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GSM Performance Customer Car Colouring Book Edition 1
How To Sit Lower In Your Mazda MX-5 Mk3 (NC)
Fitting guide, Mazda MX-5 Mk3 (NC)
Cameron hears this one most after somebody's first track day in an NC. The car is fine on the road, then the helmet goes on and the top of it is level with the roll bar, or sitting above the screen with the roof down. The question on the phone is always the same: how do I get lower?
We have written up the NC seat options and the full fitting job already, so this page sticks to that one question. For a bucket seat in this car the lowest setup we sell comes down to three things: a fixed frame with no sliders, a fibreglass seat, and a cushion you can take out.
- The lowest route we sell is the PCI Racing fixed position mount, listed as the PCI Adjustable Seat Mount, £252.00 per seat
- The Cybul NC seat mount, £227.94 per side, is the other good route, as long as it goes in without sliders
- Any sliding runner kit lifts the seat by about 25mm, so fixed always sits lower
- The seat has to be fibreglass: steel frame seats put a thicker base under you
- Sparco Rev QRT for smaller drivers, Sparco Evo QRT for a little more room
- Both Sparcos have a removable base cushion, out for track days and back in for the road
- The PCI and Cybul frames both carry their own side mounts, so the order is seat plus frame and nothing else
What we have covered already
If you are still choosing a seat for the NC, start with our MX-5 Mk3 bucket seat guide. If you have already picked a Sparco Evo L, the Evo L fitting guide goes through the job step by step. Mk1 and Mk2 owners have their own sit lower guide, because the older cars are a different job.
This page is for the NC driver who wants the last few millimetres of helmet room and will give up some adjustment to get it; if you are keeping the factory seats, the Jass lowering adapters are the route for those.
The kit: PCI's fixed position mount
PCI Racing make two fittings for the NC. The one that matters here is the fixed position kit, listed as the PCI Adjustable Seat Mount, £252.00. The name catches people out. Adjustable means you set the height and angle when you fit it, not that the seat slides once it is in. There are no runners, so there is no slide mechanism under you, and the seat sits as close to the floor as a side mounted bucket gets in this car.
The other kit is the sliding sub frame at £330.00, which keeps your fore and aft adjustment, but the runners have to live somewhere and they live under you, which puts the seat 25mm higher (a figure off our own bench).
Garreth’s view is that if you are the only one driving the car, the slider is £78 spent on going higher. Cameron will still put a shared car on the slider every time, because a seat nobody else can drive is a problem of its own. Both are right. This guide is for the first car.
Both PCI kits carry the side mount uprights themselves and bolt to the factory seat mounting points, so on a standard car there is no drilling and no separate side mounts to buy.
There is one other frame Garreth is happy to put in an NC for this job: the Cybul NC seat mount at £227.94 per side, fitted without sliders. Like the PCI kit it comes with its own side mount plates, so again it is the seat and the mount and nothing else. The Planted bracket for the NC is a good part, but it sits higher, so it is not the one for this page. The rule on every one of these is the same: fixed gets you lower by about 25mm, because that is the height of a sliding runner kit.
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Why it has to be a fibreglass seat
This is where a lot of low mounts get wasted. A steel frame seat such as the Cobra Monaco Pro or the Sparco Sprint is a good seat for the money, but it has a tube frame and a padded base under you, and that base is thicker than the floor of a fibreglass shell. Put one on the fixed kit and you give back a good part of what the kit just saved you.
A fibreglass bucket is a single moulded shell with the trim and cushion on top of it, so the thing you sit on is thinner. Garreth puts it simply: the lowest kit on the thickest seat is a waste of the kit.
| Seat | Construction | Size (Sparco figures) | Base cushion | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sparco Rev QRT | Fibreglass | 560mm wide, 865mm tall | Removable | £414.00 |
| Sparco Evo QRT | Fibreglass | 580mm at the shoulders, 490mm base, 900mm tall | Removable, two part | £570.00 |
| Cobra Monaco Pro, Sparco Sprint | Steel frame | Thicker base under you | Fixed padding | Not the seat for this job |
Rev or Evo
The Sparco Rev QRT is the one for smaller drivers, the narrower and shorter of the two shells, and in an NC it suits a slim driver who wants the car to feel snug.
The Sparco Evo QRT is for the driver who is a little bigger. It has more room at the shoulders and a wider base. If the Evo still pinches, the Evo L is the wide shell version, with its own guide linked above.
This is the one where Garreth and Cameron do not quite agree. Garreth would put anyone who fits it in the Rev, because every millimetre counts in this car. Cameron would rather someone was comfortable for a full session, and a Rev that pinches at the hips after twenty minutes gets taken out. If you can get to the showroom, sit in both, because that settles it in about ten minutes.
The track day trick: take the cushion out
Both the Rev and the Evo have a base cushion that Sparco designed to come out. On a track day, lift it out and you are sitting on the shell itself, which drops you a little further and gives you more room under the roll bar with a helmet on.
For the road, put it back. Without a helmet you have the head room to spare, and the cushion is what makes the seat comfortable on a long drive. We do not put a millimetre figure on it, because it depends how far the cushion squashes under you.
If you compete, check with your scrutineer before you run the bare shell. And whenever the seat height changes, look at your belt angles again. The harness fitting guide has the numbers. If anything about your car does not match what is here, drop us an email or click to open a chat and we will go through it with you.
What it comes to
Per seat position, the Rev on the fixed kit is £666.00 and the Evo on the fixed kit is £822.00. The kit price is per side, so double it if the passenger seat is going in too. That is the whole order: seat and kit.
Common questions
Is this the lowest you can sit in an MX-5 NC?
It is the lowest bucket seat setup we can give you: a fixed frame (the PCI fixed position kit, or the Cybul mount without sliders), a fibreglass seat, and the base cushion out on track days.
Do I need separate side mounts?
No, the PCI kit and the Cybul mount both come with their own side mounts, so the seat bolts straight to the frame.
Can I keep fore and aft adjustment?
Only with the PCI sliding sub frame, which sits 25mm higher. On the fixed kit you set the position when you fit it and it stays there.
What about the Cybul or Planted frames?
The Cybul NC seat mount is a good option as long as it goes in without sliders. The Planted NC bracket sits higher, so it will not get you as low.
Will a Cobra Monaco Pro or Sparco Sprint go on the fixed kit?
They will mount, but their steel frame puts a thicker base under you, so they give back the height the kit saves.
Should I take the cushion out for the road?
We would leave it in on the road, because you have the head room without a helmet and the seat is far more comfortable with it.
Getting it ordered
Tell us three things: whether the car is only driven by you, which sides you need, and roughly your build. Cameron will pick the seat and kit off that. Ring 0115 9893488, drop us an email or click to open a chat.
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