Thanks Falk,
it was this racing chair that got me thinking it could be from a drag racer.
ignoring the upholstery, the shape is almost dead on, so it's infuriating. This one, and one other seat out of a corvette (but a very recent one) are the only things that even seem to come close.
but both are easily eliminated by their dates of manufacture, their price and their location. I totally agree with your logic that the Elstree set dressers would get the cheapest thing they could find locally.
I guess what got me hoping was Lucas's obsession with speed, drag racing etc having a thread with that through American Graffiti, his interviews as Star Wars was released and design elements like the X-wing (where Colin Cantwell made his prototypes, following george's napkin doodles, by putting wings on a model drag racer body). I half wondered if he didn't make a special request for the cockpit. But still, I think your logic against that is sound.
I found a TON of swivel bucket seats from the seventies that are so, SO, SO damn close. A bunch with the same tan color and material, with leather backing and the horizontally ribbed seat cover. But aside from all that the curves on the heads rests are all way off. I keep hoping I'll find that One car, or van as you suggest.
My last hope is that it might actually be out of a plane. Either a pre-ejection seat fighter (the original bucket seat? Auto manufacturers hoping to capture the mystique of fighter planes?) or a bomber's seat, or SOMETHING. The pulled parts out of Rolls Royce Derwent engines (both types of hanging dispensers in the Cantina are from the same engine, not to metion IG-88 later) The Martin Baker Nav-Chairs, and all the other greebles they got out of junk yards for dollars to the pound (pounds to the kilo?). It would make sense if they found some bucket seats out of a plane and upholstered them in studio.
but... well after all that, the search continues. Thanks for the offer on the chair measurements. Those I've got down from another member, but I just have to get them squared away.
(edit: and thanks again, Falk, for the pallet measurements. As I expand the model and start other ones, it's damn handy to have an accurate build to apply to all the places they show up. Most recently for the ceiling of the circuit bay)