My wife is very supportive of my hobbies, which to the most part centres around cars, be it owning, modifying, tracking or more serious adventures into the world of rallying. Whilst she supports each variant, in all its forms, there is always a degree of financial caution. At least one of us is sensible. I think if I’d let my wife spec the car it would have remained within the original budget, within one exception. The seats!
The seats were a point of lengthy discussion to say the least.
My preference was to build a Caterham which reflected modern materials, giving the car a fresher more modern look, where possible. Not easy with such a classic shape. Naturally I preferred the shape of the ‘race’ seat in either of the materials offered.
My wife however felt differently. Her experience and feedback of my Exige Cup seats, which are carbon race seats is not one filled with joy, although I think the fire extinguisher in the footwell doesn't help.
Naturally her concerns about a Caterham race seat were borne through that experience. As a result my wife felt the black leather seat was more of a sensible option.
In the end we opted for a race seat and the 4 point harness, why? Using such a configuration would ensure the clasp would be in front and not wedged down the side when using a 3 point inertia-reel belt. I appreciate the harness will work with the standard seats, but we’ll gloss over that :-) I have to thank Youtube JayEmm On Cars ( https://youtu.be/po1IjIIShXs ) for helping me consider the benefits of the harness.
The second issue with the race seats, certainly the composite ones was damage in the form of scratching on the base. We saw a number of new cars at Caterham dealers which had suffered in this way. My wife expressed a view this was not acceptable given the cost of the car. We therefore specified the carbon seat with padding. A costly option I known, but one my wife was totally behind. Honest :-)