Half the seat conversations at our counter end up here, and usually by accident. The customer has settled on a seat, they have worked out the bracket for their car, and then Cameron asks whether they want the thing to slide. You can watch them do the sum.
It is a fair question to have to think about. Bolt a bucket straight down to a bracket and it stays exactly where you put it, which is absolutely fine if it is your car and you are the only one who drives it. The moment somebody else gets in, or the same car does the commute on Monday and a track day on Saturday, you want runners in there. There is a pair of steel rails with a handle across the front, the seat bolts to the top of them, and now the seat moves.
We keep runners from Cobra, Corbeau, Sparco, OMP, Recaro, PCI Racing, Endurance Motorsport and Tillett. They all do the same job and they all lift the seat by about the same amount. What separates them is one number in the product name, and getting that number wrong is very much the most common way this goes wrong. So that is where we have started. Cameron does most of the measuring in here and Garreth does most of the arguing about what is worth the money, and you will get both below.
What is on this page
There is a lower rail that bolts down to whatever is underneath it, an upper rail that bolts up to the seat, and a locking mechanism with a handle across the front. Lift the handle, the seat slides. Let go, it locks. That is the whole thing, and it has barely changed in thirty years because it has never really needed to.
Where people come unstuck is the part underneath. A runner has no vehicle specific mounting in it at all. The holes in the bottom rail are the manufacturer’s own and they have nothing whatsoever to do with your car, so a runner cannot bolt down to a standard floor on its own. It needs a bracket or a subframe below it, and that is the part cut for your car. Buy the runner on its own and you have got half a kit sat in a box.
Around 200mm of movement back and forward on a handle, with a lock at each position. Cobra publish 200mm on theirs and Recaro publish 220mm on the double locking one. Most of the others do not give a figure at all, and in the showroom they all feel about the same.
Runners are universal, which is a polite way of saying they are cut for nobody's car. Underneath one you need a vehicle specific bracket, subframe or side mount. Above one you need a seat drilled to the matching pattern.
Almost every listing on our site is priced per seat, so you get one left rail and one right rail with the handle between them. Two seats, two kits. We box several of them as pairs so you do not have to do the maths at eleven at night.
Nearly every runner we sell has a millimetre figure attached to it. Corbeau list four options, Cobra list two, and the rest are built to one size and do not bother telling you on the box. That figure is the width of the handle, which is also the distance between the two rails. It is not the length of the rail and it has nothing to do with how far the seat travels.
This one catches people out constantly, and you can see why, because the numbers look exactly like lengths. Cameron gets asked at least once a week whether the 405 slides further than the 291. It does not. The two rails sit under the seat at its bolt spacing and the handle has to span between them, so the handle width is really the seat’s mounting width wearing a different hat. Match it to the seat. They all move about the same distance anyway.
Turn a base mount seat over and there are four bolt holes in the bottom of it. Across the whole aftermarket there are really only three arrangements of those four holes, which is a lot better than it could have been. Cobra drill theirs at 291mm across by 330mm front to back. Sparco drill theirs at 345mm by 271mm, and OMP and a good few others followed them. Recaro sit wider again at 405mm by 280mm, which is roughly where a wide motorsport shell on side mounts ends up as well. None of the three line up with each other. That is why a Cobra runner will not go under a Sparco seat, and why neither of them will go anywhere near a Recaro.
Corbeau are the useful exception and they are the reason we can usually solve an odd combination. They drill their recliners for both the Cobra and the Sparco patterns, so a Corbeau seat leaves either route open, and they sell runners in four handle widths to suit whatever ends up on top. The 405mm option is the one that takes you into Recaro territory. The 370mm sits in between, for side mounted shells that are wider than standard without being Recaro wide.
