Today I yanked the driver seat on my new 03 XKR conv today to see what I might be able to do for more leg and headroom. As a sign from god, at the same time, a mint McLaren 720S black alcantara seat showed up on fb marketplace. I sit on that seat in my living room now thinking of how to get it into the jag..

These seats but without the yellow stitching.

1" down and 1" back on the stock would have given me enough room, and I was going to do it with a custom bracket and removing the adjustment apparatus. The McLaren looks like a lower seat pan (and maybe farther back) so I might even be able to keep the sliders and motors, vs removing all that and sliders for a custom low bracket. It does even have a 16 runner spacing like the jag.

Question is all the wiring. I'll dive into it more tomorrow, but there sure are a lot of plugs and wires going into that seat, even from the car (plus lots of internal motor to controller wiring). I can understand all the wires internal to the set and controller, but why the car? Airbags and heater and 12V for the motors? Wondering if it's a total pipe dream to power the McLaren's seat and be able to use the power adjusters. I don't believe is has heat or air bags.

 

Do you have memory seats? That's one set of connections. The seat belt latch has a switch in it, so that goes somewhere. If you can work out what the McClaren seat does it should be pretty straightforward to get it to work in the Jaguar.

 

Ah good thought - forgot the memory stuff is in the car where it's in the seat controls on the McClaren. That's probably good for my chances of getting it to work - that's probably the most complicated signal - vs just some open/closed/12V switdches and power connections.

I also found a wiring harness in the seat that says "gentherm acp13073" which is a heat seater supplier. Wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those deals where they add the heating element to all and getting the option just puts the switch on the dash. Will have to figure out if it just takes 12V or something fancier - would be great if I could just wire in a variable V dial to control them.

Today I'll focus on seeing if they fit well.

 

What about the airbag? That's what I would be most nervous to try to make work. I'd be afraid of it going off during installation if connected improperly.

 

The McLaren one doesn't have an air bag so shouldn't be a problem.

Think I have a strategy sorted out and looks like it will work. Worst part is I will probably drill some shallow 1/2" holes in the floor near the stock mount holes because I'm welding some backing nuts to the underside of the adapter rails I'm making. Didn't trust tapped 1/4" mild steel (see last pic), so want a nut behind it. If seat height wasn't your primary goal, you could just put another 1/2 spacer under the rails and not have to do that. But I'm already at lowest height and wouldn't mind it going a little lower - but it's lower than stock, and now will be another 1" farther back.




1/4" barstock bolted to stock holes. New holes will be 1-2" behind, tapped with backing nuts welded on underneath, so I can assemble the new set on it.

 

That looks really nice. Would be nice if there where more seat options for our cars aftermarket I mean.