The story of Tillett Racing Seats does not begin in 1986. In many ways, it begins a century before that, with a company called J. Willis and Sons, who painted and retrimmed horse-drawn coaches, made straps and harnesses for the war effort, and even worked on the upholstery of coaches from the Royal Mews. It was a business built entirely on craft, precision and pride in the work.
A young man named Alexander George Tillett, known to everyone as Alec, joined the company at the age of fifteen. Over the years, as the world changed around them and the age of horse-drawn transport faded, the business turned its attention to vintage and veteran car upholstery. The owner, Bob Willis, treated Alec like his own son, and when he retired, he left the company to him. Alec carried it on, quietly and diligently, until the day his own son Steve walked through the door.
Steve’s connection with motorsport began on a family holiday in Spain, where a chance encounter with a kart track sparked something that never left him. Back home, he visited a local kart dealer and saw the machine he wanted, but it was out of reach for the time being and so the dream was filed away, not forgotten.
In 1977, at sixteen, Steve joined his father as an apprentice, learning the trade on Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and a long line of beautiful historic vehicles. He saved his wages carefully, and eventually the day came. A second-hand kart was found and bought, and Steve headed to Tilbury Kart Track for his first session. Alec bump-started him out of the pits. Half a lap later, Steve had crashed.
He ran back across the track to his father and said: “This is the sport for me.”
And that was that.
Karting in those days was a bruising business. The seats were basic, uncomfortable and poorly sized, with drivers often simply pushing one shell inside another to get a rough fit. Sessions left you battered and aching, and Steve was no exception. But where others accepted the discomfort as part of the deal, Steve saw something that could be better.
Drawing on his father’s knowledge of materials and trimming, Alec came up with a practical fix, gluing a covering to Steve’s seat using the same supple material used to line the boots of old cars. It gripped the driver, softened the hard shell and made a noticeable difference. Other competitors started asking about it. Steve began refining the idea further, adding shaped foam to improve the fit, and addressing the awkward sizing problem in ways that were inventive and practical in equal measure.
The Tillett logo was designed on his parents’ living room floor. A badge was made. Something was beginning to take shape.
Steve continued racing and building his reputation in the sport, eventually earning sponsorship from Gillard Racing Karts. Then, in 1986, two friends returned from a major race in Japan with something unexpected, an order for one hundred seats from a large Japanese kart dealer called Suntrad. Every seat was to carry the hand-cut Tillett logo, made to a precise specification and finished to a standard that required real care and craft to achieve.
Steve did not have everything he needed to hand, but that did not stop him. Every detail was attended to, right down to the packaging, which was stencilled with the Tillett name so that even the boxes reflected the brand. The bare seat shells were sourced, covered and shipped. The order was fulfilled.
To handle it properly, Steve started a separate business. Tillett Racing Seats was born.
The existing seat shapes were still far from what Steve had in mind, so he set about making them himself. Five sizes were sculpted and produced from a shed in the garden, a proper workshop-scale operation born out of determination rather than resource. When demand grew beyond what one pair of hands could manage, Steve sought out others to help with the moulding.
The search eventually led him to two young lads working out of a small unit not far away, Steve Elliott and Steve Russell. Their work was good, their commitment was evident, and before long they were making all the mouldings. Three Steves, as it happened, which must have made for some memorable moments on the shopfloor.
With kart seats filling his father’s workshop from floor to ceiling, it was clear that the business needed a proper home. Alec helped Steve secure a small factory unit in Castle Road, Sittingbourne, and the two other Steves came with him, joining the new company as it took its next step forward.
The investment in better manufacturing equipment followed, allowing the business to move on from hand production and into a more consistent, scalable process. New faces joined the team, young people learning the trade and becoming part of something that was clearly going somewhere.
The business that had begun with a seat covered in a garden shed, sold to a friend at the trackside, was now a proper operation, with a factory, a team, and a name that people in the sport were beginning to recognise.
From a family workshop, a holiday in Spain, half a lap at Tilbury and a hundred seats for Japan, Tillett Racing Seats has grown into one of the most trusted names in motorsport seating, respected by kart racers, car builders and professional teams around the world. The craft that Alec learned at fifteen, and passed on to Steve, runs through everything the company makes.
As we celebrate 40 years in 2026, we are incredibly grateful to our customers, racers, team members and partners who have been part of that journey. Your trust, support and passion for our products have made this milestone possible, and we look forward to continuing the story together for many years to come.
