Cobra Misano L Racing Seats (REVIEW)
06-05-2004, 04:29 PM
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Cobra Misano L Racing Seats (REVIEW)
A few months ago a fellow forum goer (elitemotion) sparked my interest in these seats and I decided to make the jump and buy them. After finally getting these seats installed in my car, I have decided to write a review about them. They are interesting seats and I feel that it is worth the time for me to do a write up for other people who might be interested in them.
I ordered the seats at the end of March from Sube Sports. They arrived to my door about a month and a half later, mid May.
First of all, the good: the seats look and feel amazing. Every person who sees them can't believe that the backing is all real carbon fibre, and the padding material (NASA Memory Foam) is insanely comfortable to sit in...it's pretty hard to argue with the italian leather either. On the road trip from Savannah back to New Orleans, (675mi) I experienced absolutely NO backpain at all which was definitely not the case with the stock cloth seats, or even the stock leather seats I had in my first 350Z. The Cobras have little to no lumbar support, I drive in a very rigid, upright position, I have a finnicky back, and I still experienced no discomfort -- this makes me a very happy man
The grip of the seats is superb. They are extremely rigid and it is much easier to negotiate turns. They hold me so well that it is sometimes hard to believe!
The overall quality of the leather is very good. It is very hard to criticize these seats in light of the insane appearance and feel, but I have noticed a few issues with them. I normally wouldn't point out tiny flaws, but I feel that considering the high price of these seats, they need to be addressed:
First of all, the lowermost pad on the bottom panel of one of the seats (the passenger seat in my car) has some problems. The texture of the leather feels different from the other panels, almost as if it is thinner than the other leather. Also, there is some sort of faded stain on this panel. I will have to take a picture of it at a later date.
Secondly, there is stitching in the headrests that reads "COBRA" on each seat. The problem lies in the fact that there's a faint silver ink line running through the middle of each stitched logo (both seats). Neither these nor the black stain I mentioned will come off when I apply my regular leather cleaner.
Another thing I have noticed (not so much the fault of COBRA) is the fact that the place where my seatbelt rubs against the seat (shoulder area) leaves a black mark on the seat. This is fairly easy to remove with leather cleaner.
Now, for the real problem, the only thing that irritates me at all: the brackets...the brackets SUCK.. I cannot stress this enough. They are made by a company called "Wedge Engineering", and honestly I am uncertain as to how this company exists by making products with these sorts of problems -- allow me to explain.
The bracket itself looks great. Not the cleanest construction I have ever seen (looks to be MIG welded) but definitely high grade steel and very sturdy. The problems arise when you try to put the brackets in the car, at which point you realize that some of the holes aren't the right size, and on top of that, some of them don't even align correctly! Hell, I could only get 3 of the 4 screws (the ones that mount seat-to-bracket) into place!!!
Nevertheless, I'm a do-it-yourself kinda guy. So I optimistically broke out a drill and a dremel, and widened the holes out as necessary. Alright, everything's fine. So I bolt the bracket to the seat, drag it out to the car, bolt the bracket into the car, and...the seats hit the door. At this point I was laughing in disbelief over the fact that I actually paid for these brackets. To make matters worse, the seats were making a dent in my door! Great. After many hours of meticulously drilling, polishing, drilling, and polishing a bit more, I was finally able to find a suitable compromise. The passenger seat actually bolts up fine, all bolts in place with full range of motion. The driver's side does not. In fact, even with all of the work I did to the bracket, I still had to remove one of the bolts from the bottom of the seat to prevent it from smacking the door every time I close it, and permanently pressing into the door when it's closed. The driver's side door has about 1/8" clearance. Not ideal, but what can I do?
In the mean time I am having fun driving in the seats and waiting until someone a bit more competent designs some better brackets.
Now...normally I would be pretty angry about the bracket issues and the small seat issues, but because I love the look/feel, and because of the difficulty involved in returning them for replacements (they're British seats in Italian leather), I have decided to live with the small problems I do have.
Again, I cannot stress enough that regardless of the small problems I have detailed here, the seats really are awesome and draw a LOT of compliments. I just think that, given the price, there could be a bit more attention to detail.
Now, as for photos...I do not have a digital camera, so I did some screen caps from my video camera which are of decent quality. These photos are taken of one seat (my driver's side seat) when I had it out to work on the bracket. They were taken in my garage, excuse the clutter.
A friend of mine took some very high res photos today (4 megapixel) of the seats actually inside my car. Whenever he emails me those photos I will post them up as well, they should be a lot clearer!
I hope some of you guys find this information useful and enjoy the photos, I'll be taking some good pictures of the car once I get my wheels on next week
Cheers,
Richard
I ordered the seats at the end of March from Sube Sports. They arrived to my door about a month and a half later, mid May.
