Catmagog

Hi All,

Anyone had any experience in changing 18 Way seats to Gull Buckets in the 718 GT4.

Any help would be appreciated

KelvinC

No, but as an alternative to the LWBS, you can consider the folding carbon bucket seats:

http://carnewal.com/products/981/p91...-:-991-version

They are great seats that are little tighter in the hip/torso area but wider in the shoulder area, and they fold forward. It may be more cost efficient to go this route, unless you can find someone looking to swap w/some cash involved.

My friend installed these in his 991.2 GTS. His process on Rennlist can be found here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/991/1078...l#post16339172

Catmagog

Thanks very much - I will check it out

jmartpr

The problem is sourcing the seats. LWBS are hard to find unless you really want to shell out the $$$$......on the 981 GT4 very few people actually did it.
You may be able to find someone to swap plus cash after a while when they realize the LWBS are not for them....need to keep posting here from time to time.

0-Day

Have you considered instead swapping to a real race bucket - something like a Recaro SPG? It would cost 1/3rd. It would be significantly lighter than the Porsche carbon buckets. You can get the Recaros in different sizes to fit your body. It's a real FIA certified race seat. And you could swap just the driver seat if you want to save even more money and also not torture your passenger.

Nickshu

I have 18 ways and looked into this. Porsche does not sell the seat complete and piecing one together is over $25K per seat according to my dealer's parts department. For the 982 Porsche moved the airbags from the doors to the seats, so if you want the side airbags you can't buy the 981 seats which I have seen for as low as $15K for a pair. If you don't care then the 981 seats will bolt in.

In the end, as stated above, your best bet is to go with a racing seat and a seat base. BBi sells nice setups for this, then find a resistor solution for the airbag circuit. On other Porsche's I have owned a 3ohm 0.5w resistor will trick the airbag, and according to what I have read about the other bags would still go off, although in a 6 point harness airbags really don't do anything. YMMV. Overall this is a much cheaper solution, and also the seats are much better than Porsche LWB's anyhow from a track-use perspective.

https://www.bbiautosport.com/718-gt4

0-Day

I did not realize it until now, but Recaro also has a new Podium seat that is CFRP and pretty crazy looking: https://www.recaro-automotive.com/en/race/recaro-podium

The Recaro Podiums look to sell for about $3000 each, which is still considerably cheaper than the Porsche OE ones. And again the Recaros would be way lighter than OE and a real FIA approved seat.

minn19

I'll give whoever a deal and sell my LWBS for $20k a seat.

As I said in another thread, I'm thinking of going the other way and installing two way sports seats. Then storing the LWBS for a track day or when I sell the car. I emailed my dealer for a price on the two ways and they never got back to me yet.

I've gotten used them and really like them, but I'm guessing my wife next summer will tire of getting in and out of them on a routine basis when we get to drive it more often.

Archimedes

Race seats are cool, but they are not near as all day comfortable as the LWBS. I could do 500 miles in my LWBS, no problem. No way I could do that in the Sparco in my simulator. And if anyone thinks the LWBS are hard to get in and out of, try a full on race seat.

Catmagog

Thanks All,

I have a full blown track car so this would really only be for street driving.

Its a car at the dealer I am interested in and has the 18 ways, I am a LWBS guy so thought a swop was possible and simple.

Seems not

Nickshu

It's not. I was in the same boat. Dealer had a GT4 in the exact spec and color I would have ordered, except for the 18 ways. I bought the car anyway, but in the buying process inquired about swapping out for the LWBs. I found out it's not simple at all. They even had a 981 on the lot w/ matching LWBs so looked into swapping those, but the airbag location change 981/982 made the dealer unwilling to do this (and me too unless I could keep the original 18 way seats for future sale of the car).

I also have a SPB race car so I can get my fix there, but would be nice to have the GT4 setup for the occasional track day a bit so I may go the BBi seat setup route. I already bought a CMS roll/harness bar, have not installed yet.

Larry Cable

I am not convinced about that - one place I would start would be to compare the 982 P/N's with the 991.2 parts to see what if any model variations exist ... my personal experience (albeit with 997 gen GT3's) is that moving
from a 4/14/18 way to the GT2 Sports Buckets was a simple plug and play ... in particular focus on the electrical components and wiring harness...

Nickshu

Circling back on this. After further research beyond what my dealership was telling me, the airbags are in fact inside the seats in both the 981 and 982 cars. The underseat connectors and wiring appear visually identical between the 2 generations.

I have, sitting next to me right now, a set of 981 GT4 LWB seats in matching stitching that I plan to install in my 982 GT4. Stay tuned as to whether they work or not.

Larry Cable

dont forget to disconnect the battery when swapping the seats - to avoid any airbag issues...

6IXSPD

How did this turn out?