The majority of Mopars produced during the '60s and '70s were equipped with the standard bench seat, usually covered in vinyl. And while these bench seats are soft, springy, and offer a great way for your date to sit close, when it comes to performance driving the bench seat is not just uncomfortable, but downright scary. Even when strapped in with the safety belts, taking corners fast in a bench seat equipped car results in the passenger sliding around, grasping at the dash and armrest, and uttering choice words directed at the driver. For the driver, aggressive handling in a bench seat car again produces sliding, and tight grasping of the steering wheel and shifter to hold him or herself in the driver seat.
Our '71 Road Runner came equipped with a factory bench seat, but as we've upgraded most of the car with aftermarket drivetrain and suspension parts we quickly noticed that the car was out-handling the seating. And while you may not think of seats as a performance upgrade, the proper seating greatly affects the driving experience in terms of comfort and safety. On the performance side, modern bucket seats offer greater adjustability than factory Mopar seating, are lighter, and keep the driver securely planted in the seat so he or she doesn't induce unwanted control inputs while trying to hold on.
Although we generally try to keep our cars looking as stock as possible, in this case the performance potential of the vehicle necessitated new front seating. We thought briefly about factory bucket seats, but in reality they aren't much better than a bench seat in terms of keeping the driver secure. Knowing we'd need an aftermarket seat, but with tons to choose from, we picked up the Summit Racing Equipment catalog to see what was available.
Our research led us to their part number SUM-G1159-2 black sport seat, priced economically at only $149.95 each. At approximately the same price of a stationary racing seat, the Summit sport seats offer features like adjustable recline and tilt functions as well as lumbar, shoulder, and leg bolstering. Made from injection molded plastic, the seats offer adjustable sliders, have foam cushions, and are covered in black simulated leather.
A check of Summit's website provided the dimensions for these seats, and it appeared that they would bolt right in to our '71 B-Body. We quickly placed our order for a pair covered in black vinyl, along with two Simpson 5-point harnesses with camlock releases. At $239.95 each the camlock harnesses aren't the least expensive offered by Summit, but since we plan to drive this street car we decided to pay for the convenience. We did think it was humorous, however, that the harnesses cost more than the seats.
When our parts arrived we were pleasantly surprised that they matched the black interior of our Road Runner nicely, so we removed our car's bench seat and bolted the buckets and the lap belts of our safety harnesses in place. The best part of this installation is that the spacing of the attaching bolt holes on the seat tracks of the Summit seats are 12-inches front to back, the same as our factory seat, so we could use the existing outer holes in our floor. Side to side, the seat track bolt holes are spaced 16-inches apart, which lined up with the factory bucket seat provisions of our Road Runner. We simply had to drill holes in the factory locations for the inner attaching bolts of our new buckets.
Have you ever tried to aggressively...
Have you ever tried to aggressively take a corner while sitting on the bench seat in your Mopar? This month we’ll show you how you can keep from slip-sliding around with a new pair of economical bucket seats from Summit Racing Equipment.
Taking corners quickly, or...
Taking corners quickly, or even getting sideways during acceleration, is risky business if you’re seated in a factory bench seat.
Summit Racing Equipment offers...
Summit Racing Equipment offers nearly every part for any high-performance application. We found these sport seats in their catalog, and at only $149.95.
After driving with the new seats, we are much more confident in the abilities of our car, as well as feeling safer and more secure. The side bolstering of the seats is substantial, and although it slightly interferes with ingress and egress, we felt the comfort and safety of the new seats was well worth the sacrifice. We also appreciated the adjustability of the seats, which slide forward and aft via a bar under the lower portion of the seat. The recline/tilt knob, and release levers are located on each side of the seat, so they can be mounted on either side of the vehicle. With the seatbacks fully tilted forward, there's also plenty of room to get in and out of the backseat, which is important since we often take the kids to cruise nights. The real noticeable difference came when driving for the first time with the seats installed. The springy bounce of the factory bench seat had disappeared and we felt firmly planted in the car during all phases of driving. These seats certainly satisfied our expectations and offer a lot of features found on more expensive seats, for a reasonable price.
We also picked up two sets...
We also picked up two sets of Simpson’s five-point harnesses to replace our car’s factory seat belts. We’ll only install the lap belts initially, and then once we find out if our car is quick enough at the track to need a roll bar we’ll decide how to attach the remaining belts. Note that these harnesses are not DOT approved, but we’ll take our chances in court by arguing that the Simpson harnesses from Summit are far safer than the factory belts which are DOT approved.
Since our car was equipped...
Since our car was equipped with a bench seat from the factory, we had to measure and drill the inner holes for our bucket seats. It turns out the seat tracks on the Summit bucket seats will bolt right up to our ’71 B-Body’s factory floorboard.
With our holes drilled, we...
With our holes drilled, we placed our new bucket seats in the car to check positioning. Using the factory floorboard provisions, the seats had plenty of fore and aft travel, but sitting in the seats we felt they needed to be raised slightly. We have used spacers that we found at a local hardware store, but if you can’t find spacers, painted lug nuts are a good substitute.
Overall, we like our Summit seats since they offer more security and safety than either a factory bench or bucket seats could provide. For the money, these seats are hard to beat, coming in far less expensive than factory buckets or even having a bench seat reupholstered.
Using hardware we had on hand,...
Using hardware we had on hand, we had our seats and the lap belts of our harnesses installed in a couple of hours. These seats offer many features not available on factory seats, like multiple recline/tilt positions, lightweight construction, and plenty of side bolstering to keep the driver and passenger in place.
Seatback release levers are...
Seatback release levers are also located on each side of the seat, and the seats don’t interfere with anything when tilted forward. Once the seatback is forward, there’s plenty of room for the rear passengers to get in and out. The side bolstering of the seats makes them a little difficult for front seat passengers to get in and out of, but we found this a minor inconvenience negated by the positive features of these seats.
Total height from the floor...
Total height from the floor to the top of the seatback, including our one-inch spacers, is 35 inches. We found these seats to be a great fit for our ’71 Plymouth, and dimensionally they should fit other body styles as well.