E36 headroom

[Myee]

How much headroom can be gained by switched to an aftermarket seat (Sparco Torino style) and special brackets on an E36?

Its difficult to find one w/o sunroof.

[Variance]

Out of curiousity, how tall are you to be worrying about headroom?

[kelso]

i have more headroom than i would ever need

[Myee]

Im about 6'3", which isnt too bad for daily driving. I sat in a coupe, its pretty rough, my hair touches headliner, maybe I could tweak the seat, but it was all the way down, and ass part back all the way.

In a sedan, its a little better, plus I like 4-doors.

My main concern is track. With a helmet as we all know, your head is huge.

Currently, i have a nissan 240sx coupe, with no headliner for the same reason. When I put on the helmet, its pushed against the metal roof in a normal sitting position. I have the get short to a scrunch down my neck, which sucks.

[kelso]

well 6'3 isnt easy to work with lol. i like 4 doors as well. coupes have some good points and so do sedans... try to get the front of the seat tilted up and the back tilted down... i dunno if it owuld be different with electric seats, mine are manual. if i didnt have it tilted that much, iw ould have to push it back a bit, but jeff says i look like a midgit driving my car cause im so far down with it that way:D

[Variance]

Ah, I can understand now, since you've mentioned helmets. I'm around 6'2, and I'm not quite sure if I could fit a helmet properly in the headroom I have. As for how much room can be gained, it might be good to ask in the Track/AutoX section of BF.c

[LDadrenaline]

only thing i can think of is what you said earlier. Get an aftermarket seat like a sparco. You would, however, probably have to get your own brackets built right on the floorboard so that you'd have more room. My dad had the same problem in his car, so when he got the racing seats he got the seat mounted on low brackets right on the floorboard

[AzzMan]

Yay for being 5'9 :alright:

[silver-e34]

just get an m5 plenty of room

[kelso]

:highfive:
Yay for being 5'9 :alright:
240's with aftermarket seats always raised the seat... thats hwy i refused to get one, didnt wanna compromise the position. no aftermarket company made a seat that was lower than a 240 stock one, unless it was all custom stuff, but even then ive heard bad things...not sure how it would work out on a bmw

[Roy]

just get an m5 plenty of room
Nah.. and F430 spider...
No roof at all. :alright:

[AzzMan]

Nah.. and F430 spider...
No roof at all. :alright:

Having your head stick out of a vert would suck.

[redrumm3]

It depends on whether you want to use sliders with the seats or not. If you mount the seats with standard side mounts and use something like the VAC mounting plates you can gain about an 1.5". If you need to have the seats slide back and forth you'll need to use something like the Recaro slide brakets along with the VAC mounts and they will reduce the headroom back to about the same as stock.

All race seats pretty much use the same mounting method so the brand of seat is not really going to affect the amount of headroom. The other issue you need to be aware of is make sure whatever mounts you use they align the seat properly with the steering wheel. Not all mounts do and it is a particular issue with E36's.

Also, it is very difficult to find an E36 without a sunroof. BMW NA spec'd almost all cars with sunroofs as their standard option package for all US cars. I am lucky to have a '95 M3 which was special ordered without a sunroof and has the optional M/cloth interior.

Scott

[TheDarkSide]

I am like 6'1" with no problem but I never tried on a helmet in my car :dunno: I would guess new seats would be your answer though. I know on the S2000 forums they were gutting out a few inches out of their butt cushion.

[AzzMan]

I am like 6'1" with no problem but I never tried on a helmet in my car :dunno: I would guess new seats would be your answer though. I know on the S2000 forums they were gutting out a few inches out of their butt cushion.

I didn't know the S2000 was even big enough for an inch worth of seat cushion :shrug:

[TheDarkSide]

Would have been my guess too but they had DIYs and swear it felt the same after.

[Myee]

Thanks for all the info guys. When I get an E36 Im going to adress this issue first thing.



I am like 6'1" with no problem but I never tried on a helmet in my car :dunno:
^ E46? My friend is bringing over her E36 coupe today. Im going to test it out and headroom will be noted. Even though I can't afford an E46 its still nice to dream.



I think I sit tall or something...

[Myee]

so I just tested out an '01 325 coupe sport model

headroom was great for Daily, helmet clearance left some to be desired (havent actually tried yet....)

too bad e46 is out of my price range

[TheDarkSide]

:rofl: what is sad is it is out of mine too...:banghead:

[Myee]

E46 coupe is perfect.
Plenty of headroom DD
Just hardly clearance for helmet. It couldnt get any closer.

I might be able to get one, but Id rather have a 36 with money left over

[TheDarkSide]

Good call