A lad came into the showroom the other week with a pair of Corsa VXR seats in the back of his car and an Astra H sat at home on the drive. He wanted to know which bracket to buy. We get that one across the counter most weeks and the honest answer is that there is no bracket with your name on it, because Vauxhall never meant those seats to leave a Corsa.
Which has never stopped anybody. Cameron usually has the tape measure out before the customer has finished the sentence, because the whole job comes down to two numbers off the bottom of the seat, and on a VXR seat those two numbers are very good news. So this page is that conversation, written down. What you have actually got there, which frame we would sell you for an Astra H, what it costs, and the bits people forget about until there is a seat halfway in.
What is on this page
Start with the seat, because the rest of it follows on. A factory seat is really two things bolted together. There is the seat you sit in, and underneath there is a steel base that Vauxhall cut to suit one car. On a Corsa VXR that base is set to the Corsa’s floor spacing, at the Corsa’s height, with the belt stalk hung off it where the Corsa wanted it and a loom that plugs into a Corsa. None of that is a standard. It is a part number for one model and it does not travel.
Aftermarket subframes are the other half of the story. An OMP or a Recaro frame for the Astra H is drilled for the patterns the seat brands publish, because seat brands are who buys them. Every frame listing on our site carries a line saying the frames are not suitable for OEM seats taken out of another vehicle. That line is ours and we stand by it. What makes this one work anyway is what a Corsa VXR seat turns out to be once you get the base off.
Cut for the Corsa floor, at the Corsa's ride height, with the Corsa's belt stalk and wiring hung off it. It has nothing to offer an Astra and it is the part that comes off. Sell it on, somebody rebuilding a Corsa will want it.
A subframe is cut to the patterns Recaro, Sparco, Cobra and the rest publish. That is why our listings ask you to tell us which seat is going on top, and why nobody in the trade will promise you a factory seat lands on the holes.
You take an aftermarket frame, use it as a base, and mount a factory seat to it. It works on this pairing because of what the VXR seat is made of. Nobody lists it as a fitment and we are not going to start.
Corsa VXR seats are built on the Recaro Sportster CS. Same shell, same shape, Vauxhall trim on top. That is why they feel closer to a proper sports seat than anything else Vauxhall put in a hatchback, and it is why the mounting is good news. The base sits on the Recaro pattern: 405mm across from bolt hole centre to bolt hole centre, and about 290mm front to back. Those are aftermarket dimensions. They are nothing to do with Vauxhall.
Put them next to the other two patterns you meet on a subframe and you can see the problem straight away. Sparco and OMP seats sit on 345mm across by 271mm front to back. Cobra seats sit on 291mm by 330mm. Both of those are narrower than a VXR seat needs. So the frame you want is one with enough width across the top to pick up 405mm, and honestly that is the only question worth asking before you spend anything. OMP and Planted are the two brands customers keep coming back and telling us worked, and this is why.
We list Astra Mk5 subframes from five brands. Two of them are worth your time here, because they are the two with enough width across the top for a 405mm base. The other three are set up around their own brands’ patterns and they are the right buy when one of those seats is going in.
£144.90 including VAT a side, and it is what we sell most of. A steel subframe that bolts to the chassis floor where the old seat base was. Garreth's view is that at that money you buy it and stop thinking about it.
£325.56 a side, built for Recaro seats going into an Astra H. A VXR seat is a Recaro underneath, so the frame and the thing you are bolting to it come out of the same family. Dearer, and the neater of the two.
One frame does one seat, so a pair means two. OMP box a pair as HC850-X2 at £289.80 including VAT, which saves you adding the same thing to the basket twice and getting the handing wrong.
OMP make a steel frame for the Astra Mk5, finished in black, that bolts to the chassis floor where the factory seat base was. The listing is straight about what it is. The frame gets you down to the floor, and the mounting between the frame and the seat is the part that has to suit whatever is going on top. That is why the page asks you to tell us the seat when you order.
On this job that one line does all the work. Put Corsa VXR seats into an Astra H in the comments box, or ring it through, and the frame gets checked against the seat base before it leaves us. OMP also say bolt point tolerances run to about ten millimetres, so a bit of persuasion at the floor end is normal on any of these frames. It usually means the frame is fine and the car has been to a body shop at some point in its life.
No bolts in the box unless the listing says so. Get a set of M8 and M10 fixings on the same order while you are thinking about it. Everybody forgets, and then it is Sunday afternoon and every motor factor within ten miles is shut.
Recaro do their own Astra H frame, part 864716, at £325.56 including VAT a side. It is the dear option by a fair margin and there is a decent argument for it. A Corsa VXR seat came off a Recaro line in the first place, so the frame and the seat share a design family and the same 405mm base. If the budget stretches and you want the neatest job in the car, this is the one.
Two other Recaro Astra frames are listed and it is worth knowing which is which. Part 864416 covers the two door Astra G and H, which is the shell most of these swaps end up in. Part 863316 covers the four door. All three are priced for one seat, so a pair means ordering twice and picking the side each time.
Same caveat as everywhere else on this page. Recaro list these for Recaro seats, and a factory seat out of a Corsa is not on anybody’s fitment sheet. Tell us what is going on top and we will check it against the frame first.
If you have read our guide to transferring seats from a Corsa VXR you will have seen us name Planted Technology brackets as the usual first answer. That still stands. Planted brackets are very well made, they work to the same 405mm pattern, they turn up quickly, and on most cars they are the cheapest neat way to get a VXR seat mounted.
The Astra H is where that falls down, and it is worth saying why. Planted are American and they build to American applications. The Astra H only reached the States for a couple of years badged as a Saturn Astra, and Planted never did a bracket for it. There is no Astra in their range and we do not stock one.
