We're ready to install the seats. The Cobra Daytona seats are of the utmost quality for their price. You can spend more for a seat, but your butt won't know the difference. Shown here in standard Blackrock trim with leather wear patches, the Daytonas, as well as the complete Cobra seating line, can be ordered in several colors. Cobra seats are available with fixed or adjustable runners. Since Project Real Street will see a multitude of drivers, we opted for the adjustable runners.
Before the Cobra seats can be installed, the seat mounting brackets must be fixed to the stock mounting locations. When you order seats, these brackets are an extra charge, but they allow you to mount the seats in just minutes.
The adjustable runners are mounted to the base of the Daytona seats. The OE design of the runners means both sides of the tracks lock in their adjustment, so there isn't any seat wiggle from one track to the other.
When installing the seats to the mounting brackets, it's a good idea to have a friend help so as to not scrape the paint in the rocker area or tear the door-opening seal. We also left the mounting brackets loose to allow some flex in lining up the mounting bolts to the adjustable runners. The runners offer height adjustments in one of three mounting holes, but going too low will dig the runner tab into the carpet. If you're that tall and need to have the seat that low, then you'll want to cut off the excess runner tab to clear the carpet.
When it comes to steering wheels, the stock, nonairbag wheel in the '87-'89 Mustang is downright dull. No running horse, no two-tone look-nada! We wanted to be able to hold something comfortable, to have good value mixed with an easy install, and top it all off with great looks. We found all that with the Grant Evolution GT wheel. There are several options for the thumb inserts (or paint them to match your car), but we ordered the wheel direct with the yellow inserts. The factory cruise can even be retained with one of the Grant cruise-control button kits.
The cam-lock-style buckle...
The cam-lock-style buckle system allows for quick exit in the case of fire or crash, and the cam lock will accept one of Schroth's single or double crotch straps to make the Profi-III four-point into a five- or six-point restraint legal for most any racing venue.
The name "Real Street" conjures up ideas of driving these race cars on the street, which is what we aimed for when 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords and the NMRA put their collective heads together to write the rules for the class. While the drivetrains are certainly potent, the Mustang must have opera-ting lights, wipers, horn, and so on.
For those wishing to actually drive their Real Street cars on the street, the subject of safety restraints is an important one. The stock, three-point belts from Ford work, but for most Real Street cars with aftermarket racing seats, the belts either don't lie across the seat properly or they just plain don't look good. Many owners use a standard SFI-spec, five-point harness in their Real Street cars. These work fine for the track, but they're usually not DOT legal for street use, which means you have to have both the aftermarket and the OE belts in the car.
The best alternative we've found to allow both track use and street driving, and to stay legal in both applications, are the harness restraints from Schroth. By using the company's Profi-III four-point harness system, you can maintain DOT-legal status for street driving. When racing, simply connect the optional crotch strap to make the system a full, SFI-spec, five-point harness. The best of both worlds-legal, and an all-in-one harness system.
When you sit in a seat such as the Cobra Daytona, you don't want to wear the stock three-point belt-it just doesn't look right. And the three-point belt isn't legal for competition use. Schroth (pronounced shh-ro-t) harness-belt restraints are some of the best safety equipment you can buy. The Profi-III four-point belt system shown here is not only DOT legal and FIA approved for street use as a four-point harness, but also, with an optional crotch strap, it can be used in NHRA competition as an SFI-approved five-point harness. Don't try to use your regular five-point harness in a four-point application because without the crotch strap your body will "submarine" under the lap belt, while the Schroth four-point design will not.