Granturismo Seat Upgrade and Racing Harnesses

[Nighthawk]

Hi All,

I have two questions :

1) Has anyone ever successfully changed the front seats in a 2008-2012 Granturismo, to A. N. Other aftermarket seat? What's the deal with the seat runners/brackets if you just want a non-maserati seats fitting in the car? I've seen countless threads of people discussing seat preferences, materials, re-trimming and £14k carbon stradale options, but never actually seen anyone describe a successful, simple, aftermarket seat upgrade with, for example, a pair of £400 Sparco's. Is it even possible?

2) Has anyone ever installed a 4-point seat harness (bolt on or clip on) useful for a track day to a Granturismo? Is it tricky/difficult, what's the best/easiest method of adding harnesses?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

James.

 

[Zep]

I think that the fitting of the seats themselves wouldn’t be a big problem. Seats with runners and a custom bracket fabricates to attach it to the original mountings. Airbags and such like are another issue.

Clip on harnesses on the other hand need something to clip onto. Which needs to be an anchor point. So this will probably mean using the mountings for the rear seatbelts as the upper attachment and the original points on either side for the lap belts. Then there is the seatbelt light to deal with.

 

[Nighthawk]

I'm not bothered about airbags, or heated elements or any electronics. It just appears that it requires a customer built bracket to fit because its impossible to buy an off-the shelf bracket to actually fit them.

The seatbelt light is an easy fix. Its possible to buy seatbelt clips on their own (eg, without the belt attached) on eBay for a couple of quid, that you just slot into place and that cancels the light.

I'll need to check the side mounting points to see if they will work with the lap belts. Otherwise, it will involved drilling and welding of mounting fisheye bolts I think. Although If you buy the right seats, they often come with the 4-point harness mounting points I believe.

 

[CatmanV2]

I'm not bothered about airbags,

MOT will be, though. The experts can confirm, but a lit airbag warning is a fail, I believe. So you'll need some way to bypass them

C

 

[Zep]

I'm not bothered about airbags, or heated elements or any electronics. It just appears that it requires a customer built bracket to fit because its impossible to buy an off-the shelf bracket to actually fit them.

The seatbelt light is an easy fix. Its possible to buy seatbelt clips on their own (eg, without the belt attached) on eBay for a couple of quid, that you just slot into place and that cancels the light.

I'll need to check the side mounting points to see if they will work with the lap belts. Otherwise, it will involved drilling and welding of mounting fisheye bolts I think. Although If you buy the right seats, they often come with the 4-point harness mounting points I believe.

If you want to do something unusual, then yes, it will have to be custom.

As you will need to bolt your harnesses to the seatbelt mountings, you could use a clip to put in the socket, but the clip will have to float around under the seat. Or you could use a longer bolt and keep the use of the original seatbelt, as you will need the seatbelts at MOT time.

As for seats with built in belt mounts, not that I have seen, plus I’d rather be attached to the car than a seat in an accident, less likely to result in injury if the mounting fails. But that’s my pennies worth.

 

[Nighthawk]

Ok, so this looks like the point where this idea meets a brick wall. Customer brackets, custom mounting points for harnesses, and some messing with the electronics to switch off warnings etc.

So the other option, is to take it to Maserati dealer and ask abut buying new seats and paying the money. I assume all these issues are mute if you install OEM Maserati seats? Or are the electronic connectors different between the older and newer cars/seats?

 

[Zep]

Well, apart from the Maserati seats coming with the right brackets, and when using harnesses a roll cage to attach them to, and those harnesses having the electronic bits to do the seatbelt light. Yes, it will be easy.

Harnesses are a pain anyway, you can’t reach the stereo.

If you want the bucket seat thing, get those and have the brackets made (it’s not going to be more than a few hundred quid). Just keep the normal seatbelts.

 

[CatmanV2]

'Moot' but I rather suspect there will be a chunky amount of difference in the ECUs which may, or may not need to be updated / sideloaded / replaced.

No harm in calling a dealer but my gut feeling is they'll say 'No ta'

C

 

[Oneball]

A custom seat mount will allow you to mount a race seat. You’ll also need a harness bar, this can be made to mount to the existing seat belt points two top, 4 bottom.

But to be honest have some fun as is, if you want to get serious go buy a cheap toy.

 

[Nighthawk]

Cheers guys. All good advice. I'll look into it a bit further and see what comes up.

 

[Scaf]

Harnesses are a pain anyway, you can’t reach the stereo.

Some of us would be able to

 

[spkennyuk]

Unless im missing something. Sparco seats plus associsted brackets and roll cage but keep the original seat belt in situ. Seat belt there for daily use so no need to mess with the electronics. Harness there for track day or when you want it. To get past the seat belt warning issue would a fabric seat belt dog harness minus the fabric not plugged into the seat belt retainer not spoof the car into thinking the seat belt is correctly plugged into the retainer ?

Either that or plug the belt in but behind the seat.

Only issue i can see is the pressure sensors on the seats which im sure could also be spoofed as open no weight present or closed with weight present but seat belt plugged in.

 

[Zep]

Some of us would be able to

But then some of us might spot potholes. I suppose you have to take the rough with the smooth

 

[Ewan]

I recently fitted a half-cage and harnesses to my Strad, using all official Maserati parts. Of course, my Strad already had the race/bucket seats, but you could easily source a cheaper alternative from Sparco or similar.

Matt at SportsItalia in Southampton did the physical installation after I had (slowly) sourced and purchased all the necessary kit from the factory. (Such brackets, cage, harnesses, pads, etc.)

But if you go the official route, it's not a cheap job, at maybe around £7k in total (for parts, labour and VAT). And you'll loose the use of the back seats (though this wasn't an issue for me as my Strad doesn't have them anyway).

I suggest you call Matt, as I'm sure there would be a cheaper alternative, doing away with the cage and just having some rear brackets and a fabricated bar to go across the car behind the seats to which you can attach the harnesses. But do buy official Maserati harnesses and pads, so that you get the all-important branding!

You can keep the original seat belt and clips/buckles in place, so there's no issue with electrics, functionality, ECU, etc. So don't panic about that red herring.

 

[Ewan]

 

[Ewan]

 

[JJbing]

Have a look at durim_kkk Instagram account and maybe drop him a private message if you have Instagram.
he had a 4.2 Maserati which he claimed was a stradale.. clearly not! Anyway he swapped out the 4.2 seats and fitted aftermarket which looked great.

 

[Nighthawk]

View attachment 96879

This is the Gold standard of seating upgrades. I'd love something like this but you benefit from having a grey interior. I have a cream leather/vinyl interior so getting the same colour alcantara seats could prove to be a challenge. Also, I assume the original seats didn't have side airbags and neither do these?

 

[Nighthawk]

Have a look at durim_kkk Instagram account and maybe drop him a private message if you have Instagram.
he had a 4.2 Maserati which he claimed was a stradale.. clearly not! Anyway he swapped out the 4.2 seats and fitted aftermarket which looked great.

Thanks, yes, I'll check that out

 

[Gazcw]

Unless im missing something. Sparco seats plus associsted brackets and roll cage but keep the original seat belt in situ. Seat belt there for daily use so no need to mess with the electronics. Harness there for track day or when you want it. To get past the seat belt warning issue would a fabric seat belt dog harness minus the fabric not plugged into the seat belt retainer not spoof the car into thinking the seat belt is correctly plugged into the retainer ?

Either that or plug the belt in but behind the seat.

Only issue i can see is the pressure sensors on the seats which im sure could also be spoofed as open no weight present or closed with weight present but seat belt plugged in.

Couple of these would do.

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