Are the Type R seats hurting your back?

Mick the Quick

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Before I bought a CTR, I kept hearing here and in car reviews how wonderful and comfortable the seats are. After purchase, I agree that the seats look and feel great and does a wonderful job of holding me in one place, but for me, they caused pain every time I drove because they don't provide much lumber support.

I have had a lumber support pillow thinggie in a few cars and was planning to use one of them in the CTR . . . . until I realized that they don't fit the CTR seats because (i) the bolstering is pretty aggressive in this car such that the rubber band that secure these things to the seats would push the pillows out of place (i.e., off the backrest), and (ii) these seats are one piece as you know, and therefore mounting methods involving the separation of the headrests from the rest of the seats are not available.

Finally, I found and bought this lumber support memory form back pillow.

Honda Civic 10th gen Are the Type R seats hurting your back? IMG_2974.JPG
Honda Civic 10th gen Are the Type R seats hurting your back? IMG_8489.JPG


This lumber cushion is black, so it matches the seats and the rest of the interior, it fits the backrest and the bolsters perfectly (lays flat on the backrest), and the straps go through the aluminum holes in the seats and buckle together. We can disagree on the aesthetics but it is the best solution I have found thus far.

If you have been suffering from backache due to lack of lumber support in your Type R, you may want to try this out. I am very happy with it.
 
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anhanymous

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Nice find! I may have to try this out myself, since I do have lower back pain. Not necessarily from the seats themselves but in general and this looks to help. Thanks!
 

Noize

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Old thread bump. Not too happy with these seats. I love the bolstering, but there’s a cavernous gap in the lumbar section. Also, the neck portion is reclined back way too far.

I don’t know who is supposed to be comfortable in these seats, but they start to wear on me after about 45 minutes. Evo X Recaros destroy them.
 

Z06_Pilot

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Noize, you are spot-on regarding the neck portion. No way I can lean my head back on the headrest, as I would almost be staring at the ceiling. I love the material, the bolstering for spirited driving, the color, the heavy-duty construction, almost everything about these seats except that. And yes indeed, the lumbar area is definitely lacking. Not sure why they call the US version "Touring". There is nothing long distance about these seats!
 


Lust

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Any long term reviews on these? Thinking it'd be good to keep the passenger side bolsters from getting wrecked by passengers getting in and out and also for longer road trips.
What people said above is accurate. I have 30k miles cumulative in a FK8. Very poor lumbar support and no neck support. Seats are very well designed for track use though. When I hurt my back several months ago I realized the lack of support. My suggestion to those with back problems is to actually do some type of physical therapy. Find a way to decompress your spine (hanging from a pull up bar or inversion table and cobra stretches). This helped me a lot and made the seats manageable.
 

samji

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Yes!! I'm a special case though, I had back surgery on my L4/L5 vertebrae years ago for a herniated disc, and though the seats are amazing for keeping you in place when you're cornering, they're not the best at providing lumbar.

I've tried a lot of different supports made of different materials like foam or mesh and I still haven't found a perfect solution. The thing with car lumbar supports is that 95% of them are way too thick for car seats.

The closest I've got is this thing:

Honda Civic 10th gen Are the Type R seats hurting your back? 20200520_141407_2


I'm lifting the support pad up for the picture because there's suppose to be suspenders that go around to the back but because the CTR seats are buckets, they don't reach the hooks on the bottom. So I just sort of hold it up as I'm getting into the car and then manually adjust it before I get going. It's a bit of a hassle but again, I haven't found a better solution or product yet.

I'd say these in terms of materials are very good. Foam is a bit on the dense side but not too bad, and the faux suede material is actually softer than the type R faux suede. The biggest gripe with these is that they are about 1/2" too thick. I haven't found one skinnier than this so I'm just using it because it's still better than nothing. Hopefully with time and use, they'll flatten a little bit. And another thing is that the bottom anchors that you slide beneath your seat (the circular plastic rings shown in the amazon link below) to keep the support from sliding up is very short. Just being in rest position will have the anchors stretched almost to its limit so keep that in mind. I was thinking of cutting them off and replacing with a longer elastic band so I have more slack to work with when I'm adjusting it to my back.