First of all, the good: the seats look and feel amazing. Every person who sees them can't believe that the backing is all real carbon fibre, and the padding material (NASA Memory Foam) is insanely comfortable to sit in...it's pretty hard to argue with the italian leather either. On the road trip from Savannah back to New Orleans, (675mi) I experienced absolutely NO backpain at all which was definitely not the case with the stock cloth seats, or even the stock leather seats I had in my first 350Z. The Cobras have little to no lumbar support, I drive in a very rigid, upright position, I have a finnicky back, and I still experienced no discomfort -- this makes me a very happy man
The grip of the seats is superb. They are extremely rigid and it is much easier to negotiate turns. They hold me so well that it is sometimes hard to believe!
The overall quality of the leather is very good. It is very hard to criticize these seats in light of the insane appearance and feel, but I have noticed a few issues with them. I normally wouldn't point out tiny flaws, but I feel that considering the high price of these seats, they need to be addressed:
First of all, the lowermost pad on the bottom panel of one of the seats (the passenger seat in my car) has some problems. The texture of the leather feels different from the other panels, almost as if it is thinner than the other leather. Also, there is some sort of faded stain on this panel. I will have to take a picture of it at a later date.
Secondly, there is stitching in the headrests that reads "COBRA" on each seat. The problem lies in the fact that there's a faint silver ink line running through the middle of each stitched logo (both seats). Neither these nor the black stain I mentioned will come off when I apply my regular leather cleaner.
Another thing I have noticed (not so much the fault of COBRA) is the fact that the place where my seatbelt rubs against the seat (shoulder area) leaves a black mark on the seat. This is fairly easy to remove with leather cleaner.
Now, for the real problem, the only thing that irritates me at all: the brackets...the brackets SUCK.. I cannot stress this enough. They are made by a company called "Wedge Engineering", and honestly I am uncertain as to how this company exists by making products with these sorts of problems -- allow me to explain.
The bracket itself looks great. Not the cleanest construction I have ever seen (looks to be MIG welded) but definitely high grade steel and very sturdy. The problems arise when you try to put the brackets in the car, at which point you realize that some of the holes aren't the right size, and on top of that, some of them don't even align correctly! Hell, I could only get 3 of the 4 screws (the ones that mount seat-to-bracket) into place!!!
Nevertheless, I'm a do-it-yourself kinda guy. So I optimistically broke out a drill and a dremel, and widened the holes out as necessary. Alright, everything's fine. So I bolt the bracket to the seat, drag it out to the car, bolt the bracket into the car, and...the seats hit the door. At this point I was laughing in disbelief over the fact that I actually paid for these brackets. To make matters worse, the seats were making a dent in my door! Great. After many hours of meticulously drilling, polishing, drilling, and polishing a bit more, I was finally able to find a suitable compromise. The passenger seat actually bolts up fine, all bolts in place with full range of motion. The driver's side does not. In fact, even with all of the work I did to the bracket, I still had to remove one of the bolts from the bottom of the seat to prevent it from smacking the door every time I close it, and permanently pressing into the door when it's closed. The driver's side door has about 1/8" clearance. Not ideal, but what can I do?
In the mean time I am having fun driving in the seats and waiting until someone a bit more competent designs some better brackets.
Now...normally I would be pretty angry about the bracket issues and the small seat issues, but because I love the look/feel, and because of the difficulty involved in returning them for replacements (they're British seats in Italian leather), I have decided to live with the small problems I do have.
Again, I cannot stress enough that regardless of the small problems I have detailed here, the seats really are awesome and draw a LOT of compliments. I just think that, given the price, there could be a bit more attention to detail.
Now, as for photos...I do not have a digital camera, so I did some screen caps from my video camera which are of decent quality. These photos are taken of one seat (my driver's side seat) when I had it out to work on the bracket. They were taken in my garage, excuse the clutter.
A friend of mine took some very high res photos today (4 megapixel) of the seats actually inside my car. Whenever he emails me those photos I will post them up as well, they should be a lot clearer!
I hope some of you guys find this information useful and enjoy the photos, I'll be taking some good pictures of the car once I get my wheels on next week
Cheers,
Richard
06-05-2004, 05:20 PM
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$1400 per seat, not including brackets. Italian leather, carbon fibre backed, tubular steel chassis, FIA certified, 4-way adjustable racing seats don't come cheap... 
Last edited by syf0n; 06-05-2004 at 05:23 PM.
06-05-2004, 05:34 PM
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Those seats look awesome! I couldn't tell from the pictures if you posted pics of both seats, but does the driver seat have the raised portion that the stock Z driver seat has (the passenger side doesn't have it)? Also, could the seats be ordered without the Cobra logo? Thanks in advance.
06-05-2004, 06:57 PM
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Richard,
If you haven't already, give Sube a call and speak to the owner.... Brad? I believe.... He did some custom Cobra Technology seats for my Mustang a few years back and I always thought of him as a real standup guy.
And yes, I had the exact same probs with the seat rails in my car back then - poorly aligned holes and seats that rubbed on the doors when they were closed. It took most of the afternoon and a lot of swearing to get mine installed but like you said it was worth the effort and I was willing to overlook some of the negatives because of how much I loved the seats
I doubt Sube can probably do anything about the centering line in the logo stitching as that seems to be common (mine had a white line on my black alcantara suede) or the blemish on the leather, but he might be able to do something about the brackets. He certainly deserves the chance to try and correct the problem or at the very least, be made aware that he may want to consider shopping for another vendor to make the rails.
