Seats

Why Upgrade to Racing Seats?

As you might already know, many modern high-performance cars come equipped with sporty seats that provide a lot of bolstering and support. Unfortunately, many older cars or non-performance-oriented cars don't have supportive seats from the factory, creating the need for aftermarket racing seats.

How do racing seats compare with ordinary car seats? Are they genuine upgrades worth investing in? In most cases, upgrading your OEM seats with a pair of aftermarket seats is a great investment and makes your car much easier to drive at the limit.

Benefits of Aftermarket Racing Seats

Aftermarket racing seats have several benefits, but most of them revolve around comfort, performance, and safety. From daily drivers, off-road machines, track toys, and everything in-between, a pair of aftermarket seats is a must-have modification. Let's take a look at some of the key benefits of aftermarket racing seats:

1. Improved Safety

As you might have noticed, all professional race cars use racing seats, most of which and used for one reason: safety. At the end of the day, the seat is what's holding you in the car and if it were to fail in any way, you could very easily end up in a deadly crash. Many of the high-level racing seats are HANS compatible to prevent whiplash in the case of an accident.

If you're attempting to achieve faster lap times, racing seats are crucial. They help prevent your bottom from sliding around uncontrollably and hold you in place firmly at the hips. This decreases or even eliminates the need to re-adjust your body back to the right seating position. It also eliminates the need to hang on to the steering wheel to keep yourself in position. Ultimately this means you'll have better control of the vehicle at all times, but especially during hard corners.

Racing seats are designed to keep your body properly in place even during high g-force corners. This ensures that every control is easily within reach anytime you need to, giving you the confidence to drive faster. Many of them are also much stronger than OEM seats and are less likely to break during a crash.

2. More Comfortable

Similar to standard automotive and UTV seats, racing seats come in many different materials such as leather, cloth, and Alcantara. Some of them include more cushioning than others, depending on the intended applications. Racing seats, however, are designed to deliver optimum riding comfort. They are more structural, which means they are more effective in accommodating your body shape compared to ordinary car seats.

Every time you're behind the wheel, sports seats can give your better overall comfort than regular ones. Many seats are available in specific sizes, meaning you can buy a seat that perfectly fits your height and weight. Seats that are designed for road and track use generally feature a fair amount of cushion to be as comfortable as possible, however, dedicated track seats often feature little cushion for as tight of a grip on your body as possible.

3. Lighter and Stiffer

Aftermarket racing seats are typically significantly lighter than OEM seats, especially seats with heated or cooling elements. On average, aftermarket seats weigh around 14kg each. Aside from being lighter, they are also much stiffer than regular seats. Many seats are constructed from fiberglass or carbon fiber. For the best strength and weight, carbon fiber is superior to fiberglass, but it's also much more expensive.

Some seats, such as Sparco SPX, feature many of the creature comforts of OEM seats with the added benefits of lightweight materials. For hardcore track seats, aluminum is a popular construction because of its resistance to breaking or bending under hard forces.

Should I Invest in Racing Seats?

Racing seats are safer and more comfortable than regular seats, especially during high-speed driving or racing. You don't have to go all-in for them though, there are aftermarket seats in every price range, from as low as $300 up to $3000. Different seats have different features, materials, constructions, and purposes.

Ultimately, aftermarket seats are one of the most important modifications you can install in your car. There are only a handful of things you regularly touch, feel, and use on the interior of your car: the steering wheel, the seat, the seatbelt, and the shifter. By upgrading your seats, you're upgrading the most important part of your interior

Vivid Racing carries an extensive collection of quality racing gear and accessories to satisfy your performance needs. From safety harnesses, racing equipment, pedals, steering wheels, seats, and more, we've got you covered. We provide only the best quality gear that delivers reliable performance for the most fulfilling driving experience.

Different Types of Racing Seats

Would you rather sit on racing bucket seats or racing bench seats, and what's the difference? With multiple variations of racing seats available, you must understand all the options available before making a final choice. These are some of the most popular categories:

• Racing Bucket Seats ??? These seats cradle the body to provide superior safety and support. They also tend to be the most stylish option, offering a sort of throne for the driver to occupy while behind the wheel. If you're serious about pushing your vehicle to its limits, you'll want to be sitting in racing bucket seats.

• Racing Bench Seats ??? Take advantage of the same benefits as racing seats ??? improved comfort and safety ??? in a package suitable for 2-3 people. In some vehicles, it makes more sense to install racing bench seats rather than bucket seats given the space available or the intended use.

• Fixed Back Racing Seats ??? Rely on the same seats that keep rally-car drivers in place as they zoom around tight corners at breathtaking speeds. Fixed back racing seats minimize driver motion and "plant" them in place so they can focus first and foremost on driving.

• UTV Seats ??? UTVs offer just as much high-performance potential as something designed for pavement, but the unique off-road conditions call for a specialized kind of racing seat. With UTV seats you benefit from more cushion, better posture, and less movement ??? exactly what you want when you're logging long miles or traversing tough terrain.

