Hundreds Of Products Ready Today. Dispatch/Collection Customer Question: Fitting Cobra GT3 Historic Seats To A 1972 Alfa Romeo GTV 1750
Customer question, 1972 Alfa Romeo GTV 1750, 105 series
This came in by email about one specific line on one specific listing, and it deserves a proper answer because it is the line that puzzles almost everyone fitting seats to a classic. The listing is our pair of Cobra GT3 Historic buckets with silver eyelets, £948.00 the pair, and the line is Brackets included: Seat only. The car they are going into is a 1972 Alfa Romeo GTV 1750, the 105 series coupe, which makes this a lovely pairing and a very answerable question.
Short version: the seats arrive as seats, the runners are a separate part, and on a car this age the last few centimetres between runner and floor are always a measuring-and-adapting job, not a catalogue number. Here is the whole picture.
- "Seat only" means the shell and its base: runners and mounting are separate parts
- The GT3 Historic is base mounted on Cobra’s 291mm x 330mm pattern
- Cobra sliding runners in the 291mm handle option bolt straight to it, £84.00 a seat
- No off-the-shelf subframe exists for a 105 GTV: every install adapts the original mounts or the floor
- The pair is £948.00 including VAT, and there is a single-seat route too
What "Brackets included: Seat only" actually means
Every seat on our site carries that line, and it answers one question: what is in the box beyond the seat itself? On this listing the answer is nothing, which is normal for a classic bucket. You get two complete seats, each a steel framed shell with its trim, headrests and those silver eyelets. What you add is whatever connects them to your particular car, and that splits into two layers: the runners that give you fore and aft adjustment, and the mounting that connects runner to floor.
On a modern car the second layer is a bolt-in subframe we pull off a shelf. On a 1972 Alfa it is not, and pretending otherwise is how classic owners end up with parts that fit nothing. So here is what we genuinely supply, and where the fabricator or your own drill comes in.
The parts list for your GTV
The GT3 Historic is a base mount seat on Cobra’s own 291mm x 330mm bolt pattern. That single fact decides the shopping list.
1. The seats
The pair you found, £948.00 including VAT. Steel framed, Road and Track approval, headrests in, silver eyelets on the harness routing. Drawn for drivers under six foot with a 32 to 36 inch waist, and worth checking yourself against that before ordering, because a classic cabin forgives nothing.
2. The runners
Cobra Premium Sliding Runners at £84.00 a seat, and the option that matters: pick the 291mm wide handle type, which is the width drilled into every Cobra base mount seat including these. They bolt to the seat base before the seat goes anywhere near the car, and they give you the fore and aft travel a shared classic needs.
3. The interface to the floor
This is the layer no catalogue covers for a 105. Endurance adaption bars at £39.00 are the usual starting point for marrying runners to original mounting points, and some installs skip them for fabricated plates instead. Which way yours goes depends on what your floor and original slides look like, and that is a measuring job, not a guess.
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From £70.00 Excl. VAT Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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From £32.50 Excl. VATPerfect add-onSelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
The two ways it goes into a 105 series shell
Every classic seat install we see comes down to one of two routes, and your GTV will be the same.
Route one: adapt the original mounting. The 105’s original seats sit on their own slides on raised floor mounts. If those mounts are sound, the neatest install keeps that original floor interface and adapts what sits on top: adaption bars or fabricated plates connect the original mounting positions to the new runners. The car keeps its original holes, and the whole job reverses if the car ever goes back to standard, which on a matching-numbers 1750 is worth caring about.
Route two: fabricate to the floor. Where the original mounts are corroded, missing or in the wrong place for your seating position, a fabricator makes a simple base that bolts to the strongest points of the floor and takes the runners on top. More work, but it lets you set the seat height and reach exactly where you want them, and on a car you drive hard that is worth having.
Why the GT3 Historic suits this car
The 105 GTV has one of the prettiest cabins of its era, and the fastest way to ruin it is a modern-looking shell with a halo top and dayglo stitching. The GT3 Historic goes the other way: a period silhouette, black trim, and the silver eyelets doing the talking, so it reads as something the car could have worn in period. You keep the headrests, you get real side support the original flat seats never had, and the harness routing is there if the car does the occasional sprint or hillclimb.
One honest check before you commit: sit in one if you can, or give us your height and waist. The listing draws it for under six foot and a 32 to 36 inch waist, and Garreth would rather tell you now than after a pair has crossed the country. And if the GTV ever gets a cage, we stock the Safety Devices bolt-in rear cage listed for the 1750 GTV coupe specifically, so the seats will not be the only thing in the catalogue that knows your car.
Common questions
Do you sell a ready-made seat subframe for the Alfa 105?
No, and nor does anyone we would trust. Cars of this age vary too much floor to floor. The honest route is runners on the seat, then adaption bars or fabricated plates to your original mounts, measured on your actual car.
Which runner width do I need for these seats?
The 291mm wide handle option on the Cobra Premium Sliding Runners. That is the width Cobra drill into their base mount seats, including the GT3 Historic. The 405mm option is for other seats, not these.
Can I keep my original seat slides?
Sometimes, and it is the neatest result when it works: the original slides stay on the floor and an adapter marries them to the new seat base. Whether yours are strong and flat enough is a ten minute inspection job. Send us photos of the slides and floor mounts and Cameron will tell you which route he would take.
Will these seats work with my original static belts?
Yes. The eyelets are for a harness if you ever fit one, and the seat does not interfere with the original belt mountings, which stay on the car, not the seat. Once fitted, check the buckle falls to hand and does not trap against the shell.
I am over six foot. Is this still the seat?
Maybe not, and better to know now. The listing is drawn for under six foot with a 32 to 36 inch waist. Tell us your height and waist and we will either confirm it or point you at a classic shell that fits you properly. The showroom has shells to sit in if you can get to Nottingham.
Two photos settle the whole mounting question: one of the floor mounts with the seat out, one of the original slides underneath. Cameron will tell you whether to adapt or fabricate, confirm the 291mm runners and the bars, and put the whole lot through as one order with the seats.
Where to go next
Ring 0115 9893488 with your height, your waist, and those two photos, and this goes from an email question to a parts list in one call. For the wider thinking on classic seats and tight period cabins, our retro classic seat guide walks through the same decisions on another sixties shell.