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How To Fit Recaro SR Seats In A UK Car

Fitting guide, Recaro SR seats

This one lands in the inbox most weeks now. Somebody has bought a pair of Recaro SR seats out of Japan, they are sat in the hallway in their boxes, and the question is always the same: what do I bolt these to?

Short answer, and then we will do it properly. A car specific Planted Technology bracket on the floor, a Recaro double locking runner on top of that, and your seat on top of the runner. Cameron has quoted that stack so many times he does it without opening a catalogue.

The reason it works is the bolt pattern. An SR sits on the same 405mm Recaro base spacing as a Sportster CS or a Recaro Speed, which is a pattern the industry has been building parts around for years. You did not buy an orphan.

  • The SR line is Recaro Japan, so it is not in the European catalogue any UK dealer orders from
  • It sits on the Recaro base pattern, 405mm across, the same as a Sportster CS or a Speed
  • That means normal off the shelf parts: a Planted bracket and a Recaro runner, per seat
  • The Planted bracket is car specific, flat steel, and carries the seat belt tab
  • The Recaro double locking runner gives you 220mm of fore and aft and is sold per seat
  • Your seat almost certainly arrives with Japanese vehicle specific rails on it. They come off
A black suede reclining bucket seat bolted into a right-hand-drive coupe on a flat black steel floor bracket with a double locking sliding runner between the bracket and the seat
The whole answer in one photograph. Floor, flat bracket, runner, seat. Carpet trimmed back, original holes used, nothing cut.

What is on this page

  1. What an SR is
  2. The bolt pattern
  3. The bracket
  4. The runners
  5. The cheaper runner
  6. Worked example, E46
  7. Popular cars
  8. Before you order
  9. Common questions
  10. Talk to us

What a Recaro SR actually is

The SR is Recaro’s Japanese domestic sports seat line, and it has been going long enough to have a following of its own. The current family is the SR-6, the SR-7 and the SR-11, sat in that order from firmest and most focused to most comfortable, with different shell shapes and different densities of foam. Recaro closed orders on the SR-7 and the SR-7F at the end of January 2024 and introduced the SR-S and SR-C to replace them, so if you are buying used you will see both generations.

Here is the bit that catches people out, and it is worth being straight about it. These are not in the Recaro range we buy from. Recaro’s European catalogue, the one every UK dealer including us orders out of, has the Sportster CS, the Pole Position, the Profi and so on in it. The SR line is a separate Japanese range. It reaches this country through Japanese sellers, American sellers and a couple of European importers, and that is why you can buy the seat but nobody hands you the fitting kit with it.

So we cannot sell you an SR. We can sell you everything that goes underneath one, which is the part everybody actually gets stuck on.

If you have not bought yetA Sportster CS is the closest thing in the range we can supply, it is a current seat, and it mounts on the same pattern this whole guide is about. Ring us before you commit to an import and Garreth will tell you honestly which way the money is better spent.

The bolt pattern is why this works

Recaro base mounted seats use a 405mm wide bolt spacing underneath. That is the number that matters, and it is the same on an SR as it is on a Sportster CS or a Recaro Speed. It is also a pattern the aftermarket has drilled for since long before your seats were built, which is the whole reason an import bolts into a British car without anybody fabricating anything.

Be careful with the fore and aft measurement though. Recaro’s own Japanese rails are offered in more than one lengthwise spacing behind that fixed 405mm width, so do not assume your seat matches the last one somebody posted about on a forum. Put a tape across the four holes on the underside of your seat before you order anything, width and length, and send Cameron both numbers. It takes a minute and it is the difference between a Saturday morning job and a Saturday morning of swearing.

The mounting stack

FOUR LAYERS, BOTTOM TO TOPYour Recaro SR seatbought in Japan or the States, arrives with its own rails onRecaro double locking sliding runnerone per seat, 220mm of travel, this is what gives you fore and aftPlanted Technology seat bracketflat steel plate, car specific, seat belt tab welded onYour car floorthe four original seat bolt holes, nothing cut and nothing drilled405mmRecaro widthThe two middle layers are what you buy from us. The seat and the car are yours.Order both per seat. Two seats means two brackets and two runners.

Floor, bracket, runner, seat. Every Recaro SR install we talk people through is these four layers in this order.

The Planted Technology bracket

This is the part that makes the car specific bit go away. Planted laser cut them from 3/16 inch steel, hand weld them and powder coat them black, and each one is drawn around one car’s floor so it picks up the four original seat bolt holes. Nothing gets cut and nothing gets drilled in your car.

The top face is where the clever part is. It comes pre slotted with hole patterns for most of the seat makers, Recaro included, so the Recaro runner drops onto it without any messing about. Planted list Bride, Cobra, Corbeau, OMP, Sparco, Racetech, Sabelt, Takata and more alongside it.

And the seat belt tab, which is the thing Garreth always points at. Each bracket has a universal tab welded on for your seat belt receiver, so the buckle that came out with the original seat has somewhere proper to live. Planted say plainly that the tab is universal: you supply the bolt, washers and nut, grade 8 or better, you may have to bend the tab to get the buckle sitting where you want it, and on some cars you end up replacing the receiver itself. The same tab will take a harness lap belt if that is where you are headed.

