- "Subframe - Mechanism Option" is a required field.
Customer Question: Fitting Sabelt GT3 Seats Into A Mercedes C32 AMG
Customer question, Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG W203
A message came in on Friday. Chap has a C32 AMG, the W203, and he wants a pair of Sabelt GT3s in it. He had already worked out that a GT3 is a side mount seat and was asking what carries it.
Cameron had the parts side answered in about a minute, because on a W203 it is the same few things every time. Garreth read the message over his shoulder and asked a completely different question, which was whether the car still had its original seats in it and what was plugged into the bottom of them.
- Four parts, floor upwards: Planted bracket, sliding runner, Sabelt side mounts, then the GT3
- Bracket £222.60 a side, runner £40.80, side mounts from £53.22, GT3 £517.20 each
- Driver side comes to £833.82, both sides in a pair is £1,655.64
- The runner keeps the fore and aft adjustment, so the seat is not fixed in one spot
- Two of the Sabelt side mount sets have the same title and are different lengths
- A W203 has side airbags in the seats and wiring under them. That is the real job
What actually carries the seat
Floor upwards, four parts. A Planted bracket bolts to the mounting points Mercedes put in the floor. A sliding runner goes on top of the bracket. A pair of Sabelt side mounts bolts to the runner. The GT3 hangs between the side mounts on its shell flanges.
A fixed back bucket has no base to sit on, which is the bit people miss. It is a shell with holes in its sides, so something has to hold it by those sides at the right height and the right angle. That is what the side mounts are for.
| Layer | Part | Price inc VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Onto the W203 floor | Planted Technology bracket, one a side | £222.60 each |
| On top of the bracket | Endurance sliding runner, one a seat | £40.80 each |
| On top of the runner | Sabelt side mounts, one set a seat | From £53.22 a set |
| Between the side mounts | Sabelt GT3 FIA bucket seat | £517.20 each, £1,022.40 the pair |
Driver side on its own is £833.82. Both sides, buying the seats as a pair, is £1,655.64.
The bracket, and the bit Planted are honest about
Planted do one for the W203 saloon, part SB157, cut from 3/16 inch steel and bolted to the factory floor points. Nothing welded, no fresh holes in your floor, and the original seats go back in if the car is ever sold on.
Planted’s own page says the bracket is drilled for sliders from most of the major manufacturers, and that beyond those holes they leave extra material for drilling your own pattern, or for mounting a seat or a side mount direct where you would rather do without a slider.
Which means the holes you need may have to be made. Cameron does that with a pillar drill and thinks nothing of it. On a driveway with a cordless it is worth knowing before the seats arrive, not after.
- £222.60 inc VAT a side, part SB157
- For the W203 saloon, 2000 to 2007
- The coupe is a different part, SB089-5009, so count the doors
- 3/16 inch steel, bolts to Mercedes’ own floor points
- A fixed platform, so the sliding comes from the runner above it
- Made to order, so ask us for a lead time when you ring
The runner, so you can still reach the pedals
The Planted bracket is a flat platform and does not move. Put a runner between it and the side mounts and you get the fore and aft adjustment back, which on a road car you want.
The Endurance kit is the one for this job. It is built around the 290mm hole centres that most FIA seats use, and Sabelt is one of them. Recaro and Sparco are the two that are not, and they have their own versions of this runner at 405mm and 345mm, which is a trap worth knowing about if you ever change the seats.
One kit does one seat.
- £40.80 inc VAT each, part Endurance-slide-1
- Universal 290mm FIA pattern, which is what a Sabelt uses
- Goes between the bracket and the side mounts
- Built for fixed back bucket seats
Which Sabelt side mounts, and why two look identical
Sabelt make their side mounts in steel and in alloy, and all of them are FIA compliant. The 3mm steel set is the one we would put under a road car: strong, cheapest of the four, and nobody is counting grams on a C32. The alloy sets are there if you are.
Two of these sets have exactly the same name on our site. They are not the same part. One is standard length and one is extended, and the extended set measures 324mm between the furthest mounting holes.
Length sets where the seat ends up fore and aft. Go by the part number in this table.
| Part number | Material | Length | Price inc VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Z200004 | 3mm steel | Standard | £53.22 |
| Z200005B | 5mm lightened alloy | Standard | £95.40 |
| Z200005F | 5mm alloy, CNC machined | Standard | £107.40 |
| Z200045B | 5mm lightened alloy | Extended, 324mm | £111.00 |
One set covers one seat. Sabelt also do an XL set, but that is cut for their XL shells, not the GT3.
