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By way of explanation, I confess to being a die-hard early 911 guy. I have only come lately to the modern, water-cooled Porsches due to age and infirmity (as well as the compelling performance of the 991 GT3).
I have never been a big fan of alcantara, either. It's just synthetic suede as far as I'm concerned. The black interior in my white GT3 just seemed too dark and somber to me. I had a set of '73 Recaro sport seats in my white '67 911S at one time that had houndstooth inserts and I really liked them.
I had a friend with one of the street-legal Andial 964 USA Carrera Cup cars who had used the houndstooth material on his modern Recaros a few years ago and I thought they looked great as well.
So, I decided a little retro look for the LWBs in the GT3 would brighten up the interior. I found a restoration shop in the UK that was having some replica "Pepita" material woven from Irish wool and ordered two square meters of it. It took a couple months to get here, but when it arrived, I had a local upholstery shop fabricate a pair of new covers for the LWB inserts, saving the alcantara set for the future, in case I wanted to go back to stock. I finally got them installed last week and I'm really happy with the look and feel of them.
Makes me smile even wider every time I get in the car.
Looks amazing. I'd order this if it was a factory option. Though maybe I would tire of it because there are no other retro touches on the car unlike the 50th anniversary model.
Looks amazing. I'd order this if it was a factory option. Though maybe I would tire of it because there are no other retro touches on the car unlike the 50th anniversary model.
I almost bought a 50th because of the houndstooth interior and the green gauges, which reminded me of my old '67S, but then I decided if I was going to decimate my retirement funds buying that expensive a car, I might as well get what I really wanted, which was a GT3.
You can add your own little additional retro touches, like the badge I put on the rear bumper:
and the Can-Am Interseries sticker on the inside of the windshield in the lower right corner, like the early S cars had in '72/73:
Little references like that start to add up, if people are looking carefully, and I'm having fun personalizing it.
I went to Tony first, because I heard he bought out all of Eric Linden's pepita stock and I know he does great work, but there must be gold in that Australian Merino wool, because he wanted $400/sq. yd. for it, and then $1200 to fab the inserts. I am retired and broke, not to mention Scottish by ancestry, and I just couldn't see paying top dollar for this little frivolous project, so I did some more research and found Garry Hall at Classic FX in Surrey, England was having some new pepita fabric custom woven, and ordered from him, then had Dave at OB Upholstery fab the inserts.
Only now you can only Track it while wearing a Tuxedo and Black matching helmet. Such Fun !
That's hilarious! Made me flash on the "Most interesting man in the world" guy saying "I don't often track my GT3, but when I do, I always wear a tuxedo and matching black helmet..."
Unfortunately, my big track days are over, I'm afraid, due to health issues. After 18 years of every track day I could afford, I'm strictly an autocross guy these days...
07-25-2015, 08:56 PM
Pepita inserts for LWB seats
After 18 years of every track day I could afford, I'm strictly an autocross guy these days...