| Pattern | Across | Front to back | Seats drilled for it | Runner to order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobra | 291mm | 330mm | Cobra Clubman, Monaco, Daytona, Misano and the rest of the Cobra recliners. Corbeau Sportline and Classic. | Cobra runners, or Corbeau in the Retro / Sportline width |
| Sparco | 345mm | 271mm | Sparco base mount buckets and recliners, OMP base mounts, Corbeau Standard. | Sparco, OMP, Endurance, or Corbeau in the Standard width |
| Recaro | 405mm | 280mm, and our Sportster CS listings quote 290mm | Recaro base mount seats, plus wide track motorsport shells on side mounts and Cobra motorsport seats on side mounts. | Recaro, the Endurance Recaro compatible kit, PCI, or Corbeau in the Motorsport XL width |
| Wider side mounts | 370mm | Set by the side mount | Motorsport shells on side mounts that sit wider than standard without reaching Recaro width. | Corbeau in the Motorsport L width |
A runner sits between the bracket and the seat, so it adds its own thickness to your final seat height. That thickness is about 25mm, an inch in old money, and it is close enough to the same on every brand here that you can just treat it as a constant when you are planning a build. It is one of the very few numbers in seat fitting that does not change with the car, so make the most of it.
Whether the 25mm matters at all comes down to the roof. In a saloon you will never notice it. In a low car with a helmet on, or in anything where you were already brushing the headlining, that inch is the whole difference between comfortable and not. It is the honest trade you make for the adjustment, and it is a lot easier to think about now than with the seat already bolted in. Our guide to seat height and fitment works through the whole stack, and the tall and long side mount guide covers what happens above it.
Cobra keep it simple, which we are grateful for. There is one runner design, two handle widths, and both are made to bolt to Cobra’s own subframes. The standard runner has been the same part for years and it does the job on any Cobra base mount seat. The Premium runner took over as the default on Cobra subframe applications in 2020, and it is the one Cobra now expect to see under their vehicle specific kits.
Choosing between the two widths is about the seat and nothing else, because they cost the same. The 291mm handle covers the Clubman and Monaco buckets and every Cobra reclining seat, so that is the Daytona and the Misano included. The 405mm handle is for Cobra’s motorsport seats when they are up on side mounts, and for the base mount recliners where the wider handle suits the shell. Cobra publish 200mm of slide travel on the standard runner, which is one of the few figures anybody bothers to print. One thing that trips people up: if you are buying a Cobra vehicle fitting kit, the runner goes with it. It is not an alternative to it.
Corbeau give you more choice than anybody else here, and this is the range Cameron reaches for when somebody turns up with a seat from one brand and a bracket from another. One runner design, four handle widths, and the same price whichever you pick. That last bit tells you everything: the widths are about fit, not about specification. Corbeau describe them as suitable right across their own range, and in practice they cover a good deal of what other people make as well.
The Retro / Sportline option at 291mm suits Corbeau’s classic seats and anything else on the Cobra pattern. The Standard at 345mm is the one that opens up Sparco and OMP base mounts alongside Corbeau’s own. The L at 370mm and the XL at 405mm are both for side mounted motorsport shells, and the XL doubles as the size for Recaro seats and wide track shells. Kit car builders love them, and it is not hard to see why. One part number, four ways to get a seat to meet a floor.
This is the kit we sell more of than all the others put together, and it is the cheapest way there is to get adjustment under a base mount seat. Steel rails, double locking, one kit per seat, and it fits a good deal more than just Sparco seats. Anything drilled on the 345mm pattern will take it, which by Sparco’s own listing means Corbeau and OMP base mount buckets and recliners as well as their own. It has also become our default on jobs where we used to fit a different brand’s 345mm runner, because the fitment is identical and the price is better.
Two things worth knowing before you order. It is a base mount runner, so it will not go under a side mounted shell unless there are side mounts and a frame in between. And it is not FIA approved, which rules it out of any competition where the regulations call for a homologated mounting. For a road car, a track day car or a rig, neither of those will ever come up. If you want the same fitment built heavier there is a premium track day version on the same 345mm width, down in the Endurance section.
OMP’s runner kit is the same 345mm story as the Sparco, and OMP say as much themselves: it suits their own subframes and seat mounts, and it works with Sparco seats too. Each kit is the runner assemblies plus the slide lever, one kit per seat. The hardware is not in the box. Worth knowing that before you start, because you want the right length bolts and washers sat on the bench, not discovered when the car is on axle stands.
OMP also do something nobody else here does. The RTS Seat Frame and Slider Kit is a frame and a slider sold together as one part, 380mm long, six mounting holes, 3mm steel in a low profile. If you are fighting for height it is very much worth a look, because it takes two items out of the stack and puts one back.
