Sparco Evo2 Review

[Celestspeed3]

I finished installing my Sparco Evo2 seat a few days ago and decided to write a full review since I have not seen one on here before. Maybe it's worth of a stocky, LOL.


Seat 2012-06-23 at 09-45-03 by Celestial View, on Flickr

Materials needed

1. Any Race Seat
2. Race seat side mounts if applicable
3. Grade 10 Hardware
4. Seat bracket.

I ordered my seat bracket from Wedge Engineering, I ordered a gen1 mount and 3 of the 4 holes lined up perfect. I had measured it in my brothers gen1 sedan and they appeared to be the same to me owe well. If facing the steering wheel the rear left hole didn't line up. So I cut the Wedge bracket and bolted in a small "cheater" peice for the mean time. I will be swapping back to stock seats for the winter at this time I will have the bracket welded properly.

Here are some added benefits to using this seat. Checking blind spots are now so much easier than before you have much more visible range, I attribute this to the seat shape. Also since the height of the seat is lower my arms perfectly rest of the door armrest (where the window controls are) and on the centre armrest. I have found for long drives this makes for a very relaxed experience. The other thing that passengers won't mind is the ENORMOUS amount of rear leg room behind the driver seat. I easily think I have about an extra 4" if not more rear leg room. Not to mention instead of rear passengers staring at the back of a boring Mazda Armrest they can now see how baller you as they ready Sparco on the back of the seat.

The driving experience, I am a firm believer in that to make any car drive a hundred times better you need better tires. I am now a firm believer in that the next step after good tires is a good seat. For those that have never pushed your car beyond the straight line you don't know what you are missing. The seat with stock seat belts hold you in place so well that you can now feel the weight transfer of the car. I would say before the race seat when turning hard your upper body would try and keep your head level and resist the lateral motion of the car. To me this mean that I "felt" I was turning faster than I was. Now with the seat I would take corners at the same speed as I did before and felt nothing, so I tried it again going faster and let me tell you what a difference. You can now easily communicate with the chassis when driving. You will feel more bumps through the road though and you will hear more as well since the seat is bolted directly to the chassis with little dampening other than the seat padding. The seat padding can also be removed if you like a very direct sense of driving a car. With the CPE motor mounts you can feel every vibration and every bump when sitting on the fibreglass directly. The engine vibrations will give you a new perverted sense of driving a car when the vibrations tickle your . . . . I'm getting carried away here, get a seat and you will understand. I have not noticed that my height is to low for me to not see my apexes despite the seat being in it's lowest position. The amount of road I see is that same as before I just see less of the hood of the car.

On to the cons of the seat, firstly it is a pain in the ass to get in and out of. When first sitting in the seat it is a little tight. I'm 5'7" and 215lbs. After about 5 mins of driving in the car you don't notice the "snuggness" of the seat, your body and seat seem to mold into one. Backing up also presents a challenge because I have lost some of the depth looking out the back window. It's still possible to do but I've noticed this has gotten a little more difficult as I don't trust my sight in this new seating position. I'm sure I will get used to it time will tell. The seat is also fully bolted in to reclining the seat and adjusting the seat is not going to happen. The seat can still be adjusted it will just require full removal from the chassis to do so.

For the safety stuff, there is much more to a race seat then meets the eye as I learned through my buying experience. Not only do you have to fit in the seat but the shoulder harness slots must be at your shoulder height. I'm 5'7" and the Evo2 seats just fits me. If you are taller consider the Evo2 Plus seat which is designed for taller drivers. The seat must also be mounted with grade 10 hardware after all you don't want your seat to be coming out of the car in a accident. In my area stock seat belts must be worn at all times and a harness will not be considered a substitute. So as you can see from the picture my stock seat belt buckle is installed with the seat, the bracket comes with the mounting tab but the buckle is a 10mmx1.25 from the gen1 while the gen2 uses a 12x1.25 thread, not a big deal I just got the smaller sized bolt and attached the buckle.

If y ou are planning to use a 4,5,6,8 point harness with your race seat please be advised that you should be wearing a helmet with the appropriate HANS device at all times when using the harness. Failure to do so could result in death, and I don't want to see anyone get hurt because you didn't know. I not found a harness necessary at all when driving on the street, where I have found the harness necessary is under full heavy braking. I mean heavy heavy braking you will slide forward in the seat maybe about an inch if that. Then when you hit the gas you will be back in the seat. This is not really an issue and is a huge improvement over stock it's just the some people may find this annoying. This is also the reason my 5,6,8 point harnesses are better than a 4 point. A 4 point will keep your upper body in place while your hips and thighs move fore and aft in the seat.