• Suspension Seats ??? These seats have a liner suspended between the steel frame that catches the body before it crashes into hard surfaces. Suspension seats work great in vehicles that travel over rough landscapes or get put through high-performance conditions because they significantly reduce strain on the driver's body.

How to Pick the Right Racing Seats

As you modify your car and make it handle better, the speeds at which you take a corner will begin to increase. Depending on what kind of car you drive, the factory seat might not be able to support you properly during those hard turns, especially during fast transitions.This lack of support will result in you sliding around in the seat, forcing you to brace your legs and hang on to the steering wheel to sit still. Not only does this ruin the driving experience, but it's also dangerous.With proper aftermarket racing seats, your hips and shoulder will be properly supported and this issue is solved, as Many enthusiasts have a lot of questions about racing seats, so we set out to answer all those questions and more with this article.

The Purpose of Aftermarket Racing Seats

As we mentioned above, the main purpose of racing seats is to hold you in place during high g-force corners. It's also used as a safety measure and is a required part of all professional racing series. To keep your body from breaking or falling out of the vehicle during a crash, the seat needs to keep you firmly in place.If the seat breaks, it will no longer be able to hold you in place which could result in injury or death depending on how bad the crash is. Medical bills are going to cost more than a quality racing seat and even the best drivers in the world make mistakes, this is why we always recommend purchasing a quality seat.

Different Features of Racing Seats

Every racing seat out there is slightly different and each enthusiast has different needs. Three main features separate each racing seat: mounting system, recline-ability, and support.

• The Racing Seats Mounting System

  There are two main ways of mounting a racing seat in your car. You can either use the traditional bottom mount system which is simple. Depending on your configuration, bottom mounting can easily allow usage of the stock sliders. A side mount system allows the seat to be mounted as low as possible and as secure as possible.

• The Racing Seat Recline-ability

  Factory "racing seats" like the Recaros found in Ford performance vehicles or many other performance cars still allow you to recline back. This is a feature that makes daily driving much more pleasurable, but in terms of racing, it's just another point where the seat can fail. If your racing seat fails where it reclines during a hard crash your spine, neck, and head, will be completely unsupported. This is why all racecars use a fixed back seat which eliminates the reclining system for maximum weight savings and lower weight.

• The Racing Seat Support

  Now the last differentiating feature is the amount of support (bolsters) the seat provides. With huge bolsters comes a massive amount of support for your legs, hips, shoulders, and head, but all that bolstering also makes it very difficult to get in or out of the seat. This is especially true if your vehicle is something like a lifted truck, where getting in is already difficult. An aftermarket racing seat with less bolstering will still be more supportive than the factory seat and will still be easy to get in and out of.

The Different Types of Racing Seats

Along with the different features listed above, there are also quite a few different types of racing seats. Four of the most popular types of racing seats are bench seats, bucket seats, reclinable seats, and suspension seats.

• Bench Seats

  Bench seats are flat seats that can hold more than one person on them. While the seat allows more people to fit into the car, they do not offer as much protection when traveling at high speeds.

• Bucket Seats

  Bucket seats are seats that are rounded with a strong contour to snuggly fit the driver into the seat. A bucket seat can only fit one person and keeps the driver firmly in place on tight turns or corners.

• Reclinable Seats

  As mentioned above, some racing seats are Reclinable seats. While there are undeniably some comfortable benefits to reclining, if you are serious about racing a reclinable seat can lead to problems down the road.

• Suspension Seats

  Suspension seats use cutting-edge technology to provide you with the smoothest ride possible. Instead of the seat being connected to the hard surface of the ground, it is instead connected to a suspended liner that can stay stationary as the vehicle twists and turns. Suspension seats are very popular in UTVs, but some cars will use them as well.

The Best Racing Seat Brands

If you are going to buy an aftermarket racing seat, you want to make sure you only purchase a product from one of the best racing seats brands. Below are five of the top racing seat brands currently on the market.

• Recaro Racing Seats

  Recaro puts the senses in driving seat, creating seats that are perfect for racing, comfort, or dynamic driving.

• Bride Racing Seats

  Bride prides itself on creating racing seats that will keep you safe and secure as you drive, allowing you to push the limits while driving with peace of mind.

• Braum Racing Seats

  Braum manufactures racing seats by car lovers, for car lovers. They combine impeccable design with expert engineering to make the perfect seat for your needs.

• Status Racing Seats

  Status Racing creates high-end racing seats for all types of drivers, helping to create the ideal driving experience.

Purchase High-Quality Racing Seats From Vivid Racing

Vivid Racing is happy to offer our customers a huge selection of racing seats. A quality racing seat could save your life, but aside from the safety, it will also improve the driving experience dramatically and open a new world of performance driving. If you are interested in upgrading to a new aftermarket racing seat contact Vivid Racing today by calling 1 (480) 966-3040.