Recaro sit at the top of this page on price and on engineering, and the two are related. The double locking runner is the one most people are after. It goes under Recaro base mount seats on the 405mm pattern and Recaro publish 220mm of travel on it. It also covers the widest seats we sell, because Recaro list it as suitable for Corbeau, Cobra, Sparco and OMP motorsport seats up on side mounts at an estimated 405mm width. Pick one up off the shelf next to a £50.40 kit and you can feel where the money went. Garreth’s view is that if the seat cost four figures, this is not the place to save sixty quid.
The FIA Approved Sliding Seat Mount is a different animal altogether. It is a side mounting slider built for endurance racing, released by a bar across the front so a driver can work it in race gloves, with 160mm of adjustment on the Pro Racer SPA and SPG and 130mm on the P1300GT. It is the only slider on this page carrying an FIA approval, so if your regulations call for a homologated mounting, that is the one. And if you want the Recaro fitment without the Recaro invoice, there is a compatible 405mm kit down in the Endurance section.
PCI build these for people who have already broken something cheaper. Heavier gauge steel than a standard runner, hardened steel roller balls in place of the usual arrangement, and a 355mm release handle. The detail that actually matters is underneath: PCI added extra mounting holes so each slider bolts down with four bolts instead of two. That is what stops a slider flexing when the seat is right forward or right back and all the load is nowhere near the middle.
It is a real answer to a real problem, and these are the ones we point at when the driver is a big lad, or the seat is heavy, or both, or when a rig gets shared and shoved about by four different people. They come as a handle and two rails to fix the seat to the base, sold per seat, and PCI publish the build detail themselves. PCI also make a set of slider side mounts in standard and narrow / wide, in normal and six inch tall, if you would like the slider and the side mounting to come from the same place.
Endurance is our own line and it exists to fill in the gaps the big brands leave. The standard sliding runner kit is the cheapest thing on this page, full stop, and it puts adjustment under a Sparco, Auto Style, OMP or Corbeau base mount seat on the same 345mm pattern as everything else in that family. Above it there are two premium kits. One is a Sparco compatible track day runner on 345mm, for people who want the common fitment built heavier. The other is a Recaro compatible kit on 405mm, for people who want the Recaro fitment and would quite like to keep the difference. Those two are why this section is worth a read even if you have already picked a seat brand.
One more part in the range is not a runner at all, but it solves the problem next door. The weld in seat rail kit is a mounting platform for cars that have not got one: two 560mm lengths of 25mm CDS tube, four M8 floating nut brackets and four load spreading plates, enough for one seat. It is an old Escort favourite and it works anywhere you can get a welder to the sills and the tunnel. That goes in first, and the runner bolts on top of it afterwards in the normal way.
Tillett run their own little world and it pays to understand it before you order, because their runners are matched to Tillett seats and Tillett brackets instead of to a bolt pattern anybody else shares. The STRI, which used to be the TR1, is the workhorse. Double locking, 250mm of leg length adjustment, and it goes under the B2 and B4 on TB1 brackets, under the TBF1 brackets with the B6 Screamer, B6 XL Screamer and B7, and under a B5 on TB2 or TB3 brackets turned in under the seat for a narrow footprint.
The STRO, formerly the TR2, covers the B5, B8 and B9. The PTRO and PTRI are the newer pair, both for the B8 and B9. If you want to bolt the STRI straight to the bottom of a bottom mounted B6 or a W1 with no brackets in between, you need the TK5 kit, which is the extra spacers that make it all sit right. And there is no runner route at all on the W5 series, because it has no bolt points for sliding components. Worth checking that one before you get your hopes up.
