Happy as I was with the seat position, I share the driving at track days with a person with less reach in her legs than me and so it was clear that for comfort and safety I would need to either move the seat manually at track days or fit a sliding runner.
I decided that I would purchase a Cobra sliding runner as they were relatively cheap and logic said must fit properly.
I tried fitting them direct to the base of my seat which was very easy but the runners themselves did not line up with the Barbarian subframe on one side as they were too narrow. As I also did not like the fully upright position I elected to re-fit the Cobra side mounts and mount these to the runners.
I needed to measure and drill two holes into the Barbarian mount but the runners went in. Attempting to fit the slider crossbar I realised that the runners were mounted too narrow for the bar. Whilst they could be compelled to work with a flat head screwdriver this was not ideal.
Sleeping on the problem I elected to bent the bar into the correct width. A couple of railway sleepers in my garden helped facilitate the adjustments required and after one or two attempts it fits and makes adjustment an easy task. It also helps when leaving the vehicle by removing the need to shimmy around the steering wheel, making for much more dignified egress.
Anti-Submarining
In the photos the red webbing is closed loop load restraints rated at four tonnes. I’ve installed these under the seat to act as points five and six and address the fear I had about this. At some point I’ll replace the harness but at the moment this is my best fix. I would not recommend this mod to readers as its safety is unclear and knowing what I know know I would have taken the hit and just bought a six point harness.
3-Point Harness (Updated)
I’ve fabricated an extension to the seatbelt stalk and bolted it to the seat base so now I have the option of a three point harness for every day and a full harness for track days.
I will need to purchase a seat occupancy sensor by-pass in due course for the passenger seat so the remaining airbag can still deploy on that side of the vehicle.
Since writing this I found that a seat occupancy sensor bypass for a Mk 3 is difficult to find and I will need to rely on the kindness of an MoT tester or put the old ones back in,
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