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Sparco Seats - The '69 GTV came with very cool flying-buttress seats. Although they look great, they aren't very comfortable and they don't do squat to keep you in place during spirited driving. Since my seats needed rebuilding, which seemed like a waste of money in a non-show car, I decided to put in some one-piece buckets. In addition to holding you in place while steering with the throttle, they have the added benefit of increased safety -- an FIA certified seat like I chose, is far less likely to buckle in an accident than a 30-year old stock seat.
I looked at seats for a while and finally decided on the Sparco Sprint, which was priced right and very comfortable. The Sprint is a tube frame unit, which means that it is built more like a conventional car seat, than the one piece fiberglass versions. Although the tube frame units are a little heavier, they are a lot more comfortable. Rather than placing your butt on foam
covered fiberglass, these babies support it with rubber slings that attach to
the tube frame.
Given my innate ability to attract unusual, never before seen problems, I decided to purchase them locally from Speedware Motorsports, rather than go through a cheaper mail order source. This was one of the wisest moves I have made with the Alfa.
covered fiberglass, these babies support it with rubber slings that attach to
the tube frame.
Given my innate ability to attract unusual, never before seen problems, I decided to purchase them locally from Speedware Motorsports, rather than go through a cheaper mail order source. This was one of the wisest moves I have made with the Alfa.
Although I really like these seats, they were a nightmare to install. In mid-December I ordered a set of Sprints, universal sliders and adapter brackets for a '69 GTV. Although Sparco does not list an adapter bracket for the GTV, both they and Recaro use a California company, Wedge Engineering, to manufacture many of their brackets. Wedge has listings for virtually every car made, including the GTV, so Speedware ordered the bracket directly from them. The brackets are sandwiched between the sliders and floorboards, and are supposed to match up with the car's existing seat mounting holes.
The seats and sliders showed up in early January and the brackets finally arrived at the end of that month. Unfortunately the latter didn't fit the car as the mounting holes were off by about an inch in the fore/aft direction. We sent them back to Wedge and about a month later, new ones arrived. This time, they appeared to get the dimensions right, however, for some reason when they remade the brackets, they did so for Recaro seats, which use an entirely different mounting system than Sparco. Since the new brackets wouldn't fit my seats, they went back in the box and were returned to Wedge.
When I received their third try, I was disappointed to see that they had simply left the Recaro mounts on the brackets and added the requisite Sparco attachment points. I was not happy about this, but it looked like they would fit the seats, so I tried to install them that night. Maddeningly, they still didn't fit the floor very well and it was obvious that they would require some grinding to slightly elongate the holes. I called Speedware (who was absolutely phenomenal to work with throughout this process) and Dan told me to bring the car down to the shop and he would fix everything and install the seats. He did and they worked great.
About a month later, I noticed that the seat was beginning to pinch my upper back as if the bolsters were now closer together. Weird. A little closer examination revealed that I was now sitting lower in the seat and since the side bolsters are slightly V-shaped, my upper back was now hitting the lower, narrower section -- hence the pinching sensation. I removed the seats and saw that the driver's seat had a manufacturing defect. On a tubular frame seat like the Sprint, a rubber sling extends the length of the seat and supports your butt. On the defective seat, the sling didn't go all the way to the rear of the seat and so the weight of my body was concentrated on the edge of the rubber, which stretched it enough that it lowered my body in the seat.
So, back to Sparco went the seat. The Sprints were now on back order, so it took about a month for another seat to arrive. We looked over the bottom of the new unit very carefully and were satisfied that it was properly manufactured, so I took it home and planned to install it in the Alfa that night. Later, when removing the plastic covering that protects the seat, I discovered that the top of the thigh bolster had suffered a 1/2" tear during shipping!! So...back to Speedware. I finally picked up a correct seat the middle of April -- four months after my initial order.
Momo Steering Wheel - The stock Alfa wood steering wheels are flat gorgeous, but they are a little large and sit pretty far away from the driver. Because the Sparco seats have much longer, upward sloping seat cushions, and substantially larger side bolsters than the stock Alfa seats, this large steering wheel/one-piece race seat combination made it a little difficult to get into/out of the car. The obvious solution was to fit a small aftermarket wheel like a Momo, or Sparco. This would free up thigh room, make the steering feel faster thanks to the small diameter, and with the addition of some Momo hub extension rings, bring the wheel closer to the driver. Ideally I wanted a steering wheel would look period correct, and have a deep dish like the wheel I was replacing -- after all, you can only add so many hub extension rings! Fortunately I came across the perfect wheel: the Momo Corse Model 07. This is a rally wheel that is only available in the U.S. through race shops, but it was worth the effort.
