240Z: Autolook type B seats arrived from Japan

The big Sea-freight shipment from Japan, which arrived last week and constisted mainly Honda Parts, also included something nice for the Datsun Project. A set of Seats:

Seats? Why more seats? Longtime readers might know i spent quite some time and money on finding “vintage” japanese seats – and i ended up buying Bride histrix seats.
I really like them, but they never really looked that oldschool. They’re new seats with a vintage touch.
So when i found a set of genuine japanese Autolook type B Seats for sale recently i had to get them. And personally i think they fit the car perfect, At least for my “Japanese street tuner” Style setup.
Here shown withot seat rails, so final position will be slightly higher.

Luckily i still fit into them, allthough i shouldn’t gain a lot of weight 🙂 Here’s a comparison between the bride and the Autolook. I think the bride’s look way to modern with the glossy Carbon fiber bucket shell on the back. Also it won’t be suitable for racing harnesses and has no headrests, so not exactly safe.
And the shoulder “wings” also make the fitment in the Z a bit tight, even tho they DO fit. Personally i just think the Autolook is more authentic and the shape just fits better in my opinion.

Now for a little history: In the early 80ies a Japanese Company named Autolook started to build these seats, called type A. It was one of the first Japan made racing seats. Here’s an advertizment in the 1983 carboy magazine:

And here another one from the same area:

The Autolook brand is now owned by the japanese company Latirips, which still makes racing gloves etc under that name. Amon Classic cars used to make the Autolook type A Replica seats (with black instead of yellow buckets) under licence of Latirips, but while still shown on their website, they’re sold out since many years.
But since i got the originals one i don’t want the replicas anyway. As you’ve seen they’re a bit worn, to say the least, so they’ll also need a bit of reupholstry. but in my opinion these seats are just the perfect ones for my build. And don’t worry i still have my original Z-seats if i ever want to switch back to original.

Update 2022.02.24: I realized that the seats i have are Autolook “type B” not “type A” as which they were originally advertized and which i thought. But i think they fit the car better anyway.
The main difference is the horizontal vs vertical back padding. otherwise they seem pretty much the same. I found this classic Autolook advertizing online, but don’t know the original source of this print. Most probably some japanese tuner Mook (Magazine book) from the eighties or so. Here you can see the complete range they offered back then. I wasn’t aware they made so many different types of seats. I’t also nice to see the original yellow colouring of the back shell they used. so mine still have the original paint. nice…