Our Top FIA Racing Seats For Your Mini Miglia
Mini Miglia, Mini7 Racing Club
Miglia owners ring us with a question that sounds like the one classic Mini owners ask, and is not quite. They have measured the cockpit, they have read what fits a road Mini, and then the cage went in and the numbers stopped adding up.
That is the honest answer to the whole thing. A Miglia is not a classic Mini with a bucket seat in it. It is a seam welded shell with a multipoint cage through the middle of it, a six point harness, and a driver wearing a helmet. The seat has to live with all three.
- A Miglia runs a 1293cc A-series at around 130bhp, against the 998cc the class grew out of
- The cage is what changes the seat decision, not the shell, which is the same as any classic Mini
- We stay inside 590mm at the shoulder, 500mm at the base and 910mm tall
- Three seats do almost all of these cars: the Mirco RS1, the Sparco Grid Q and the OMP TRS-E
What a Miglia actually is
If you are new to it, the Mini7 Racing Club runs several classes of classic Mini together and the names get used loosely. Miglia is the quick one. A Miglia runs a 1293cc A-series making somewhere around 130bhp, which is a long way from the 998cc the class originally grew out of.
Around it sit the Mini Se7en on a full tune 998cc, the Se7en S-Class on a fast road 1275cc at about 85 to 90bhp, and Libre, which is free formula up to 1400cc. Miglias and Se7ens share grids, so if you have watched a Mini7 race you have watched both at once. The club has put these cars out in front of a BTCC crowd, which tells you the standard.
The usual description of a Miglia is a halfway house between a Se7en and a full modified Special Saloon, and that is a fair way to picture it. Enough freedom to be a proper race car, not so much that it stops being a Mini.
The cage is what changes the seat
Here is the bit that catches people who have been reading road Mini advice. A Miglia shell carries a multipoint cage, and the door bar runs straight through the space your shoulder used to occupy. The shell is the same width it was in 1959, so the cage does not take that width from anywhere except the cockpit.
What it means in practice is that a seat which technically clears the door aperture on a bare shell can still be wrong once the bars are in, and that a seat you can climb into on a driveway can be a different proposition through a cage with a helmet on.
So when we size a seat for one of these, we are sizing it against the cage and the harness, not against the door card. If you have not had the cage in yet, tell us which kit is going in, because it changes the answer.
The three seats that do almost all of these cars
These are the same three we settled on after measuring and physically fitting seats in classic Mini shells, and there is a reason the list is short. Most full size FIA shells are simply too wide or too tall for this car, so the shortlist is the interesting part.
The Mirco RS1 at £397.20 is the one most Miglia drivers end up with, and the head support is why. It is built into the shell instead of bolted on, and in a caged car with a helmet that matters more than it does on the road. Mirco build the RS1 for a compact driver from the ground up instead of shrinking a bigger seat, which is exactly the right approach for this car. It is listed for a 32 to 36 inch waist.
Go to the Sparco Grid Q at £438.00 if you want the most room a fibreglass shell will give you in here. The modular padding is the clever part: take cushions out and you buy back internal width without touching the car, which is the right way round when the shell is the thing you cannot change. Side mount only, HANS friendly, and it takes a four or six point belt.
Cameron tends to point people at the OMP TRS-E first on price, and at £239.40 it is a long way under the other two. It is the widest steel framed seat that goes in, the hip area is a little more open, and it is the only one of the three you can base mount as well as side mount. Five harness slots and the leg cushions come out.
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The largest that will actually fit
We have measured this car enough times to have numbers we trust. To stay away from cutting the tunnel, the doors or the seating position, we keep inside 590mm across the shoulders, 500mm across the base, and 910mm tall before the roof starts to be a conversation.
The Mirco RS2 at £492.00 is the honest edge case. It does go in, and it is wider at the hip and shoulder than the RS1, but it ends up hard against the door pillar on one side and the centre tunnel on the other with nothing spare. In a road car you might live with that. In a Miglia, with a cage bar where your shoulder wants to be, we would rather you took the RS1 and kept the room.
Anything bigger than that envelope means modifying the shell, and at that point it stops being a seat question. Cameron went through the whole thing with the measurements for every seat we tried: What’s The Biggest FIA Seat I Can Fit Into My Classic Mini Race Car?
The working envelope590mm at the shoulder, 500mm at the base, 910mm tall. Inside that, no cutting. Outside it, you are modifying the car.
Getting it mounted
The seat is half the job. A classic Mini floor does not take a modern bucket without a subframe made for the car, and which one you want depends on whether you are side mounting or base mounting.
Endurance and Cobra both do a direct fit classic Mini subframe. Add the adaption bars if the seat and the frame do not line up straight away, and the multipoint M8 side mount brackets if you are side mounting, which you will be with the Grid Q. The TRS-E is the one that gives you the choice.
Seat height is the thing worth thinking about before you bolt anything down. In a car with a cage and a helmet, an inch of head room is worth more than it sounds, so it is worth sitting in it before anything is torqued up.
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Common questions
Is a Miglia seat different from a classic Mini road seat?
The shell is the same, so the starting dimensions are the same. What differs is everything around it: a multipoint cage takes shoulder room, a six point harness needs the right slots, and you are wearing a helmet. That usually pushes people towards the RS1 for the head support.
Will the Sparco Grid Q fit with a cage in?
It is the widest fibreglass seat we put in these cars, so it is the one most worth checking against your cage rather than assuming. The modular padding helps, because you can take cushions out and get room back. Tell us which cage kit you have and we will talk it through.
Can I base mount instead of side mounting?
With the OMP TRS-E, yes, it does both. The Mirco RS1 and the Sparco Grid Q are side mount, so those need the side mount brackets and a subframe to carry them.
What about the Mirco RS2?
It physically goes in, but with nothing to spare at the door pillar or the tunnel. We would steer you to the RS1 in a caged car and keep the room.
Do you sell the cage as well?
We do. Custom Cages build a multipoint T45 kit specifically for the Miglia and Seven International, so the seat and the cage can come from the same conversation.
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Building oneTell us the class and the cage
Miglia, Se7en or S-Class, and which cage is in it. Ring Garreth and Cameron on 0115 9893488 and we will get the seat, the subframe and the mounts right in one go.
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