When you plop your butt into any Ford Performance vehicle like a Shelby GT500 or F-150 Raptor, there's typically a bolstered Recaro seat waiting for you. Recaro makes some of the best sports car seats in the business, but the Blue Oval now thinks it can do better in-house. Ford Performance just revealed new seats that will debut in the European Puma ST, Focus ST, and Fiesta ST. Sadly, none of these models are currently sold stateside.
Ford says owning a sports car used to come with a sacrifice, ditching comfort in favor of a firmer ride and more restrictive seats needed to deliver more connection to the road. With these latest seats, Ford believes it can make its feisty ST cars as comfortable as they are a blast to drive.
The seats are certified by Aktion Gesunder Rucken e.V. (AGR), the leading spinal health organization. To achieve this coveted certification, Ford's front buckets include 14-way adjustment for maximum comfort and support, meaning the driver and passenger don't have to adapt their position to the seat. In addition to the standard forward/backward and backrest angle adjustment, these racing thrones let occupants move the rally-inspired headrest, base cushion extender, seat height, and four-way electric lumbar.
"Drivers can only get the most out of our super agile Puma ST's driving dynamics if they can get comfortable. That's why we designed our new Ford Performance Seats with AGR-accreditation in mind right from day one," said Michael Janzen, supervisor, Seats Application, Ford of Europe. "Ford Performance engineers spend more time than most in the driving seat, so we know first-hand how important driving position is for both driving fun, and to help make sure you're not stiff and sore at the end of a journey."
Ford will wrap these seats in a premium Sensico upholstery, a vegan-friendly material that mimics leather. The seats shown here match the Puma ST Gold Edition, which went on sale in 2021. To make sure these seats were durable enough, Ford used a unique device called the "Robutt," a robotic bottom simulator that recreates a decade worth of sits, bounces, and twists in just three days, equaling around 7,500 sits. While Ford hasn't announced any specific plans to offer these innovative seats on a US-bound model, we doubt such a slick design will remain Europe-only for very long.