Those four are the Sabelt sets that suit a GT3. Other makers do side mounts that will carry this seat as well, and they are in the side mounts category if you want to compare. Tell us what you are bolting to and we will tell you whether the holes line up. Runners live in the sliding runners category alongside them.
The seat itself
The GT3 is Sabelt’s fibreglass shell in black velour, 8.7kg, with five harness slots and a removable leg support. It takes a three point belt or a four, five or six point harness, and it is cut to work with a head and neck device. FIA 8855-1999.
On size, it is a 32 to 36 inch waist shell and it suits most heights. A bucket that is too narrow stops being fun about twenty minutes into a journey, so if you are above that, say so and we will point you at a wider shell instead of selling you the wrong one.
The FIA date on the label runs from when the seat was built, not from the day you bought it. People get that the wrong way round all the time. If the car is only ever going on the road it makes no odds at all.
Single, the pair, and the Taurus XL alongside for anyone who needs more room across the hips. The rest of the range is in the Sabelt seats category, and every one of them is side mount, so nothing else on this page changes if you pick a different shell.
Before anything comes out of the car
On a C32 this is what decides whether the job is a Saturday or a fortnight.
A W203 is a well equipped car. The front seats carry side airbags, there is wiring running under them, and on an AMG there is a fair chance the seats are electrically adjusted with the motors and the loom built in. All of that goes out of the car with the original seat, and a GT3 has nowhere for any of it to go.
Our own listing for the bracket says it in one line: side airbags and powered seat wiring, tell us the specification before anything comes out.
Cameron’s instinct is that the mounting is simple and he is right, it is. Garreth’s point is that the mounting was never the expensive half.
What changes when they go in
None of this is an argument against the seats. You asked for GT3s and they are a proper thing to put in a C32.
The adjustment you keep, because of the runner. What you give up is the recline, and on a car two people share that is the thing they notice first. A GT3 sits where a GT3 sits and the backrest angle is the backrest angle.
The rake is meant to be there
A bucket sits with the back a little lower than the front, and that is deliberate: it stops you sliding forward under braking. Do not put a spirit level on it and flatten it out.
The belt buckle needs a home
On a W203 the buckle comes off the original seat frame. Once that seat is out it needs somewhere solid to live. It is what holds you in a crash and it is an MOT item, so it is not a bodge job.
Getting in takes practice
High sides and a fixed back make a saloon door feel narrower than it is. Everybody manages it. It is worth sitting in one in the showroom first if you can get to us.
Saloon, estate or coupe
The C32 was built as a saloon and as an estate, and the saloon is much the more common of the two here. Both are the W203 family and the SB157 bracket is the saloon listing.
The coupe is where people come unstuck. Mercedes put a C-Class badge on the CL203 sports coupe, and underneath it takes the SB089 bracket along with the CLK, not this one. So count the doors before you order, and if yours is the estate send us the registration and we will check it against the saloon listing instead of guessing for you.
Common questions
Do I really need the runner?
You can bolt the side mounts straight to the bracket and skip it, and some people do on a track car where one driver sets it once. On a road C32 we would put the runner in. Forty pounds to still be able to reach the pedals is not a difficult sum.
Do the side mounts bolt straight to the runner?
Usually, because both are on the common FIA pattern. Where drilling comes up is between the bracket and the runner, and Planted leave extra material on the bracket for exactly that. Send us the part numbers and we will tell you what to expect before you start.
Can I keep the standard seat belt?
The GT3 will take a three point belt, so in principle yes. The catch on a W203 is that the buckle side comes off the original seat, so it needs relocating to something solid. Worth a conversation before you order.
Will it fail an MOT?
A tester wants the seat secure, properly mounted and the belt anchorage sound. Bolting a purpose made bracket to the car’s own floor points is the straightforward way there. An airbag warning light is a separate conversation and one to have with your tester.
Is my seat still in date for FIA competition?
Look at the label on the seat, not the invoice. The validity runs from when the seat was built. For road and track day use it does not apply at all.
One set of side mounts or two?
One set carries one seat, so a pair of seats needs two sets, two runners and two brackets. Order them together and it all turns up at once.
Could I put a reclining seat in instead?
You could, and the same Planted bracket takes one, though a base mount recliner uses a runner rather than side mounts. Our reclining seat guide for the C-Class goes through the ones we would suggest.
Tell us the seat specification
Before you order anything, tell us what the original seats in your C32 actually are. Electric or manual, heated or not, and whether there is a plug underneath them. That one answer changes how big this job is far more than the choice of bracket does.
Ring the showroom on 0115 9893488 with the registration and that bit of detail, and we will put the brackets, the runners, the side mounts and the seats on one order so the whole lot arrives together.