This is the table Cameron ends up drawing on the back of an invoice about twice a week. Find your seat down the left, read across, and the green cells are the runners that will bolt to it. Where a brand does more than one handle width, the width you want is named in the cell, because ordering the right part number in the wrong width is very much the most common way this goes wrong.
| Your seat | Pattern | Cobra | Corbeau | Sparco / OMP / Endurance 345 | Recaro / Endurance 405 | PCI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobra Clubman, Monaco, Daytona, Misano and Cobra recliners | 291 x 330 | Fits 291mm | Fits Retro / Sportline | No | No | No |
| Cobra motorsport seats on side mounts | 405 class | Fits 405mm | Fits Motorsport XL | No | Fits | Fits |
| Corbeau Sportline and Classic | 291 x 330 | Fits 291mm | Fits Retro / Sportline | No | No | No |
| Corbeau Motorsport base mount | 345 x 271 | No | Fits Standard | Fits | No | No |
| Sparco base mount buckets and recliners | 345 x 271 | No | Fits Standard | Fits | No | No |
| OMP base mount buckets and recliners | 345 x 271 | No | Fits Standard | Fits | No | No |
| Recaro base mount seats | 405 x 280 | No | Fits Motorsport XL | No | Fits | Fits |
| Motorsport shells on side mounts, standard width | 370 class | No | Fits Motorsport L | No | No | Fits |
| Wide track shells on side mounts | 405 class | Fits 405mm | Fits Motorsport XL | No | Fits | Fits |
| Tillett B series | Tillett | No | No | No | No | No |
Where a cell says no, that is because the holes do not line up. It has nothing to do with stock. If your seat is not on this list at all, measure the two dimensions off the underside and send them over. It is a two minute job at your end and it saves a return at ours, which suits everybody.
The whole range in one place, cheapest first. Prices include VAT and were correct on 5 August 2026. Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure we have left it blank, because we are not about to guess at it.
| Product | Brand | Handle width | Covers | Price inc VAT | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sparco Seat Sliding Runner Kit | Sparco | 345mm | 1 seat | £41.94 | The volume seller. Base mount only, not FIA approved |
| Endurance Motorsport Sliding Runner Kit | Endurance | 345mm | 1 seat | £40.80 | Cheapest route to adjustment on the 345mm pattern |
| OMP Seat Slider And Runner Kit | OMP | 345mm | 1 seat | £50.40 | Fixings not included |
| Corbeau Seat Sliding Runners | Corbeau | 291 / 345 / 370 / 405mm | 1 seat | £58.80 | Four handle widths at one price |
| Cobra Seats Sliding Runners | Cobra | 291 / 405mm | 1 seat | £59.00 | 200mm of travel, Cobra base mount seats |
| 2 Sparco Seat Sliding Runner Kit | Sparco | 345mm | 2 seats | £78.00 | Boxed pair |
| Cobra Premium Sliding Runners | Cobra | 291 / 405mm | 1 seat | £84.00 | The current standard for Cobra subframe applications |
| Endurance Sparco Compatible Premium Track Day Runner | Endurance | 345mm | 1 seat | £90.00 | Heavier build on the Sparco fitment |
| Endurance Motorsport Recaro Compatible Runner Kit | Endurance | 405mm | 1 seat | £95.04 | Recaro fitment without the Recaro price |
| PCI Racing Universal Seat Sliders | PCI Racing | 355mm | 1 seat | £108.00 | Four base bolts per slider, hardened roller balls |
| 2 Cobra 291 Seat Sliding Runners | Cobra | 291mm | 2 seats | £117.60 | Boxed pair |
| 2 Corbeau 291mm Seat Sliding Runners | Corbeau | 291mm | 2 seats | £117.60 | Boxed pair |
| 2 Corbeau 345mm Seat Sliding Runners | Corbeau | 345mm | 2 seats | £117.60 | Boxed pair |
| 2 Corbeau 405mm Seat Sliding Runners | Corbeau | 405mm | 2 seats | £117.60 | Boxed pair |
| OMP RTS Seat Frame and Slider Kit | OMP | 345mm | 1 seat | £120.00 | Frame and slider in one, 380mm long, 3mm steel, low profile |
| Cobra Nogaro Sliding Fitting Kit | Cobra | 291mm | 1 seat | £162.00 | Complete sliding fitting kit for the Nogaro |
| Tillett STRI, formerly TR1 | Tillett | Tillett | 1 seat | £166.69 | Double locking, 250mm of leg length adjustment |
| Recaro Seats Double Locking Sliding Runners | Recaro | 405mm | 1 seat | £166.94 | 220mm of travel |
| Tillett STRO, formerly TR2 | Tillett | Tillett | 1 seat | £169.34 | For the B5, B8 and B9 |
| Tillett PTRO Adjustable Seat Runner Set | Tillett | Tillett | 1 seat | £179.93 | For the B8 and B9 |
| Tillett PTRI Adjustable Seat Runner Set | Tillett | Tillett | 1 seat | £236.81 | For the B8 and B9 |
| 2 Recaro Seats Double Locking Sliding Runners | Recaro | 405mm | 2 seats | £327.89 | Boxed pair |
| Recaro FIA Approved Sliding Seat Mount | Recaro | Side mount | 1 seat | £787.50 | FIA approved. 160mm on Pro Racer SPA and SPG, 130mm on P1300GT |
The TK5 fitting kit at £22.80 inc VAT sits alongside these as the spacer set that lets a Tillett STRI bolt straight under a bottom mounted B6 or a W1, and the Endurance weld in seat rail kit at £108.00 is in the same category, useful alongside a runner, not in place of one. Every product above is linked in its own brand section further up this page, and you can see the whole lot with live stock on the sliding runners category page.
