I'm thinking about removing the rear set on my R53 MCS.....has anyone ever done this, and then turned around and put it all back in because it turned out to be a bad idea??

I'm 6'5", so I pretty much have the drivers seat most of the way back....nobody could ever sit in the back seat behind me. And even with the passenger seat all the way forward, nobody bigger than a little kid could ever fit back there and have any comfort. I really don't even know why they put a back seat in these cars.

I'm thinking hard about pulling the back seat out and doing a "rear seat delete".....just for the simple fact that I will have more store, and reduce the weight a little.

Any downside to doing this??

 

I agree with you, which is why I built a rear seat delete for my 2003 a few years ago. I loved it, since I could hear the exhaust a little more. There was never a time that I felt inconvenienced by it, since I wasn't going to put anyone back there anyway.

Here are a couple pics of the one I built:



Room underneath for the jack and a first aid kit:



I found out the other day that it fits in my wife's Clubman without any modification (other than the black carpet she requested instead of the grey):

 

The rear seat cushion provides quite a lot of sound insulation. Take it out and drive around a bit to see if that is going to be a problem for you.

 

I had my rear seats out for awhile, and put them back in. However, I did not have a nicely fabricated flat floor like the above poster, so it just looked sort of sketchy. If you have a nice clean install, I don't see much downside. I did notice a little more exhaust noise, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The seats provide the divided trunk space, which is nice if you want to keep valuables out of sight.

 

Looks really good. Im about to start a "Build a back seat rear delete" myself. Just have two questions for you.

1. Where can i find the matching carpet?

2. What would i have to do to make it harness compatible for future tracking?

 

I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I'm thinking about just bolting the seat belts onto the bottom of the delete, and belting it down, but idk yet

 

Downsides include anything you put in the "trunk" finding their way into your lap any time you have to stop quickly...

 

As far as a harness goes, if the rules allowed the Schroth Mini harness, no problem since the just clip & bolt in at all the factory points, all you'd have to do is modify the cover for access.
Otherwwise you could always mount a roll bar & attach to it.