Lotus Exige… Seats

The Lotus Exige arrived with a pair of Carbon Fiber seats made by Tillett.

The Tillett B5 seat is designed to especially suit the Lotus Elise/Exige. It sits lower in the car to benefit taller drivers and is fairly narrow across the back.

It took only a couple minutes sitting in the car to realize I did not fit well in the seats. They are specifically designed to accommodate drivers taller than 6’ and held me in an uncomfortable position (especially across the back). Fortunately I secured the original seats for the Lotus from Mark Brandt as a part of the purchase. 

So… I set about removing the Tillett seats switching the original seats back into the car. The tight quarters surrounding the seat bases make this a surprisingly difficult task. My first drive in the car happened with the original seats re-installed. The seating position in the original seats suits my height fine but they are a tight fit across the hips.

There are a few manufactures making seats to fit the Lotus. While deciding what to do about the Tillett seats I spent some time reading about seating for the car on the Lotus Talk forums. The T3 carbon fiber seat by Tecnocraft is often recommended for folks of “larger” stature. After talking with Shinoo Mapleton at Sector 111 (Temecula CA) I decided to purchase one of the Tecnocraft seats they market as their CF Big-Bottom Seat.

Compared to the Tillett B5 seats the Tecnocraft T3 is considerably wider across the back. It is also designed to hold the driver in a slightly higher position in the vehicle.

I set about installing the Tecnocraft seat as soon as it arrived and am very satisfied with the comfort and driving position. The drivers seat in the Exige sits on an adjustable rail allowing the seat to be moved forward and back. The angle of the seat can only be changed using spacers (washers) under the rail system. I may well add a short aluminum washer under the rear mount to “tilt” the seat forward just a bit.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do with the “extra” seats I now possess. I’ll probably sell the Tillett B5’s but I don’t think (for the moment at least) I’ll add a second Tecnocraft.