Back then I know Cobra was pretty open to making changes as they even upholstered their Daytona model to match the Technonogy CF I was having made for the driver's side (for a modest up-charge) so I could have two different seats that somewhat matched. Also, if I remember a fellow club member was having a Saleen logo stitched in place of the Cobra name so unless something has changed a custom logo is probably still a possibility.
Regards,
Brett
If you haven't already, give Sube a call and speak to the owner.... Brad? I believe.... He did some custom Cobra Technology seats for my Mustang a few years back and I always thought of him as a real standup guy.
And yes, I had the exact same probs with the seat rails in my car back then - poorly aligned holes and seats that rubbed on the doors when they were closed. It took most of the afternoon and a lot of swearing to get mine installed but like you said it was worth the effort and I was willing to overlook some of the negatives because of how much I loved the seats
I doubt Sube can probably do anything about the centering line in the logo stitching as that seems to be common (mine had a white line on my black alcantara suede) or the blemish on the leather, but he might be able to do something about the brackets. He certainly deserves the chance to try and correct the problem or at the very least, be made aware that he may want to consider shopping for another vendor to make the rails.
Back then I know Cobra was pretty open to making changes as they even upholstered their Daytona model to match the Technonogy CF I was having made for the driver's side (for a modest up-charge) so I could have two different seats that somewhat matched. Also, if I remember a fellow club member was having a Saleen logo stitched in place of the Cobra name so unless something has changed a custom logo is probably still a possibility.
Regards,
Brett
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06-05-2004, 11:14 PM
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Brett,
Thanks for the tip off. I think I am going to call and talk to them about the problems. I did talk to them about the brackets a while ago, but honestly I have done so much work to customize mine at this point that I simply don't care to waste more time. The only thing I would be interested in talking about is the stain and "wierd" piece of leather on the passenger seat. I doubt they would do anything about it as I have already installed the seat though.
I will still enjoy the seats just as much, although if I could order them again I might go after some of the "custom" options you mentioned such as different stitching or some changed up colors. Ah wel....maybe on another car!
Cheers,
Richard
Thanks for the tip off. I think I am going to call and talk to them about the problems. I did talk to them about the brackets a while ago, but honestly I have done so much work to customize mine at this point that I simply don't care to waste more time. The only thing I would be interested in talking about is the stain and "wierd" piece of leather on the passenger seat. I doubt they would do anything about it as I have already installed the seat though.
I will still enjoy the seats just as much, although if I could order them again I might go after some of the "custom" options you mentioned such as different stitching or some changed up colors. Ah wel....maybe on another car!
Cheers,
Richard
06-06-2004, 02:39 PM
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I got impatient waiting for my friend to send me the photos from his digicam. I used progressive scan on the video camera so hopefully these are a bit clearer than the other ones...
Installed:
They are not as "shiny" as pictured, I was in the middle of cleaning my interior and hadn't wiped off the leather cleaner when I took these photos.
The car is silverstone...
Installed:
They are not as "shiny" as pictured, I was in the middle of cleaning my interior and hadn't wiped off the leather cleaner when I took these photos.
The car is silverstone...
06-06-2004, 06:34 PM
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I am 6'1" and have no problems with PLENTY of room to go, then again I drive in a "proper" position with my hands the correct (SCCA) length from the steering wheel.
These seats are half the thickness of the stock seat and probably offer more stretch room than the stockers.
Only thing to be worried about is head clearance, these are a little higher sitting (maybe 1") than the stock seats and you are probably already pushing the upper limit for headroom.
Also, here's a picture of the seats in the car from a 4MP digicam. The color here is a lot more true to real life than the stuff I was pulling off of my video camera earlier:
These seats are half the thickness of the stock seat and probably offer more stretch room than the stockers.
Only thing to be worried about is head clearance, these are a little higher sitting (maybe 1") than the stock seats and you are probably already pushing the upper limit for headroom.
Also, here's a picture of the seats in the car from a 4MP digicam. The color here is a lot more true to real life than the stuff I was pulling off of my video camera earlier:
06-06-2004, 06:36 PM
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Originally posted by NismoKid
I couldn't tell from the pictures if you posted pics of both seats, but does the driver seat have the raised portion that the stock Z driver seat has (the passenger side doesn't have it)?
I couldn't tell from the pictures if you posted pics of both seats, but does the driver seat have the raised portion that the stock Z driver seat has (the passenger side doesn't have it)?
06-06-2004, 07:21 PM
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Originally posted by syf0n
Hey man!!! Wait until you see my wheels
I will be in Savannah briefly around the 22nd or so, if you want to chill maybe we can get together!
Hey man!!! Wait until you see my wheels
I will be in Savannah briefly around the 22nd or so, if you want to chill maybe we can get together!
Must see pics....did you get SS or what I havent heard anything about it. I have a friend here that just got black 20s on his SB 350 and they look sick..ill get him to come too. pm me and well have to exchange cell #s so we can meet up.