Best Seating Mod - Hugely More Comfortable!

[Erik]

I?ve made the seats in my ZR-1 hugely more comfortable. I can sit in them for hours now with no discomfort. Makes driving incredibly more enjoyable.

What did I do?

I dropped 25 lbs. All of a sudden the bolsters fit so comfortably. I had to adjust them inwards!

Highly recommended!

[HAWAIIZR-1]

Originally Posted by Erik

I?ve made the seats in my ZR-1 hugely more comfortable. I can sit in them for hours now with no discomfort. Makes driving incredibly more enjoyable.



What did I do?



I dropped 25 lbs. All of a sudden the bolsters fit so comfortably. I had to adjust them inwards!



Highly recommended!

Congrats! That is more difficult that timing cams and you are healthier too. [emoji847]🤙🏼


Sent from my iPhone using ZR-1 Net Registry

[Paul Workman]

Originally Posted by Erik

I?ve made the seats in my ZR-1 hugely more comfortable. I can sit in them for hours now with no discomfort. Makes driving incredibly more enjoyable.

What did I do?

I dropped 25 lbs. All of a sudden the bolsters fit so comfortably. I had to adjust them inwards!

Highly recommended!

Congratz on the weight loss! A lot of us need to loose "a bit" too. ('Cept Marc H. He's the only guy I know that can crawl under a Z w/o jacking it up! )

Kidding aside, the sport seats in the 90 (according to a GM source I read) were designed around a manikin that was about 5'6" (ish) and 165#. Sheesh!
The best thing I did was install STANDARD C4 seats. Then, like my 95 LT1 before, I could long haul for hours - having to stop first for gas before I became in need of a stretch! I lost some of the sport seat "gee whiz" adjustments, but it is well worth the sacrifice to me!! (The 94+95
Z seats had evolved considerably, but the 90-91s in particular are really narrow and a pain to bigger drivers.

[Erik]

Originally Posted by Paul Workman

Congratz on the weight loss! A lot of us need to loose "a bit" too. ('Cept Marc H. He's the only guy I know that can crawl under a Z w/o jacking it up! )

Kidding aside, the sport seats in the 90 (according to a GM source I read) were designed around a manikin that was about 5'6" (ish) and 165#. Sheesh!
The best thing I did was install STANDARD C4 seats. Then, like my 95 LT1 before, I could long haul for hours - having to stop first for gas before I became in need of a stretch! I lost some of the sport seat "gee whiz" adjustments, but it is well worth the sacrifice to me!! (The 94+95
Z seats had evolved considerably, but the 90-91s in particular are really narrow and a pain to bigger drivers.

I'm about 6'3 and 225 lbs now, and have no trouble fitting. It's actually the most comfortable Corvette generation for me. The C5 coupe doesn't have enough headroom, and the C6 wedges my knees against the dash. The C7? All the above.

I have long wondered why they never made any of the Corvettes more roomy. It's not like Americans are small people, nor is the Corvette a Miata sized car.

[onethumb]

I'll add a little color to this, as I worked at the design center at one time.

The "Oscar", as we called it, is the standard man used to design interior ergonomics. It has changed a bit over the years, but I imagine it was very close to those dimensions back in the 80s, when people were thinner and shorter. The mannequin is adjustable over a range, and would capture 80-90 percent of the population at any given time, but back then I expect it's dimensions would only capture 40 percent of the population today.

When Wayne Cherry took over as VP of design, in 1992, he would sit in every interior mockup prior to design approval. As he was fairly tall (6'4 if I remember?), this led to changes in the interiors for GM, as they now not only had to accommodate Oscar but also someone who was quite a bit taller than average.

The "Wayne" test was tough, as none of us were tall enough, so we had to guess on a few things and hope we were right when he got in!

Originally Posted by Paul Workman

Congratz on the weight loss! A lot of us need to loose "a bit" too. ('Cept Marc H. He's the only guy I know that can crawl under a Z w/o jacking it up! )

Kidding aside, the sport seats in the 90 (according to a GM source I read) were designed around a manikin that was about 5'6" (ish) and 165#. Sheesh!
The best thing I did was install STANDARD C4 seats. Then, like my 95 LT1 before, I could long haul for hours - having to stop first for gas before I became in need of a stretch! I lost some of the sport seat "gee whiz" adjustments, but it is well worth the sacrifice to me!! (The 94+95
Z seats had evolved considerably, but the 90-91s in particular are really narrow and a pain to bigger drivers.