This is the Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L2RLBZ1/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=AH7RXPY89Q2ZY&psc=1
 

Zeffy94

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Once I'm on a trip for about 2 hours, the pain starts hitting my back and neck. Below that it's fine, unless the road surface is terrible, in which case the pain can and generally will onset quicker. I have a weak back.

I've tried the lumbar support things and they help, but not when your suspension is crashing down constantly on the murderous potholes that litter PA.

What people said above is accurate. I have 30k miles cumulative in a FK8. Very poor lumbar support and no neck support. Seats are very well designed for track use though. When I hurt my back several months ago I realized the lack of support. My suggestion to those with back problems is to actually do some type of physical therapy. Find a way to decompress your spine (hanging from a pull up bar or inversion table and cobra stretches). This helped me a lot and made the seats manageable.
My genetics predispose me to back pain; my sister, who's 4 years older than I am (and was more active as a child compared to myself) has it pretty bad. I do stretching before I walk/jog but it doesn't seem to translate into being able to tolerate the seats for an extended period of time in the CTR.
 

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Everybody's different. I have had occasional lower back pain over the years, and I can't stand the seats in my wife's Toyota Sienna - when we do road trips in that car, I start fidgeting after about 30 minutes and can't get comfortable. I love the CTR seats, even for long trips. I did a couple of 10 hour drives last summer and had no issues with the seats.
 


willskiGT

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For those having issues, how do you have the seat set up? I have it as low as possible with as much rake as possible (front of seat as high as possible/back of seat as low as possible). The CTR seats are super comfy.

Every time I've had lower back pain (in general, not from the car), it's because my abs/core were weak from sitting all day in an office setting. If you do ~5 mins of planks a day, it will help a ton - not just in the car, but in general.
 

Zeffy94

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For those having issues, how do you have the seat set up? I have it as low as possible with as much rake as possible (front of seat as high as possible/back of seat as low as possible). The CTR seats are super comfy.
I have to have the seat closeish to the dash with the wheel fully extended, so that I can reach the clutch pedal confidently. If I move my seat back any more I worry that I do not press the clutch pedal all the way. If I go any more forward, my legs cramp up hard. The seat is raised like half way I think.
 

TypeSiR

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samji

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For those having issues, how do you have the seat set up? I have it as low as possible with as much rake as possible (front of seat as high as possible/back of seat as low as possible). The CTR seats are super comfy.

Every time I've had lower back pain (in general, not from the car), it's because my abs/core were weak from sitting all day in an office setting. If you do ~5 mins of planks a day, it will help a ton - not just in the car, but in general.
I always adjust the seat distance from the wheel by making sure my arms at 9 and 3 are slightly bent at a 25-30 degree angle. I have a pretty long torso for my height (5'10) and I tend to have the seats raised up about 2-3 lever pulls from the seat riser.
 

willskiGT

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I always adjust the seat distance from the wheel by making sure my arms at 9 and 3 are slightly bent at a 25-30 degree angle. I have a pretty long torso for my height (5'10) and I tend to have the seats raised up about 2-3 lever pulls from the seat riser.
I'm taller (6'3") so I have the wheel fully telescoped out and the seat as low as possible on pretty much every car. The wrist trick (wrists on top of the wheel with arms slightly bent and back against the seat) is a good way to make sure you have the right upper body relationship to the wheel. Without adjustable pedals, it's a bit difficult to get the lower body perfect, but the Type R is better than most cars in that regard.

It's a video about drifting, but Chris Harris knows his stuff:

For me, the seats are great and have great lumbar support, but I am tall and skinny, especially in the midsection (6'3", 175, 32" waist), so probably fit differently in the seats than others who have had issues.
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