jwillman

First let me thank the Austin area 928 owners for a warm welcome to their monthly outing today. I got to see some wonderfully cared for 928's.

On the down side I have come to realize that being tall and headroom are an issue in a sunroof equiped 928.

Am I stuck searching for only non-sunroof models or are there other alternatives besides reclining the seat which is not a comfortable drining position for me?

I did sit in a 1979 928 without the sunoof ealier in the day and it had a tremendous amount of clearance but sadly the car had been terribly neglected and had some electrical and powerplant issues that would make it a bit more of a project car than a first time 928 owner wants / should take on.

Thanks again to James, Elliot and the other great Austin folks!

Jim

Nicole

There are some early cars, and a few later custom order cars without sunroof around. Or you could order a non-sunroof panel and have a bodyshop replace it. You'd also need a differend headliner, then, which you might be able to get from a "breaker" in Europe.

The 928 was initially designed without a sunroof in mind. They believed that if a car has air conditioning, there is no reason to have a sunroof as well. I tend to agree, as I never open mine (except maybe to vent for two minutes after it's been siting in the sun). But the market expected it from a car in that price range, so Porsche delivered.

KenRudd

Jim,

Seating position is a personal preference, but as a note, I am 6'4" and have no real problem in my sunroof equipped '88. Some possible differences:
1. I may be more comfortable in a more reclined position than you. Have your tried adjusting instrument pod/steering wheel for greater comfort when reclined?
2. I have 8 way power seats. Which seats do you have? Others may know better if different seats have more or less vertical range.

As a related note, I have my first DE coming up, which will require a helmet. Wondering how well that will work in regards to headroom.

-Ken

F451

At 6'6", I'm in exactly the same boat, its very annoying, but common for me with most cars - except pickup trucks - I LOVE pickup trucks. But I digress.

Here's the usual suggested remedies:
Sunroof delete 928s (as suggested above).
Convert your sunroof 928 to sunroof delete - very expensive and not worth it in my opinion for most 928s.
Fiddle around with seat positioning - this will give limited success - as I'm sure you're aware, the usual way to do it is to lower the back of the seat bottom, raise the front of the seat bottom, and recline way back like an F1 driver. Not real comfortable, hard to reach any of the controls, and unnerving to drive while practically holding the steering wheel with your finger tips.

And regarding the seating position thing, I don't know how many people, that are not ever close to 6'6", told me that all that I needed to do was to adjust the seat properly and I'd be fine. Even after I told them I had gone through every conceivable seating position without success. And I've been doing this for all of my adult life.

The factory extended steering wheel - same as the seating position thing. It works ok, but if you're very tall, it doesn't make that much difference. I tried one, and ended up buying an after market steering wheel. I got the deepest dish I could find in order to get the steering wheel as close to me as I could. This was a huge improvement, but not enough as I was still sitting F1 style.

Note on the dished steering wheel, I went with a smaller diameter wheel, 350mm. A HUGE improvement. The car feels so much more responsive. I will never go back to the school bus stock steering wheel.

Hub extender for aftermarket steering wheel: I haven't tried this yet, but its next on my list. I've seen ones that come in a size of about 1", and I believe you can use more then one at a time, but I need to look into this again in more detail.

After market seat: I think you will see you biggest gain. For test purposes I dropped a fixed back Sparco racing seat into my 928. HOLY COW! Nirvana. I could finally pull the seat up to a comfortable position, my back was much more upright, my head was not brushing the roof, I could comfortable reach the steering wheel, the shifter, and all of the controls.

So THIS is what driving a 928 is supposed to feel like!

Unfortunately I'm not a monkey, so getting in and out of the fixed back racing seat is a major pain in the ***, no pun intended.

But, it had proved the theory that a different seat would make the biggest difference. The key is the lower seat bottom of course.

F451

My next purchase was a Sparco reclining seat. Much to my dissapointment, it didn't offer as much headroom as I had hoped, as well as the seat doesn't fit too well between the tranny tunnel, and the sill side. I'm going to do some more fiddling with the seat mounting fitment so should have that figured out. But I should add, it was a big improvement over the stock seat.

Regarding the headroom specifically, I'm going to remove some of the seat foam in the Sparco and try to get it closer to the height of the fixed back I had in there. The fixed back was actually very comfortable, and it had a minimal amount of seat bottom foam.

F451

Another option is to drop in manual seats as I've heard they are lower then the power seats because they do not have to accommodate the electric motors. Not to mention they must be significantly lighter. The power seats are HEAVY.

I've also heard the manual 944 seats are the lowest, and bolt right in.

And of course, you could always have the stock seats modified, and this is what I will probably end up doing for a long term solution. I'll probably find another 928 seat and send it off to someone like Paul Champagne to work his magic on as I think just cutting some foam out, and trying to refit the original leather will end up having the seats looking like crap.

jwillman

I don't currently own one of these fine vehicles. I am searching for my first.

I was sitting in other folks cars today and did not want to jack around their seats to test different options.

I am 6'3" so dont' have the challenges Ed does.

Has anyone else tried other seat types?

Jim

F451

Lost of good info in this thread:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...t-options.html

These threads may be helpful too.

https://rennlist.com/forums/search.php?searchid=4260520

pcar928fan

Jim,

Get over to my house some time and we will put you in a bunch of different seat types and let you check them out and adjust them all day long to see if you can find something that works for you...

danglerb

I bought a pair of manual seats out of an early 928 and they have an inch or more of head room compared to the power seats. For any kind of track car I think the sun roof has to go.

Non sun roof isn't hard to find in early cars, but in 1982 I think PCNA decided everybody needs to pay $2500 for a sun roof, so fairly rare I think in 1983, and gone except for special orders by 1984.

vdubr

I'm 5'9 and I have 8 ways. I always leand the seat back a little when I get into friends cars so I know I sit a little ganster already. In my 928 I'm leaned back a touch further thatn normal to keep my head out of the cealing. Not sure hoe you 6 footers do it. I've often wondered that when cruising around. In mo opinion a racing style seat would deliver huge gains and would be the only way for someone as tall as 6' to be truely happy with one of these cars. Which is a good thing since you will rarely find seats in great shape anyway.

danglerb

928 is extremely popular with tall people, one of just a handful of cars that tall people fit well into

IF

its a manual seat in a non sun roof chassis.

123quattro

I still don't understand how that works. I'm 5'9", my car has a sunroof, and manual seats. My hair touches the roof panel. I'm cutting the sunroof panel out so I can track my car. It's not a possibility as it stands for me. Plus, it's a piece of crap anyway and leaks water everywhere. My old Audi is much more water tight.

6mil928

I'm 6' 3" and I have no sunroof. I really wish it did though. My next one will have it!

123quattro

Don't. It's worthless. I like them in my other cars, but not in my 928. It's too narrow and puts 40 lbs in the top of the car.