[Erik]

Originally Posted by onethumb

I'll add a little color to this, as I worked at the design center at one time.

The "Oscar", as we called it, is the standard man used to design interior ergonomics. It has changed a bit over the years, but I imagine it was very close to those dimensions back in the 80s, when people were thinner and shorter. The mannequin is adjustable over a range, and would capture 80-90 percent of the population at any given time, but back then I expect it's dimensions would only capture 40 percent of the population today.

When Wayne Cherry took over as VP of design, in 1992, he would sit in every interior mockup prior to design approval. As he was fairly tall (6'4 if I remember?), this led to changes in the interiors for GM, as they now not only had to accommodate Oscar but also someone who was quite a bit taller than average.

The "Wayne" test was tough, as none of us were tall enough, so we had to guess on a few things and hope we were right when he got in!

It?s funny you mention all of that, because I find the Corvette to have gotten smaller from one generation to the next, from the C4 forward.

When I was corvette shopping, I test drove a 1991 ZR-1 and a 2004 Le Mans coupe back to back. While the C4 was manageable, in the C5, I could not get a comfortable position where my head did not enthusiastically and frequently contact the roof hoop. I?d hate to think what it would feel like if I got into an accident. I do suppose a convertible would correct that issue.

[Matt B]

Originally Posted by Erik

I?ve made the seats in my ZR-1 hugely more comfortable. I can sit in them for hours now with no discomfort. Makes driving incredibly more enjoyable.

What did I do?

I dropped 25 lbs. All of a sudden the bolsters fit so comfortably. I had to adjust them inwards!

Highly recommended!

Erik, congrats to that success which will also lead to a performance improvement - 25 lbs less to accelerate! Good for the environment, too. Well done

Also I find those seat super comfortable. I'm tall, 1,88m (what is it imperial? 6'3?) and skinny (about 175 pounds) and I barely fit into my Z. My hair touches the headliner but it's fine with the glass top on.
So, the headrest is a bit low for me but it's the same in my 1995 Audi which is based on a late 1980's design, too.
But who ever once designed those seats did an amazing job. Being sports seats there is little point about "getting out". Because that's the least you want. You want them to hold you tightly in place when it gets spirited. That said, those early ZR-1 seat do a great job AND are comfortable on long runs. Not to mention the multitude of adjustments you can do to them. If I'd have a late model I'd probably even tend to swap the later seats out in favor of those fighter plane chairs.

[XfireZ51]

Originally Posted by Erik

I?ve made the seats in my ZR-1 hugely more comfortable. I can sit in them for hours now with no discomfort. Makes driving incredibly more enjoyable.

What did I do?

I dropped 25 lbs. All of a sudden the bolsters fit so comfortably. I had to adjust them inwards!

Highly recommended!

Huge reason wy I won?t switch out my stock 92 seats for the 94-95 versions. Like a good pair of pants, the seats tell u when to put the fork down.

[WARP TEN]

Originally Posted by Erik

I?ve made the seats in my ZR-1 hugely more comfortable. I can sit in them for hours now with no discomfort. Makes driving incredibly more enjoyable.

What did I do?

I dropped 25 lbs. All of a sudden the bolsters fit so comfortably. I had to adjust them inwards!

Highly recommended!

Ok Erik--Fess up: how did you lose 25 pounds? I need to do so as well (perhaps more!) but I hope your method didn't involve giving up Jack Daniels.... In any event, I do know that I need to exercise more and in fact just re upped my health club membership that hasn't been used in about two years (hip replacement January 202, Covid, back surgery this summer). --Bob

[Erik]

Originally Posted by WARP TEN

Ok Erik--Fess up: how did you lose 25 pounds? I need to do so as well (perhaps more!) but I hope your method didn't involve giving up Jack Daniels.... In any event, I do know that I need to exercise more and in fact just re upped my health club membership that hasn't been used in about two years (hip replacement January 202, Covid, back surgery this summer). --Bob

The old fashioned way. You really can?t exercise the weight off. It?s all about controlling what goes down the pipe.
The diet is very 1980s. Low fat. Small portion sizes. Use a scale for every meal. All the veggies you want. Nothing deep fried. Just keep at it, and it slowly just melts off.