BMW E46 Bucket Seat Guide
The BMW E46 (1997-2006) story...
The BMW E46 has become a car we almost work with daily. The incredible popularity of the E30, E36 and E46 mean you’ll see these on almost any track day you book on to.Â
Once you start using your BMW E46 for fast road and track use, you’ll soon realize just how much you need new bucket seats to provide more support.Â
On cornering, you may find your self holding onto the steering wheel tighter than usual, tensing your thighs and legs against the central console and/or door card. You’ll probably find your weight shifting in the seat and having to re-position your self after the corner.Â
None of this is correct. Your seat should provide the right level of support so that you can grip the steering wheel only for steering, your legs should be supported and your weight shouldn’t shift around. The recommendations we provide are to ensure that you feel comfortable and supported allowing you to focus on the job at hand.Â
We’ve worked closely with our customers to create our BMW E46 guide.
The resulting recommendations are based on previous customer car installations.
BMW E46 Considerations:
When providing these recommendations we’ve considered key points to provide the best options for you. With the BMW E46 the main and most critical consideration is fixed VS sliding installations.Â
- Most width seats are suitable due to larger cockpit space
- Tall Drivers may struggle with headroom with reclining setups
- XL size seats are best with fixed mounting setups
Your No.1 Sliding Bucket Seat Choice
The single best-selling bucket seat and subframe fixing package on the market is the Sparco Grid Q with the PCI Racing BMW E46 sliding frame kit.
The PCI Racing brackets provide a direct fit solution into your BMW E46 without any modifications. They come with the seat sliders and side mounts as part of the package allowing you to quickly and easily team them up with the Sparco Grid Q bucket seat.
The Grid Q bucket seat is surprisingly spacious inside allowing drivers of a 36″ waist to sit comfortably while being provided the additional support required from a bucket seat suitable for track day use. If you want a smaller seat then we’d recommend the Sparco Rev QRT Or OMP Champ-R which is more suitable for a 32-34″ waist. If you want to go slightly bigger the Sparco Evo L and XL are good for 36-40″ waist and still fit the PCI Racing mounts perfectly.Â
You will sit roughly the same height as the original seat setup when using this combination. If you want to sit lower in the vehicle then we would recommend moving to the fixed position kit in our next recommendation.
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Your No.1 Fixed Bucket Seat Choice
The most impressive set of BMW Specific side mount floor mounts on the market are from QMS. These steel side mounts fit the original floor plan of the vehicle and provide a fixed position setup.
The QMS Mounts have a range of bolt points to ensure you can get the exact angle and position that you require. They also help offset the seat to provide a more central position to the steering wheel.
Which seats do they fit? Almost any side mounted Motorsport seat from the Sparco Sprint and Cobra Monaco Pro, through to the OMP WRC-R and Mirco RS7. So this really then comes down to driver size.
So what size seat do you need? Contact us for more detailed information. Provide your height and waist size and we’ll be able to give you a great choice of seats that will work with these mounts and your BMW.
Recommended brackets: (Bucket seats)
We recommend either using the Planted Technology bracket with side mounts or the PCI racing full bracket system to successfully install the side mounted bucket seats we suggest in our guide. Â
Option 1: Bucket seat – Side mounts – Fitting frame – VehicleÂ
Option 2: Bucket seat – PCI full replacement kit – Vehicle
Recommended brackets: (Reclining seats)
We recommend these base mount brackets to successfully install the reclining sport seats we suggest in our guide. Â
Option 1: Reclining seat – Sliding runner – Fitting frame – VehicleÂ
**NOTES 1** Cobra frames for Cobra reclining seats only
**NOTES 2** Sparco frames for Sparco/OMP/Corbeau reclining seats