The Airbag dilemma, with the airbag in the stock seat not being seen by the computer this will cause the airbag light to blind intermittently. This blinking is letting you know that the system is operational but has a fault. The rest of the airbags will deploy if needed except the one that is missing. Which is obvious because it's now sitting in your basement/garage. To bypass this you will to input a ~2ohm resistor into the yellow airbag harness. I have yet to do this because I didn't have one handy when I installed my seat. I know this will work for people with a manual driver seat I'm not sure if the power driver seat will need more to it. I will keep you all posted as to any issues I run into with this.



Thanks for reading I hope this helps you decided whether or not you want to run a race seat.

[breakfasteatre]

next, my seat

[3mazdaspeed]

Looks good. Can I see the ingenuity bracket attachment that you added?

[Neverlift]

Why grade 10 and not grade 8?

Less talk, more pics next time.

[bertrand_CX_7]

nice review man. Your feedback is really appreciated..

now it'll be very helpfull if you could write down the list of all parts you used for your set up. your inputs on the buckler was great too.

also did you had to cut the floor carpet?

[breakfasteatre]

my seat is now in too:



all told, not drop in fit. If i was taller, it might have been

i went with the sparco fighter which is a bottom mount seat. You cant adjust the angle or height like pauls evo can, which is a side mount

all told, i spend 700
sparco fighter 430
schroth harness 80
wedge bracket 150
hardware 15
steel tube stock to raise seat 30

[warlord]

LOL. Pic of seat thru the back window. What's that about?

[Celestspeed3]

Alex's (breakfasteatre's) seat.


Nator 2012-06-23 at 17-37-03 by Celestial View, on Flickr

The small piece I made is nothing fancy. Just a small piece of aluminum with a small bend and two holes drilled in it. I will post pics soon so you can see what I'm talking about.

[naoandlater]

Did you guys have any issues with the seat belt hole on the wedge bracket? The one I got for my genwon was too small. I had to drill the hole bigger but everything else lined up perfectly.

FYI, I installed recaro speed and I'm loving it.

[Celestspeed3]

Yes mine were too small as well. I just didn't reuse the stock bolt, I used a new 10x1.25mm I think or 10x1.5 I don't remember. My seat belt buckle is bolted tight and doesn't swivel or move anywhere which I didn't mind. Breakfasteatre's car is the same.

[warlord]

They both look good. I like the R505 or the Chrono Road because the back is ajustable and I don't Autox. Did both of you use the 400 base and add the bracket to the right rear corner? My seat is a year old and looks like hell. I need to do something about it eventually.

[Celestspeed3]

Here are all the photos of the installation for those wondering how everything lines up.


Nator 2012-06-23 at 20-00-37 by Celestial View, on Flickr


Nator 2012-06-23 at 20-01-37 by Celestial View, on Flickr


Nator 2012-06-23 at 19-58-32 by Celestial View, on Flickr


Nator 2012-06-23 at 19-59-26 by Celestial View, on Flickr


Nator 2012-06-23 at 19-59-54 by Celestial View, on Flickr


Nator 2012-06-23 at 20-02-52 by Celestial View, on Flickr




Do you guys need/want more pictures? Cause I can take as many as you want.

[Manny]

I've got the same seat. It's amazing how much a fucking seat transforms your driving experience. It looks like they added some fancy stiching to the seat. You'll get used to getting in and out of the seat. Be careful with pants that have sharp buttons, they tend to tear the fabric fairly easily if you jump in and out of the seat carelessly. I'm thinking about having some leather or a more durable material stiched into the left side of the seat. I used grade 8 hardware.

[Celestspeed3]

They changed the seat cover for 2012, My seat was manufactured April 2012. Otherwise it would look like the older style with the block lettering. It's the same seat otherwise.

[ArcticSpeed3]

Shit now I wish I kept that Sparco Fighter seat I had.

[obijack]

Do you guys autox or did yahll install these seats for other reasons?

[bertrand_CX_7]

you are dealing with track junkies over here.....

Originally Posted by obijack Do you guys autox or did yahll install these seats for other reasons?

@Celestspeed3: moar pics please. I'll like to see how it looks like, underneath the driver seat, wan na see the carpet pls

[Tokay444]

Paul is brown, but this guy is one of the orangest guys I've met.

[Celestspeed3]

There was no need to modify the carpet at all. I'm not sure I can get pics of under the seat without removing the seat.

[bertrand_CX_7]

thx for the confirmation. looks like I'll be short $700 pretty soon.

[Sid3wayS]

Did you have to do anything special to take the measurments? I dont care taking my seat off twice to take measurments and then to do the swap, but I want to make sure I do it right and give them the info they need

[rfinkle2]

Originally Posted by Tokay444 Paul is brown, but this guy is one of the orangest guys I've met.

qft man for sure. @skeurton, this thread was practically made for you.