So on this car the OMP frame does the job Planted would normally do. Off the shelf, steel, sensible money, wide enough, in stock. If the project moves to a different shell later on, go back to the transfer guide and check the Planted list first.
The order of it is simpler than people expect. The Corsa base comes off the seat. The Astra frame goes on the floor. The seat goes on the frame, with a runner in between if you want it to slide. Everything under the seat is chosen for the Astra, and the seat is the only thing that comes across from the Corsa.
There are three things worth settling before you order, and all three are much easier to sort out now than with a seat in your hands. The first is height. A frame, plus a runner, plus the seat base is a taller stack than the Astra’s own arrangement, and how much taller depends which frame you land on, so there is no single figure we can give you. If your headroom is tight, or you drive in a helmet, measure what you have got now and tell us when you ring.
The second is the seat belt buckle. On the Corsa the stalk hangs off the base you are taking off, so you keep the Astra’s own buckle, and it wants to finish up somewhere your hand goes without you thinking about it. The third is the wiring. Corsa plugs do not match an Astra loom, and VXR seats came heated and with side airbags depending on which car they came out of, so there may well be more connectors under there than you are expecting. Have the trim off and a look before the frames land.
A runner is what lets the seat slide back and forth, and it has to be on the same 405mm handle width as the seat base. Four of ours cover it. Recaro’s own double locking runner is the good one at £166.94 including VAT a side, with 220mm of travel, and Recaro list it for their base mounted seats and for anything else on roughly 405mm, which is us. The Endurance Motorsport Recaro compatible kit does the same job at £95.04. Corbeau’s runner comes in four handle widths and the Motorsport XL is the 405mm one, £58.80 a side or £117.60 for a boxed pair. There is a full guide to all of them if you want the detail.
All five brands do an Astra Mk5 frame. The column that matters here is the middle one, because it tells you which seat pattern the frame is set up around, and therefore whether a 405mm base has anything to land on.
| Frame | Part number | Built around | For a 405mm seat base | Price inc VAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OMP Astra Mk5 | HC850 | Wide, adaptable | Right width | £144.90 per seat |
| OMP Astra Mk5, boxed pair | HC850-X2 | Wide, adaptable | Right width | £289.80 for two |
| Recaro Astra H | 864716 | Recaro, 405mm | Right width | £325.56 per seat |
| Recaro Astra G and H, 2 door | 864416 | Recaro, 405mm | Right width | £301.75 per seat |
| Recaro Astra G and H, 4 door | 863316 | Recaro, 405mm | Right width | £301.75 per seat |
| Corbeau Opel Astra H | OpelAstraH | Corbeau seats | Ask us first | £294.00 per seat |
| Sparco Astra Mk5, 3 door | 00499024 | Sparco, 345mm | Ask us first | £111.00 per seat |
Prices include VAT and were correct on 5 August 2026. Every frame above is priced for one seat unless the row says otherwise.
Worth doing the sums if you have not bought the seats yet. The seat these are based on, the Recaro Sportster CS, is £1,581.30 including VAT each brand new. A used pair of VXR seats, two OMP frames and a pair of runners lands a very long way under that. It is the whole reason this swap has stayed popular for twenty years.
What you give up is the fitment sheet. A new Sportster CS on the Recaro Astra H frame is a listed combination with a known answer. This job is not, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If that certainty is worth more to you than the saving, buy the seat.
There is a middle road people forget about too. Our Astra Mk5 bucket seat guide covers every seat we list for this car with the frame that suits each one, and plenty of them come in well under a Recaro. If what you like about the VXR seats is the support and not the badge, start there.
No, and nothing on the market makes them. The Corsa base is cut for the Corsa floor, so it comes off and an Astra H subframe goes where it was. What makes the job realistic is the seat underneath that base, which sits on the aftermarket 405mm Recaro pattern, so an Astra frame has something to bolt to.
The OMP HC850 for most people, £144.90 including VAT a side or £289.80 for the boxed pair. The Recaro 864716 at £325.56 a side is the neater job if the budget stretches, because it comes from the same design family as the seat. Either way, put Corsa VXR seats into an Astra H in the order comments so we can check it before it ships.
Only if you want the seat to move back and forth. If you do, the runner has to be on the 405mm handle width to match the seat base. That means Recaro's double locking runner, the Endurance Motorsport Recaro compatible kit, or Corbeau's Motorsport XL. One kit does one seat, so a pair of seats needs two.
People try it, and it turns into a fabrication job, because the Corsa base does not line up with the Astra floor. Cutting and welding an OEM base is not something we can sell you parts for or give you advice on. The frame route is there so you do not have to go down that road.
Two OMP frames at £289.80 for the pair, a pair of runners from £117.60 if you want the adjustment, and bolts. Call it under £450 including VAT on the parts side if you take the cheapest route, against £1,581.30 for one new Sportster CS. Fitting time is yours or your garage's.
The pair of OMP HC850 frames at £289.80. A pair of Corbeau Motorsport XL runners at £117.60 if you want the seat to slide. A set of M8 and M10 fixings while you are at it. That is the route that gets the most Astras finished, and it is the one Garreth would take in his own car.
Before any of it, measure the seat base. Two numbers, across the front holes and down one side. Near 405 and 290 and the rest of it is spanner work. Anything else and you want to ring us with the figures before you order, because then the frame changes.
If the seats are still on eBay and not in your boot yet, have a read of the Astra Mk5 bucket seat guide first. There is a fair chance the seat you actually want is one we already list with a frame worked out for it.
And if none of that settles it, the number is at the top of the page. If you are anywhere near us, bring a seat into the showroom and we will put a tape on it with you. That is usually the quickest way to end the argument.
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