One thing to know about Planted namingA few cars have a bracket with LOW in the title. That is not a lower version of the same plate, it is a different type of mount, so do not order one on the assumption it just sits your seat nearer the floor. Ask us which one your car and seat want.

The Recaro double locking runners

Nobody wants a seat they cannot move, and this is the part that gets forgotten in the budget. The runner is a third product. It goes between the bracket and the seat, it gives you 220mm of travel, and it is sold per seat, so a pair of seats is two of them.

Double locking means it locks on both rails instead of one side, which is what you want under a seat you are actually going to drive. They are the Recaro item, drilled for the Recaro pattern top and bottom, which is exactly why this whole stack goes together on standard parts.

Order two. Every time somebody rings up short of something on this job, it is the runners. If you are doing both seats, take the pair listing, which we price under two singles.

The cheaper runner, and when we would use it

Endurance Motorsport cut a runner kit to the same Recaro 405 pattern, and it is well under half the price of the Recaro item. It is not the Recaro part and we do not claim the same locking arrangement for it, so on a car you drive every day Garreth would still put the Recaro runner underneath. On a weekend car it is a sensible saving and we sell plenty of them.

A worked example: BMW E46 coupe

Garreth picked this one because it is the car we get asked about more than any other for this job, and because the numbers are easy to follow. Say you have a pair of SR-7s and an E46 coupe.

You need the coupe bracket, part SB007, and you need it twice, once for each side. Count the doors before you order: the E46 saloon is a different bracket, SB121, because the floor is different. Then a Recaro double locking runner for each seat, and that is the shopping list finished.

PartPer seatTwo seats
Planted E46 coupe bracket, SB007£222.60£445.20
Recaro double locking sliding runner£166.94£327.89 as a pair
Your Recaro SR seatyours alreadyyours already
Fitting kit total£389.54£773.09

Prices inc VAT, correct on the day of writing. The seats are the bit you already own.

While the carpet is up on an E46These cars are known for cracking around the rear subframe mounts and a lot of them have had structural repair. If yours has, have a proper look at the seat area with the trim out of the way before you bolt anything down. A bracket can only feed seat load into sound metal.

The cars we do this on most

SR seats end up in a fairly predictable set of cars, which makes sense given where they come from. These are the brackets that leave here most often for this exact job, all car specific, all taking the Recaro runner on top. If your car is not here, it is very likely still covered, because Planted make several hundred and we list them all.

Also on the shelf and asked about constantly: the E36 coupe bracket for the older three series, and the E46 saloon plate for four door cars. Ring us with the chassis code and the year and Cameron will confirm which plate your floor wants.

What to sort before you order

◫

Measure the seat

Four holes on the underside. Width and length, in millimetres. The width should come out at about 405mm. Send us both numbers.

⚙

Get the Japanese rails off

Imported seats nearly always arrive with vehicle specific rails already bolted on for a car you do not own. They come off and they are not part of this stack.

▢

Count the doors

Coupe and saloon are different brackets on most cars even within the same chassis code. Tell us the body as well as the year.

☰

Think about height

Bracket plus runner adds height under the seat. If you are tall, say so now, because on some cars there is a lower way to do it and it is easier to choose than to redo.

★

Buckle hardware

The seat belt tab is on the bracket, the bolt for it is not. Grade 8 or better, and expect to bend the tab to line the receiver up.

⏳

Airbag cars

If your car had side airbags in the seats, tell us before you order and we will talk it through with you properly.

Common questions

No. The SR is Recaro Japan and it is not in the European range we order from, so no UK dealer is going to have one on the shelf. What we can do is everything underneath it, and if you have not bought yet we will happily talk you through the European seats that do the same job.

You can fix mount it, and some people do for a track car. You lose all fore and aft adjustment, so unless one person drives the car and that person is you, put the runner in. It is the part people regret leaving out.

The 405mm width is the Recaro base pattern and it runs across the range, SR included. The fore and aft spacing is the one to check, because Recaro Japan offer more than one, so measure your own seat and tell us the number before we send anything.

Ring us. Planted cover several hundred cars and we list all of them, so it is worth checking properly first. If yours genuinely is not covered there are other routes, including a universal base or a fabricated plate, and Cameron will tell you which of those is sensible on your car.

The lap belt can go to the seat belt tab on the bracket. The shoulder straps are a different question and depend on what is behind the seat in your car, so that is a conversation rather than a product code.

One per seat, and they are handed, so a driver side and a passenger side. Same with the runners. If you are doing both seats, everything on this page doubles.

Bring us the numbers

If you have got the seats already, the fastest way through this is a tape measure and a phone call. Four holes underneath, width and length, plus the car, the year and the body. With that on a bit of paper Cameron can have the right bracket and the right pair of runners on their way the same day.

And if you are still deciding, come and sit in a few. The showroom is full of seats you can actually get into, which beats any amount of reading about shell widths. We are on 0115 9893488.

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