Because there is no vehicle specific mounting in a runner, it does not care in the slightest what is underneath it. All it wants is a flat platform with two lines of bolt holes at the right spacing, and after that you have a seat that moves. Which is why the same part keeps turning up in jobs that look nothing like each other.
In a car it goes on top of a vehicle bracket or subframe. On a simulator rig it bolts straight to the aluminium profile seat rails, which is about the easiest fitment there is, and it is what lets two people share a rig without one of them driving from the wrong distance. In a boat it goes on a fabricated mounting plate. In a kit car or a rebuild there is often no platform there at all yet, so a weld in rail kit goes in first and the runner goes on top of it afterwards.
The rule that carries across all of them is that the runner answers to the seat, never to the vehicle. Once you know the seat’s bolt pattern the runner is decided, and the only question left is what you are bolting the pair of them down to. On a car that is a bracket we can look up for you. On a rig it is already there. On a boat or a bare shell it is something you or a fabricator will make, and the runner honestly does not care which, so long as it is flat, strong and drilled square.
Runner on top of a vehicle specific bracket or subframe, seat on top of that. Check the seat belt buckle clearance once it is in, because a sport seat often puts the buckle somewhere new.
Bolts straight to the rig's seat rails. The 345mm kits suit most sim seats, and PCI's four bolt base is the one for a rig that gets shared and moved about.
The same platform logic on a fabricated plate. We have written up which seats work in a racing boat, and the runner choice follows the seat exactly as it does in a car.
Where there is no factory mounting to work from, the Endurance weld in rail kit creates one. Corbeau's four handle widths are popular here because one part number covers most of what people end up fitting.
The job itself is straightforward once the parts are right, and the order of it matters more than the technique.
Bracket to the floor first, on the factory seat mounting points, torqued properly. Runner onto the bracket next, both sides sat flat and square to one another, because a runner that goes down twisted will bind at one end of its travel and you will feel it every single time you move the seat. Seat onto the runner last. Then, before you take it anywhere, sit in it, run it through the full travel with your weight in it, and check the seat belt buckle still comes to hand and is not fouled by the edge of the seat.
Two details worth having sorted before you start. Several of these kits ship without fixings, so get the right length bolts and washers on the bench first. And if you have bought a vehicle specific fitting kit from Cobra, the runner is a separate item that goes with it. Not an alternative to it.
The last check is the one everybody skips. With the seat bolted down and your weight in it, slide it all the way forward and all the way back, and watch what the handle does at each end. If it fouls the door card at the front or the rear seat base behind, you very much want to know now, while the bolts are still easy to get at.
No. There is no vehicle specific mounting in a runner, so the holes in the bottom rail will not line up with anything on your floor. It needs a bracket or subframe cut for your car underneath it. The runner and the bracket are two separate purchases and you do need both.
No, and this is the one we get asked most. It is the handle width, and it tells you which seat the runner goes under. Travel is around 200mm right across the range. The widths exist because seats are drilled at different spacings, not because one moves further than another.
