Fitting A Corbeau LE-Driver Seat To Your Lotus Elise Or Exige
Fitting guide, Corbeau LE-Driver
This question turns up most weeks and it always arrives the same way: somebody has decided on the LE-Driver because it looks the most serious of the Corbeau Lotus seats, and they want to know whether it drops in like an LE-Pro. It does not, and it is worth knowing why before the money leaves your account.
There are two separate jobs that get tangled together on the forums. One is a small drilling job that only applies to an S1. The other is that the LE-Driver mounts a different way from the rest of the range. Cameron untangles this on the phone constantly, so here it is written down.
- The LE-Pro, LE-Standard and LE-X are sold by Corbeau as Lotus specific and use the brackets in the car
- The LE-Driver is not in that group: it is a side mount shell on M10 fixings
- So it is the one seat here that needs its mounting worked out for your car, not assumed
- The S1 drilling job is separate: one M6 bolt hole, and it applies to the other LE seats too
- On an S2 the other three need no drilling at all
- We do not list a Corbeau side mount for the Driver, so that part is a phone call, not a click
The short answer
The LE-Driver will go in a Lotus. It was built around small cockpits and it suits the car. What it will not do is bolt onto the seat brackets already in the floor the way an LE-Pro does, because it is not the same kind of seat underneath.
Corbeau sell three of the four LE seats as Lotus specific, and the LE-Driver is not one of them. Their own description of it is a side mounted seat on M10 fixings, designed for cars with limited space and small cockpit track day cars. Ours says the same thing in different words: it needs side mounts for a secure fitment. Neither says it drops onto the Lotus subframe, and the other three listings say exactly that in as many words.
If what you want is the seat in the car this weekend with no thinking, that is an LE-Pro or an LE-Standard. If you want the Driver specifically, carry on reading, because it is a conversation about mounting before it is an order.
Which of the four you are actually looking at
All four share a look, which is why they get muddled. The difference that matters here is not the shape or the trim, it is how each one attaches to your car.
| Seat | How Corbeau sell it | How it mounts | Price inc VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| LE-Standard | Lotus specific | Onto the existing Elise or VX subframe | £636.00 |
| LE-Pro | Lotus specific | Onto the existing Elise or VX subframe | £660.00 |
| LE-X | Lotus specific | Onto the existing Elise or VX subframe | £612.00 |
| LE-Driver | Not badged Lotus specific | Side mount, M10 fixings, mounting to be specced | £612.00 |
System 1 shells, the entry GRP and Kevlar composite. Prices on the day of writing.
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From £636.00 Incl. VATPayPal CreditKlarna ReadySelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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From £660.00 Incl. VATPayPal CreditKlarna ReadySelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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From £612.00 Incl. VATPayPal CreditKlarna ReadySelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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From £612.00 Incl. VATPayPal CreditKlarna ReadySelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Why the Driver is different
Corbeau built the Driver as a track seat. It has the deep sides and the five slot harness facility, and it was drawn for hard driving where the standard seat gives up. To get a shell like that low and held properly you mount it through its sides, not through its base, and side mounting is a different problem from bolting a seat to an existing bracket.
That is the whole of it. Nothing is wrong with the seat and nothing is wrong with your car. A side mount seat needs the mounting worked out between the shell and whatever is on your floor, and on a car as tightly packaged as an Elise that is a job worth doing properly, because seat height, angle and where you end up in relation to the wheel are all decided by it.
Side mounted
The shell picks up through its sides on M10 fixings, which is Corbeau’s own published figure for this seat.
Not a base mount seat
Which is why our Corbeau LE-Universal frame is not the answer either. That frame is base mount, and Corbeau say plainly it is not made for side mounted seats.
Specced, not assumed
Send us the car, the year and photographs of what is on the floor now, and we will work the mounting out with you before anything is ordered.
The M6 hole, and who actually needs it
This is the bit that gets repeated as though it were the LE-Driver’s problem, and it is not. Every LE seat we list carries the same note: the seats are designed for both the S1 and the S2, and on an S1 a small modification is required, where a bolt hole needs drilling to let the M6 bolt pass through.
So it is an S1 job, not a Driver job. Put an LE-Pro in an S1 and you are drilling that hole as well. Put any of them in an S2 and you are not. It is one hole, it is in the mounting, not in your chassis, and it is nothing like the undertaking it sounds when somebody types redrilling into a forum thread.
Keep it separate in your head from the M10 fixings on the Driver. One is a bolt size on the seat, the other is a hole on an S1. They get quoted in the same breath constantly and they are unrelated.
What to sort before you order
S1 or S2
It changes whether there is an M6 hole to drill. If you are not sure, the registration tells us.
What is on the floor
Standard Lotus brackets, or has something been changed already? A photograph with the seat out answers it in seconds.
Road or track
It steers the whole decision. A car that still does road miles is often better on an LE-Pro, and Garreth will say so.
Harnesses
The Driver has the five slot facility. If harnesses are the plan, tell us now so the seat and the belts get specced together.
One more thing worth saying while the seat is out. Corbeau list an optional pneumatic lumbar support on these shells, and on a fixed back seat in a car you actually drive, it is the option people wish they had taken. Ask about it at the time of order, because retrofitting it means the trim coming off.
Common questions
Can I just buy the LE-Driver and work the mounting out later?
You can, and some people do because they are fabricating anyway. If that is you, order away. If it is not, get the mounting settled first, because the seat is the part you cannot easily change your mind about once it is trimmed to your spec.
Is the LE-Driver better than the LE-Pro?
Different, not better. The Driver holds you harder and is aimed at track use. The Pro has lower sides and Corbeau intend it to work as an everyday seat, which is why it is our most popular Lotus upgrade. On a car that still does the shops, Garreth would take the Pro every time.
Does the LE-Driver fit an Exige as well as an Elise?
The same mounting question applies to both, and the Exige is tighter again around the sills. Tell us which car and which year and we will go from there instead of guessing off the model name.
What is the M10 for, exactly?
It is the bolt size Corbeau publish for the side mounted fitment on this seat, so it describes how the shell picks up. It is not a modification and it is nothing to do with the S1 M6 hole.
Do I need two seats or is the driver side different?
It is the same shell both sides, so a pair is quantity two on one listing. The mounting is what is handed, not the seat.
Will the standard seat belt still work?
That depends entirely on where the seat ends up once the mounting is settled, which is another reason we would rather spec it than assume it. Buckle clearance is the first thing Cameron checks on any Lotus seat job.
Send us the car and we will spec it
If the Driver is the seat you want, the quickest route is a photograph of your floor with the standard seat out, the car and the year, and whether it is going to see track days. From that we can tell you what the mounting looks like and what it costs before you commit to anything.
And if after all that the answer is that an LE-Pro does what you actually wanted, we will tell you that too. It is the seat we fit most in these cars for a reason. We are on 0115 9893488, or come and sit in both at the showroom, which settles it faster than any amount of reading.