This is owner opinion from 2013 to 2015. Comfort is personal, and owners disagreed on almost every point, so the sensible rule from the threads is to try before you spend.
At a glance
- Check the padding first. One owner said the original seats have almost no padding at all; others found theirs flat after years and went from 4 or 5 hours comfortable to about 1 hour.
- Cheap fixes owners used: gel padding under the cover, re-stuffing or retrimming, a cushion, a spacer under the front rail mounts, tilting back, or taking the headrest out for extra height.
- Other seats: Lotus Probax, Elise and Tillett seats were the usual suggestions. See Replacement seats.
- Seat shape matters more than squashy padding, said an owner who had tried a lot of seats, and several found a bare carbon seat comfortable.
Worn padding
- One owner who bought a car found the passenger seat noticeably more comfortable than the driver's, which suggested the driver's had worn out. Another said the padding on his seat had "seen better times" and re-stuffing the seats was his winter project.
- An owner said there is no padding at all on an original seat, and that it is very easy to take the cover off and add gel padding, which makes them more comfortable. See Seat removal for getting the seat out.
- Another owner found he could do 4 or 5 hours and feel fresh until the padding wore, then back ache after about an hour.
- Memory foam, one owner's method (2014): he replaced the padding on a seat with a piece of memory foam 400 x 150 x 20 mm, which fits as it is, and said it is a perfectly DIY-able and effective job. The centre section of the seat is just bonded on and peels off with a little persuasion. The thicker the foam, the narrower you must cut it to keep using the original leather. Stick the leather back with impact adhesive. Another owner asked about gel and recalled a group buy of gel in several thicknesses.
- An owner with the seat out thought there is probably only half an inch of foam left on an old seat, not the inch it had when new.
- A retrim by a specialist can include new padding; see the cost notes in the replacement seats guide.
Changing the driving position
- Cushion: one new owner with back pain said a cushion gave him the perfect driving position and transformed the car. Another said he regularly puts a cushion in other cars but never in the VX.
- Spacer under the front rail mounts: several owners raised the front of the seat with a spacer. A seat that tilts back more also gives a better neck angle and more headroom, said an owner with a carbon seat.
- Tilting the seat: one owner took out the two front Allen bolts, put spacers underneath and used longer bolts, and said you sit in the seat rather than on it. Another said washers helped slightly but that this lifts the seat, so only your perceived head position changes.
- Sitting lower (2016): an owner who wanted about an inch lower found about 25 to 30 mm between the seat and the floor pan and planned to slot the rear holes in the seat brackets to drop the rear instead, but nobody reported having done it, so it is untried. The Tillett and S1 Elise seats sit lower, but how much of that is the seat and how much the mounting wasn't clear. If headroom is the problem, others said to take the roof off or tilt the seat.
- Other comfort changes: a lumbar cushion (a branded one was linked, and an unbranded one would probably do), padding on the door sill so you can relax your leg, and a better armrest, since one owner said his elbow rests on part of the door panel.
- Headrest: one owner said to take the headrests out to gain a couple of inches if height is a problem. Check you can still brake and steer safely, and remember the head restraint is a safety item.
- The driving position is upright. Owners described it as a "sit up and beg" position. An Elise seat is slightly inclined with different padding, and the Lotus Probax seats are slightly more reclined and a bit more comfortable, according to several owners. One said the standard seats felt better than the Evora's Recaros, and Probax better still.
- Bigger frames: a heavy, wide owner (over 100 kg) found the standard seats more than comfortable but too upright on track with a helmet on.
Other seats for comfort, not track
- The Tillett and Caterham R500 carbon seats were called the best for pain-free long journeys by one owner with a long history of back trouble, with zero padding beyond thin carpet and a bit of flex from the Kevlar. Seat shape, he said, mattered more than squashy padding.
- Probax was split down the middle: some owners rated it highly and others said it feels like a normal seat and isn't worth the premium.
- Reverie seats were recommended for tall owners, and another owner said Reverie seats are fine on long trips but feel very different from standard.
- The Elise seats (and their runners) lower the seat by a couple of inches and suit some bodies better; Recaro Apex or Profi seats lower it more but suit slim owners.
Trying seats
- The advice repeated across threads: get a passenger ride or a sit in another owner's car. One owner said to spend an afternoon sitting in as many as possible at a motorsport shop, and another replied that it doesn't tell you how high the seat will sit in the VX or what your legs do near the steering wheel.
- People are built differently. Owners said a seat can suit a slim 76 kg owner but swallow a larger one, and the same seat can cause pain for one person and none for another.
- Check the headroom with the hood and roof, and clearance for the seatbelt clasps. See the fitting notes in the replacement seats guide.
Help wanted
We don't have a how-to for re-padding or retrimming the standard seat, the thickness or type of gel pad owners used, or the size of the spacer for the front rail. If you have done it, please tell us what you used and what it cost.