About 25mm, and that holds near enough on every brand on this page. Add it to your bracket height and your seat height when you are working out headroom. Our seat height and fitment guide works through the whole stack.
Almost every listing is priced per seat, so two seats means two kits. Several are also boxed as a pair, and those listings say so in the product name. Have a look at which one you are on before you check out, because it is an easy one to get wrong at speed.
No. Cobra base mounts are drilled at 291mm by 330mm and Sparco at 345mm by 271mm, and neither dimension matches. Recaro are wider again at 405mm by 280mm, so they do not interchange with either. Corbeau are the way round it, because they drill for both the Cobra and the Sparco patterns and sell runners in four handle widths.
The Sparco and Endurance kits are listed as not FIA approved for competition use. The Recaro FIA Approved Sliding Seat Mount is the one on this page that carries an approval, and it is a side mounting slider built for endurance racing. If your class requires a homologated mounting, check the regulations for your championship before ordering.
Yes, and it is about the easiest fitment there is. The rig's seat rails do the job the bracket does in a car, so the runner bolts straight onto them. Match the runner to the seat's bolt pattern in the usual way and you are done.
Turn it over and measure between the centres of the two front bolt holes, then from the front hole to the back hole down one side. Send us those two numbers with the make and model and we will tell you which runner fits. If you are local, bring the seat in and Cameron will put a tape on it with you.
For most people the runner that matches the seat brand is the right answer and there is nothing clever to add to it. Sparco seat, Sparco kit at £41.94. Cobra seat, Cobra Premium runner, because that is what Cobra now build their subframes around and it saves an argument later.
Corbeau is what we reach for when the seat and the bracket have come from different places, because four handle widths at one price covers nearly everything and it keeps your options open while you are still making your mind up. If the car or the rig gets shared, or the driver and the seat together are on the heavy side, Garreth would spend the extra on the PCI every time. Four bolts per slider into the base is a real answer to a real failure, not a line on a spec sheet.
Runners are the cheapest part of a seat conversion and the part that changes most about how you get on with the car day to day. They are also the part people order last, in a hurry, at half nine at night, in the wrong width. Measure the seat, pick the width, get the bracket that goes under it, and the whole job comes together in an evening.
If you are halfway through a conversion and not sure what you have got, the counter is the quickest fix there is. Bring the seat into the showroom and Cameron will put a tape on it with you, and Garreth will tell you straight whether the dearer runner is worth it for what you are building. If you cannot get to us, send a photo of the underside of the seat and tell us the car, and drop us a line. We have been at this since 2003 and we would much sooner sort it out before the parcel leaves than after it lands.
The five reclining sport seats we recommend for the Skoda Octavia Mk2, with the Cobra Direct Fit Subframe route that bolts each one straight to the factory mounting points. Runner included in the frame price.
The five reclining sport seats we rate for the Porsche 911 964 (1989 to 1994), with the Cobra direct-fit subframe and Planted Technology bracket routes and a full runner compatibility table.
Every three point road harness we sell, brand by brand, with the ten we would pick first. Plus what a three point actually is, which is not what most listings say, and the anchorage method almost all of them use.
Why narrow racing seats exist, what waist sizing tells you and does not, and which of our current models actually publish a narrower fit for small-bodied cars.
The five reclining sport seats we rate for the Skoda Octavia Mk1, with the Cobra direct-fit subframe that bolts each one straight to the factory floor mounting points without drilling.
The FIA seats we recommend for a Mini Miglia, what the class actually is, how the cage changes the fit, and the largest seat that will realistically go in.
A sliding runner on its own is not car specific, the holes in the base rail are the manufacturer’s own and have nothing to do with your car, so it cannot bolt straight to the floor. You need the runner plus a bracket matched to your car, the runner sits in the middle of the stack between that bracket and the seat.
Check the bolt pattern first: Cobra uses 291mm x 330mm, Sparco and OMP share 345mm x 271mm, and Recaro uses 405mm x 280mm. Bolt the bracket to the factory floor points, fit the runner to the bracket, then the seat to the runner, and test the full travel with your weight in the seat before checking belt buckle and door card clearance. Runners add around 25mm of height, so factor that into your headroom.
