Corbeau FX1 in 2003 Neon

Jerome Adams · Post by **Jerome Adams** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:09 pm

Ordered it from Modern (saved $50 over any place else) on Thursday, should be here on Wednesday, hope to have review up Wednesday night. I plan on taking lots of pics and some measurements for fitment questions as I could not find good answers when I searched. I went with the double locking sliders.

I have an autocross on Sunday, so should have an update after I get back from that as well.

Can't wait...

Jerome Adams · Post by **Jerome Adams** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:34 pm

Seat is in and I am sweating like a mofo (104° outside). I took a bunch of pics with the iphone...will have to load later.

This is the FX1 (medium size). I have a 38-40" waist and it is a good fit. I actually can squeeze into the FX1 Pro, but there is a suction sound when I pull my fat ass out of it. I imagine the FX1 Wide is pretty damn big...

Got the double locking sliders (an extra $20 but well worth it).

Tools needed. 15mm wrench or socket. 6mm allen wrench. T50 star wrench (for the seat belt) and some anti seize for the bolts is always nice.

Remove the 4 6mm bolts from bottom of seat. Slide rails back, install front 2 bolts, slide rail forward, install back 2 bolts. Takes about 2 min if you are slow like me.

Then I went out and removed the old seat. (4 15mm bolts) doesn't take too long. Pulled out old seat and weighed it with bracket and it was 33lbs. FX1 with bracket weighed a whole 3.5lbs less (do not buy for weight savings alone).

Then I needed to run to the store to get the T50 cause I didn't have one. Took off the female end of the seat belt from old seat and mounted it to the hole in the new seat rail (there are 2 holes to choose from, I used the one closer to the front). Surprisingly the holes were threaded and fit the bolt from the stock seat. It did NOT cinch down tight though so the seat belt receptacle drops forward and back.

Then I undid the other end of the seat belt and passed that back thru the hole in the side of the seat and used the T50 to tighten that back up. Then just replaced the 4 15mm bolts and that was it.

Fit: The rails cannot be any lower and the seat looks and feels like it sits lower, but I am not sure if I gained any headroom if that makes sense. The old seat would compress under my 235lb ass, but the new one does not. I will toss on my helmet later and see if my noodle hits (it barely cleared in my preferred seating position with the stock seat, but I sit pretty upright). For reference I am just shy of 5'11" with a 30" inseam (short legs).

No issues fitting the bottom of the seat. The left shoulder bolster is ON the B pillar. Not touching, but pressed into it with a wee bit of pressure. Not enough to deform the seat, but enough to make me wonder if the FX1 Wide would fit.

The only real issue is the female seat belt receptacle, as I mentioned it slides forward and back and is REALLY tight against the center console....and even worse it is about an inch too short, so you really have to wiggle and push to get the seat belt to click while simultaneously trying to push the seat to the left. There is a lip on the top outside of the seat and I am sure you could cut a chunk of that off to make a little more room, or maybe remove the center console, or fabricate an extension of sorts to make that bar a little longer.... I will try to figure something out later. But I am not going to hack at my new seat and I like the center console...

This will not be a problem if you go with a 4 or 5 point harness, but I have kids that I put in the back seat so I can't run a 4 point harness.

Comfort...the padding is thin and firm. I have only sat in it for about 5 min while I adjusted the seat and wrestled with the seat belt. I will report back on that later. I have an hour drive to and from auto-X on Sunday so that should give me a good initial idea.

I will load pics and more comments later...

Jerome Adams · Post by **Jerome Adams** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 12:25 am

here are the bottom cushions. The thin one is where you sit, the fat one goes under your legs

side by side with old seat both mounted on their respective rails

same thing, this time with leg cushion removed

close up at how thin butt cushion is

installed no leg cushion. u can see how low the rails are.

installed with leg cushion

here is the shoulder bolster on the B pillar

and here is the clearance between seat and center console.

After a brief test drive, the seat does sit higher, which is confirmed by my helmet firmly smashing into the ceiling. I need to slide my ass forward and inch or 2 to slouch far enough to get my helmet off the head liner.

The seat is firm and I was worried about it being too snug, but I actually got a little wiggle room. If you are putting in a dedicated race car, get side mounts and if you are in between seat sizing, go with the smaller seat.

The FX1 has 4 pedestals that are about an inch high where the seat bolts to the rails. The guys at Corbeau told me those can be shaved down if the seat is too high and then you just get shorter bolts so they dont extend up into the cushions. I will talk to Corbeau more about the best way to shave those pedestals before I start hacking up a $350 seat. That should also give the seat belt receptacle the extra height it needs. the seating position is VERY upright.

As of right now if I had to do it over again, I can't say that I would. If I can lop off those pedestals and lower it enough it might be worth it (thinking about making the back 2 flush and maybe shaving the front 2 half way to get the seat to tilt back a little more). But right now I think the SRT4 "Viper" seat is the best bet for a DD. Add a CG lock for auto-x or light track duty...

I will continue to update as I break in the seat/ get used to it/ try to tweak it to work better.

Jerome Adams · Post by **Jerome Adams** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:19 pm

I hacked the shit out of my seat. Took an angle grinder and took off the back 2 pedestals and cut the front 2 down to about 1/4-1/2" and then went to put the sliders back on. But the bar you have to lift to slide the sliders was hitting the bottom lip of the seat.

Take off all the upholstery, cut a half inch down and 10" section out of the lip on the bottom of the seat so the bar can do its thing. Cleaned it up, reupholstered it, and installed it and everything is cool. The sliders do hit the bottom of that seat rail (the part we trimmed) because we only cut a section out for the adjustment lever. The seat slides far enough forward so the sliders hitting the seat is not an issue.

The seat belt receptacle dropped a bit and it is easier but still not as easy as with a stock seat.

edited to add pics

here are the 4 pedestals.

here are the bolts long are for bottom mount with uncut pedestals. Short ones are for side mount but worked perfect for how far I shaved everything

here are the shaved down knobs and you can kinda see at the bottom where the bottom lip had to be cut to make room for the adjustment bar

better look at the cut for the bar and the shaved front pedestals

need to get a pic of the seat installed now that it is lower so you can compare to original

Jerome Adams · Post by **Jerome Adams** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:55 pm

uncircumcised seat height

and after being snipped, clipped, and ripped

scale is obviously not the same but if you look at the side bolster compared to teh arm rest/center console you can see all that trouble only lowered it slightly. The "after" photo also has the seat slid further forward so take that into comparison.

my87csx481 · Post by **my87csx481** » Wed May 01, 2013 7:50 pm

bump.

So it has been almost a year.

Care to share an update? Thoughts? Regrets?

Thanks.

bone-yard-racing · Post by **bone-yard-racing** » Wed May 01, 2013 9:49 pm

Very similar to the seat I have (Corbeau Forza II) I got rid of the sliders just so happens that is the seating position I like. I found if you grind the bottom of the front tabs and slot them you can lower the bracket just ever so slightly.