Aftermarket vs. Sport Seats
 

I've been researching aftermarket seats for some time and have come to a few conclusions:

(A) The general population of enthusiasts buy them as jewelry
(B) The majority buy online without ever sitting in what they're buying.

I'm afraid to say I was in this category until I popped over to Speedware Motorsports the other day. Race seats are like a custom suit and extremely personal to your tastes... and also include factors such as height, weight and body type. For the racer of course many more factors are involved which i won't get into.

I wish they had a set of Recaro PP's there but unfortunately did not. Most seats (in this case were Sparco's) in the $500-700 range each were disappointing.

So with that said. Where are people sourcing OEM sport seats nowadays? Online? Are 944 and 968 the same? Salvage yards?

Also, if you have experience with aftermarket seats i'd love to hear your thoughts!

I'm no seat expert but this is what I can tell you from a North American production perspective:

* 968 sport seats are rare, only 154 of 2,234 coupes and 67 of 2,008 cabs came with them from the factory.
* Full power (8-way) option was not available on sport seats so you only get the standard 4-way.
* Lumbar option was not available on sport seats
* Heated option was available but obviously, even rarer.

Many colors out there, ask if you are looking for something specific, not sure if 944 are the same.
Jeff

8-way electric was possible to get from Exclusive department. Very likely none were done for US market but it was possible, also 8-way + heat.
Even this was possible. I have seen one local 951 with 12-way sport seats + heat and believe it was done by factory.

There was no other reason than limiting number of variations why sport seats weren't made with more electrics than up/down possibility as normal option. Basic seat frame is almost identical and can be converted to any variation up to 12-way + heat without too much difficulty.

I think they probably also wanted to keep the weight down on the "sport" seats, so they limited the number of motors attached.

I'd love to find a set of light gray sport seats with cloth inserts! I know of at least one set in existence in the US but will most likely need to create my own.

a good seat is a good seat.

they didn't put 993TT seats in our cars, so......


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As far as I know there wasn't a sport seat available in the later 993 seat style. The only one I know of is a incredibly rare 993 sport seat with a plastic back as I recall and I'm willing to bet none of those made it into a 968.

The early style seats are identical to what was found in the 1985.5 and newer 944s so you could source a 944 sport seat and it would be correct (although not on your option sticker).

Look out for heated 944/968 sport seats or non sport. The heating element would be very difficult to repair if it went out as it is sewn into the seat. They really didn't have many settings between scalding hot and off too - certainly a little disconcerting:)

That makes since. 2,165 of the 4,242 North American 968s had option code 437 8-way full power driver's seat. Not one of those 968s had sport seats. I'm thinking the option wasn't available on sport seats at all. I will check my period sales documents to confirm.

Nope, they made them but they are rare.

993 style seats are found in the late 94s and all 95s. The North American production 993 sport seat stats found in 968s are:

Coupes:

1994 - 28
1995 - 11

Cabs:

1994 - 5
1995 - 3


Here is a 1 of 1 example, cloth script 993 style sport seats
https://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a7...pseaa5ae0f.jpg

i'm loving those seats. and you can be sure they're even more comfortable than their leather counterparts.

the op seems to have stumbled upon some things.... and as luck would have it, I have a few sordid opinions about seats...
first, stock seats and stock sports seats are fine, and comfortable. re-covering them (including going cloth centers) is a killer upgrade.


people have been upgrading everything from entry-level to flagship Porsches for decades. but with our 10~15 thousand dollar 968s, when it comes to seats,
there's no purist vs mod conversation; no right or wrong. you can bolt the oem stuff back on anytime.


but, good aftermarket seats aren't cheap, so, there are a few things to think about...

1. comfort.

2. aftermarket seats should probably be leather (sorry).

3. needs to look good.

4. should look period-correct.

5. should be able to pull off the sports seat look.....


and the further you go down the list, the price goes up, and up....

about number 5.... there's no perfect answer, but, i'm yet to see anything outside of the high-end Sparco and OEM 993~996TT seats that can pull it off.


i'm not into fixed back seats for the street cars. I saw a 944 with 996 GT3 fixed back seats at Road America last month. the huge, hoop shaped headrests (not to confuse with the full Hans seats) are awesome because they work with the geometry of the roll cage to keep your head from getting crushed (a nice thing to be sure) while you're wearing your Hans unfortunately, they look ridiculous for a street car..... 997 sports seats are nice. but they're also, not period correct. they sell for $10-14 K.


for upgrading the looks/form/function, the 993TT~996TT sports seats are the best—in the $6.5 k~$8 k range.


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there are definitely some killer seats out there these days. and some of the exotic Kevlar stuff from a few vendors. Sparco Milanos (top photo), Demon (lambskin version of the Milano's), look pretty yummy in the $4 k~$5 k range (incl. mounting hardware). if you like the idea of 997 sports seats, you might be able to find some recent Audi/Recaro sports seats (bottom photo) used for about $6 k. the Audi seats aren't period-correct, but they're very close to the Porsche seats.

http://www.bks-tuning.com/OEM-Euro-A...t-seats-Recaro

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You will not find it there unless its Exclusive department stuff and maybe not even there but it was possible.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that but I'll point to the 100% of the 4,242 North American 968s that back up my point of view.

Very few of those had any Exclusive department stuff in them other than basic color crest in wheels or something similar. I suspect none of them had as much as sample 968 in Exclusive department brochure which wasn't by no means fully loaded either. I know 968 is different thing than 928 but nothing prevented anyone from ordering something similar to what two US model GTS got shown in below threads. See for example picture in post #41 on second thread. 968 could be ordered with practically all the same stuff covered in leather and more. Very likely none were done for US market but there are few ROW cars which got very long option lists.

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...ne-94-gts.html
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...st-us-gts.html

Of the 4,242 North American 968s, 1,931 were part of the 09991 Excluisive program and have the code listed on their vehicle information tag. Most are XD4 painted crest center cars but a few of them have rootwood pieces, additional leather, and body colored painted wheels. 437/438 full power seats were never part of the exclusive program. They were a standard factory installed option. If you had a 968 with full power seats it would not have the exclusive program option code list, you have to have an "X" code option listed to get the 09991. I suspect, as the earlier poster indicated, the 968 sport seat did not have the design that could handle the addition of the additional motors or the lumbar. The exclusive program was all about looks (leathers, wood, paint), not funtion. Function was factory. That's what the data says.