats weight 50 lbs, either.... more like 30-35, IIRC (seat bottom and both rear fold through sections).

[Toby22]

I don't think the back seats weight 50 lbs, either.... more like 35, IIRC (seat bottom and both rear fold through sections).

Stock muffler is about 50lbs. Rear seats definitely don’t feel like 50lbs lol

[Tbonem3]

Iiirc, stock boat anchor is 62.

[Nick_P]

I am looking for a rear seat delete panel as well, but I agree price is too steep for what it is. There was a guy selling panels he made himself on the Facebook group, looked decent from the photos. I will likely be building them myself in a month or so since none of the options i've seen excite me from the price

[STAATS]

I don't think the back seats weight 50 lbs, either.... more like 30-35, IIRC (seat bottom and both rear fold through sections).

Ill get some photos of the scales next time but when I weighed both folding pieces and the bottom piece (about 3hrs before making that post) I got ~22kg which is ~50lbs, also ~45-50lbs is a common number quoted by others so it seemed reasonable (as in it didn't make me think I had stuffed up my weighing method or had a poorly calibrated scale or anything)... I can't remember the readings of each piece but I vaguely remember the larger folding piece being ~12kg alone... the back bits are pretty heavy... I'll report back with evidence