Elise Seat Encore Post

Ready to go in an NB

Ready to go in an NB

Here we are. An encore post about the Elise seats. There’s a good handful of Miatas running around with Elise seats installed, but the world can always use a little more information and a lot more photos, right? That’s what I think anyway. And not just cause I’m way happy with the seats.

If you happened to miss the other Elise seat posts…

So first, we the promised seatbelt receiver detail shot. I took the short seatbelt receiver off my stock 95 seat and bolted it right onto the Elise seat. Lotus uses this same bolt hole, so why can’t I? It’s supported by my crazy-thick side bracket and should be stronger than the flimsy stock NA Miata configuration.

Stock NB belt receiver config

Stock NB belt receiver config

This is the stock NB seatbelt receiver as mounted on the stock seat. My wife’s car, Bucky, donated the seat for this shot. Looks to me like NB owners can just unbolt the receiver and bolt it straight onto the Elise seat if they so desire.

Like a glove.

Like a glove.

A good match for the stock passenger seat.

A good match for the stock passenger seat.


Wing room to spare.

Wing room to spare.

Elise seats mounted in an NB Miata – this is another common question on miata.net. Well, here ya go! I ripped out Bucky’s driver seat and mounted Sharka’s Elise seat for a few photos. As you can see, they fit great. The headrest rises up nearly the same height as the 2001+ seats. They also fit fine with the NB interior panels. These seats might even fit better than the STOCK seats. Kinda cool.

Some readers are probably saying “HUH? Matching cars????” Yeah. Sarah and I have matching cars. Some couples do track suits or hats. Nope. We have MX-5s. One green, one blue.

I am a nerd.

I am a nerd.

And here, finally, is my dorky self-portrait seat comparison. I borrowed my wife’s spiffy fabric cutting mat to give a bit of a grid background. The thing is huge, but it could have been another few inches higher. Still, it does the job with the help of a magic Photoshop line. Neither the camera, the car, or the grid moved between shots. The only thing that changed is the seat. I positioned both seats where I like to sit for driving and sat in a natural posture. No slouching or neck stretching. As you can see, I sit a good bit lower and my head is protected much better by the actual headrest.

Okay. I promise I won’t talk about these seats for a while.

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  • Bryan says:

    Well, you’re gonna need to talk about them for awhile, Adam! How else am I going to know how comfortable they are for daily transport?

  • T says:

    It looks like you are stilling a little lower too. i really want to do this now.

  • Franchise says:

    I’ve been looking to do something like this for so long now. My miata is actually starting to give me back pains ever since I put in the double hoop roll bars from boss frog. Your seat rails are very impressive and look factory. Ever think about making sets for sale?

  • revlimiter says:

    3 comments!!! Sweet. Thx for the love.

    Bryan: amazingly comfortable considering how they’re just thin padding over plastic/composite. They’re NOT as comfy as my posh 31k mile stock 95 seats, but they’re comfortable in a different way. You feel bumps more, but they’re not painful at all. You’re just more aware of them.

    T: About an inch lower. My steering wheel no longer hides the top edges of my gauges. And everyone totally needs Elise seats.

    Franchise: have you considered the popular seat foam mod? You remove the hog rings from your seat back (about 4 or 5) where the butt and the back meet. Then you can pull up the center section of fabric and remove the center back padding. It’s easily reversible and totally changes the stock seat. It might be enough to take care of you.

    As for the rails, I farmed them out. I didn’t make them. I can supply phone numbers to the guy that did if anyone is interested.

  • T says:

    I think the best for the community would be some measurements with a measuring tape because not everyone will go to one guy. But, its understandable if you dont want to do that.

  • Bill Bartmann says:

    Excellent site, keep up the good work

  • Bryan says:

    Hey Adam…any chance you can update that fitment pic now that you’ve changed the front bracket? Any reason why you didn’t just use square steel tubing for it?

    • revlimiter says:

      Do you mean the one with my dorky head in it? Might be a while. It’s gonna be hardtop season for a couple more months.

      Steel tubing: The L tubing makes for a stronger connection on the front bolts. At least that’s my theory. It’s just what my buddy came up with.

      • Bryan says:

        Yeah…I was thinking of the dorky shot. I was just wondering if you lost some height. I think you were saying it made quite a bit of difference in comfort, right?

        So basically you’ve got L-tubing across the front attached to a square bracket?

  • BOOTZ says:

    Hi thanks for posting the NB comparison, very helpful. I’m drooling

  • BOOTZ says:

    Just a point, these seats have fixed back recline? Not a deal breaker since you find them so comfortable.

  • bikerjosh says:

    Anyone making a set of these anytime soon. I know Chance91 isn’t making them anymore.
    thanks

    • revlimiter says:

      Between my bracket tracing and Chance91’s design, you should be able to print and take to a local machinist and get something made for you. They’re not very complex brackets.

  • Tony says:

    Hi, first off just want to say I’m a big fan of Sharka and your work! Really great stuff. I’ve recently got myself Elise seats but havent got the Miata yet (I know I jumped the gun on that one!) and I’m about to buy a nbfl Sport. Just wanted to know on that model if the stock seat has any other connections other than the heated seats switch? I thought I read somewhere about a connection to the airbag system? Do you know about this?
    Thanks for your help, really appreciate it!

    • Adam says:

      As far as I know, no NB has any airbag connections to the seat. But I might be mistaken. Sorry to not have a definite answer.

      My NB has only a seatbelt buzzer connection. And if you unplug it, nothing bad happens. The buzzer just doesn’t work anymore.

      • Tony says:

        Hi Adam thanks for your reply. I finally bought the car and I’ve only just got round to ripping the stock seats out to make brackets for the elise seats. I started the car with only the passenger seat disconnected and the airbag warning lights came on. One amber and one flashing red. From what I’ve read on other forums, (Nutz and mx5oc.co.uk) the flashing light is the occupancy sensor warning light that was disconnected with the heated seats. At the mo I’m looking into different solutions but one that I’ve read is to take the sensor out of the stock seat and place it into the elise seat. Otherwise I’m tempted to take the airbag steering wheel off and I’ve heard that with a replacement hub I can de-activate the airbag system or something like that. Any thoughts would be welcome 🙂 Thanks for listening.

  • George lambing III says:

    I just installed a corbeau elise rep. Seat and made some brackets with chances design only issue is my hard dog hardcore m1 non hardtop roll bar i am 6’3 and i cant put the seat back due tonhitting the rollbar near the sest belt. Has anyone had any issues. Will be removing the roll bar. Has any one had a hardtop rollbar where it doesnt hit and lets you slide all the way back.Other than that i am very happy .

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