[breakfasteatre]

my seat and harness were used, so thats one of the reasons why my setup was substantially cheaper than pauls

and we are track junkies

[skeurton]

FYI, I had been working with Sparco and Speedware Motorsports to try and get a Gen2 seat bracket fabricated. Not sure what the status of this is. I'll have to check in and see. Here's the original thread that I had started:

http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/foru...ackets-112838/

[warlord]

If you can get the genpu seat base to happen that would be great. Id buy both driver and passenger seats in a heartbeat.

Chrono Road: Badass for a dd!

[Darksun280]

Someone say evo?

[Sid3wayS]

Well I called wedge today and they acted like I was speaking chinese. They were telling me the only thing they had was for a mazda speed protege? @Celestapeed3 did you get a part number with the repeipt so I have something to refrence to. Btw it looks tits and Im totaly copying you.

[bertrand_CX_7]

@Celestspeed3: Fixed it for ya

Originally Posted by Sid3wayS @Celestapeed3 did you get a part number with the repeipt so I have something to refrence to. Btw it looks tits and Im totaly copying you.

[Celestspeed3]

I think the part number is for a 2005 regular 3. If you said Mazdaspeed he will say they don't have it.

Wedge PN 2122

Keep in mind when ordering you will need to know the center to center distance of the seat mounting holes. So best get the seat first and the side brackets if necessary, mock everything up then order from wedge.

[bertrand_CX_7]

@Celestspeed3: , @breakfasteatre: Is this the same seat as in the link?

SPARCO EVO SEAT - Speedware Motorsports - Racing Safety Distributor

Thanks for the confirmation.

ALso please could you PM me part lists for this mod? That will be nice....

[Celestspeed3]

Yes this is the same model of seat I used for my car except I have the EVO2 which is for fat people.

[bertrand_CX_7]

OK evo2 is bigger than the Evo. I never saw a pic of you, but when you say fat, not sure how to imagine that. Just trying to figure out which one to get in term of size. I'm not fat, I'm normal, so not tinny .

[Celestspeed3]

I'm about 5'8" and about 230lbs, I wear a 38" waist comfortably if that gives you an idea.

EDIT: This is the exact seat that I have.

http://www.speedwaremotorsports.com/...-evo-2us-black

[bertrand_CX_7]

I'mmabout the same weight and size. so I think the evo2 will feat me correctly.

Thanks man

[Tokay444]

I'm 5'8" and 150.
Fits great on my shoulders, but a little loose in the ass. Lol@looseass.
The material alone would be enough to keep me in.
Like I said to Paul, it's not my kart seat, but it's a vast improvement over the stocker.

[bertrand_CX_7]

@Celestspeed3: , @breakfasteatre:

What's the order of purchase? seat first or hardware first?

So does the side mounts come with the seats? Looks like I'll have to give them a call..

1. Race Seat
2. Race seat side mounts if applicable
3. Grade 10 Hardware
4. Seat bracket.

I'll appreciate any inputs on this.

OK was just reading back the thread and found this from Celesta: seat first and the side brackets

I'll give them a call and see how far they can help me.

Any inputs on the color? Should I go red or black. My Genpu is red. But I'll like to color to match the rear seats. Black sounds like it'll match the existing color inside the car.

Let me know your thoughts please

[Celestspeed3]

you will need everything to install the seat so it really doesn't matter what order you get them in.

[Celestspeed3]

I would through recommend getting the seat and sidemounts first. That way when you order the seat bracket you can specify the distance between the bolt holes. If you can find them online than that will save you some time.

[bertrand_CX_7]

I was thinking I can re-use your measurements since this should be the distance between holes should be the same on all Genpu, not?

Correct me if I'm wrong but Speedware Motorsports who did your brackets already should have the measurements not?

Worst case I'll have to take some measurements and give them a call.

Thanks for the confirmation

[bertrand_CX_7]

just got off the phone with Speedware Motorsports and apparently they have the seat brackets for the speed3 Genpu that will fit on the Sparco Evo2.

So this will mean less work and headaches for me haha. That's great news....

The only thing I need to figure out is the seat belts. Which way I want to go:

1) harness
2) Re-use the stock seat belt.

For cost reason, I think I'll re-use first the stock one until I recover from this expense....... Always one step a the time. Even "Paris wasn't built in one night", french ppl will say

So how's the fitment between the center console and the side mounts? Also how is the visibility once you have the seat in place? Are you seating pretty high in the car or is a bit low?

Thanks for your help man!

Originally Posted by Celestspeed3 I would through recommend getting the seat and sidemounts first. That way when you order the seat bracket you can specify the distance between the bolt holes. If you can find them online than that will save you some time.