If Porsche offered a leather steering wheel with the 12 o'clock mark, I probably would have chosen that. However, so far I don't regret choosing the Alcantara wheel.

 

It is easy enough to clean. Use Sonax Alcantara cleaner. However, it will start to get matted down over time and for this reason I still much prefer leather.

 

Had leather in my 991.2 and now the leather/alcantara combo in the GT4. I really like it but as someone that naturally runs on the hot side, I do miss the coolness of leather (and the ventilated seats). With that said, I don’t daily the GT4 so it’s not been an issue. As for the feel of alcantara, I love it. Time will tell on durability; however, it seems easy enough to maintain so long as you stay on top of it with an occasional cleaning.

 

I sold my previous GT4 after 5 years and 27K miles and all the alcantara/race-tex looked perfect...the key here is maintenance and if you do get it dirty, clean it as soon as you can.
The Sonax product already mentioned is really good and between that one you can use other interior cleaners like the one from Griots coupled with a hard brush that's sold for alcantara care.
On the other had I also have a F80 2017 M3 ZCP with a leather steering...it's a daily driver that my wife uses most of the time and the leather is already starting to show a bit of wear.

 

Leather will scratch way easier, compared to alcantara. Alcantara will get matted down and be more difficult to bring back to looking like new compared to leather. Leather will be easier to clean and then make new again.

 

Another data point that may or may not be relevant to you: In these cars if you are getting deviated stitching adding the leather on the wheel and shift boot takes away the deviated stitching.... My OCD goes crazy when I see an interior with the full deviated stitching then randomly black stitching on the wheel and shift boot. For that reason alone I wouldn't do the leather personally. (I'm also fine with alcantara from a long term wear perspective)

 

^^^^ This! Asked my SA if the leather wheel would be deviated and answer was no. Went with the standard wheel. It cleans up easy on previous cars, so happy to get it again.

 

Yeah, forgot about that important detail. Basically the leather steering wheel is, I think, just the standard 718 leather steering wheel except the inserts are still black (on the GT4). As a fan of deviated stitching (even my steering column has it), it would also drive me nuts.

 

So the verdict is that with frequent cleaning and brushing race-tex may be kept looking as new for a while but eventually it can't be restored to new. Leather is still the longevity winner with much less maintenance. Close?

 

I read it as race-tex is best for longevity. It can be easily cleaned and restores to like new condition with a brush and Sonax cleaner. Leather will scratch and abraid easily and will harden and crack in the sununless properly protected.
MOO

 

I have the Alcantara with the Yellow 12 o’clock mark. I like both materials and have has alcantara in an Audi RS and a couple AMGs and it was good but expect the Porsche to be better quality.
I also have the admit I bought a retro looking set of crochet leather gloves and love driving with them.

https://www.autodromo.com/accessorie...ngback-gloves/

 

I appreciate all of the feedback. Very informative. I am convinced that the Race-Tex wouldn’t be the wrong decision, but I’ll likely stick with the leather to satisfy my OCD and not have to deal with that matted down feel.

This also helps my decision regarding the sun visor material as well.

Chris

 

That wasn’t how I read it. Racetex requires more frequent cleaning and brushing and will develop flatspots/matting on heavily used areas over time. I’ve seen some pretty matted steering wheels on used cars FS — if all it took was a quick clean and brush to restore to new I’m sure the seller or detailer would have done it. I clean and condition my leather interiors about once a year — just wipe with damp cloth few times in between. They look like new after 15+ years.

 

You’ll be surprised to find how lazy detailers for car sellers can be. I cleaned the matted Alcantara steering wheel on the 90k km CL63 I bought used and “detailed” from a dealer and it became good as new. I’ve yet to encounter alcantara that couldn’t be restored.

 

Ok, thanks for clarifying. My impression was that the matting becomes irreversible after some time. Race-tex back in consideration.