The seats and sliders showed up in early January and the brackets finally arrived at the end of that month. Unfortunately the latter didn't fit the car as the mounting holes were off by about an inch in the fore/aft direction. We sent them back to Wedge and about a month later, new ones arrived. This time, they appeared to get the dimensions right, however, for some reason when they remade the brackets, they did so for Recaro seats, which use an entirely different mounting system than Sparco. Since the new brackets wouldn't fit my seats, they went back in the box and were returned to Wedge.
When I received their third try, I was disappointed to see that they had simply left the Recaro mounts on the brackets and added the requisite Sparco attachment points. I was not happy about this, but it looked like they would fit the seats, so I tried to install them that night. Maddeningly, they still didn't fit the floor very well and it was obvious that they would require some grinding to slightly elongate the holes. I called Speedware (who was absolutely phenomenal to work with throughout this process) and Dan told me to bring the car down to the shop and he would fix everything and install the seats. He did and they worked great.
About a month later, I noticed that the seat was beginning to pinch my upper back as if the bolsters were now closer together. Weird. A little closer examination revealed that I was now sitting lower in the seat and since the side bolsters are slightly V-shaped, my upper back was now hitting the lower, narrower section -- hence the pinching sensation. I removed the seats and saw that the driver's seat had a manufacturing defect. On a tubular frame seat like the Sprint, a rubber sling extends the length of the seat and supports your butt. On the defective seat, the sling didn't go all the way to the rear of the seat and so the weight of my body was concentrated on the edge of the rubber, which stretched it enough that it lowered my body in the seat.
So, back to Sparco went the seat. The Sprints were now on back order, so it took about a month for another seat to arrive. We looked over the bottom of the new unit very carefully and were satisfied that it was properly manufactured, so I took it home and planned to install it in the Alfa that night. Later, when removing the plastic covering that protects the seat, I discovered that the top of the thigh bolster had suffered a 1/2" tear during shipping!! So...back to Speedware. I finally picked up a correct seat the middle of April -- four months after my initial order.
Momo Steering Wheel - The stock Alfa wood steering wheels are flat gorgeous, but they are a little large and sit pretty far away from the driver. Because the Sparco seats have much longer, upward sloping seat cushions, and substantially larger side bolsters than the stock Alfa seats, this large steering wheel/one-piece race seat combination made it a little difficult to get into/out of the car. The obvious solution was to fit a small aftermarket wheel like a Momo, or Sparco. This would free up thigh room, make the steering feel faster thanks to the small diameter, and with the addition of some Momo hub extension rings, bring the wheel closer to the driver. Ideally I wanted a steering wheel would look period correct, and have a deep dish like the wheel I was replacing -- after all, you can only add so many hub extension rings! Fortunately I came across the perfect wheel: the Momo Corse Model 07. This is a rally wheel that is only available in the U.S. through race shops, but it was worth the effort.
Although the rest of the world can choose from either a suede or leather rim, here in the U.S. we only get the former. I definitely prefer the durability of a leather rim, but the suede does feel nice in the hands and the wheel can always be recovered in leather at a later time.
Finding a proper hub adapter kit was the hardest piece of the puzzle. They are no longer made for the 105/115-series cars (or at least not officially imported to the U.S.) but I did finally find a kit at Caribou Imports that worked just great.
The kit included a horn button that featured a tiny Alfa Romeo logo, but the whole thing was simply too cheesy looking to put in the car. I instead opted to use the Momo logo horn button that I had leftover from the Porsche's Momo wheel installation. Eventually I got a tip from someone on the Alfa Digest that Ferrari of Seattle had a stash of genuine Momo horn buttons with the Alfa Romeo
logo. I went down to check them out and when I requested to see one, I was asked if I wanted to look at one with the current logo or with the older Milano logo -- talk about a find!
Finding a proper hub adapter kit was the hardest piece of the puzzle. They are no longer made for the 105/115-series cars (or at least not officially imported to the U.S.) but I did finally find a kit at Caribou Imports that worked just great.
The kit included a horn button that featured a tiny Alfa Romeo logo, but the whole thing was simply too cheesy looking to put in the car. I instead opted to use the Momo logo horn button that I had leftover from the Porsche's Momo wheel installation. Eventually I got a tip from someone on the Alfa Digest that Ferrari of Seattle had a stash of genuine Momo horn buttons with the Alfa Romeo
logo. I went down to check them out and when I requested to see one, I was asked if I wanted to look at one with the current logo or with the older Milano logo -- talk about a find!
