hawaiicy

Hi All,

I've tried searching the entirety of the internet but cannot seem to find a straight thread on the differences between all the seat options on the 981s. I'm eyeing a 981S that is on the other side of the country for a street/DE car. My dad has a 997 911 CS and the seats in it are universally recognized as pretty much horrid for performance use because they have the bolstering of an IKEA couch, so I'm very wary of buying a sports car with seats that don't match its capabilities. That being said, my wife has to be willing to drive the 3.5 hours to Laguna Seca in it too...

This particular 981S has the 14-way Sport Seats (heated and cooled). Fancy stuff but probably heavy and it doesn't appear to have great bolstering. Anyone have the 14-ways and track their car? Were there other options on the 981 that were better (the sport plus?)? And do any have more bolstering but still compatible with the heating and cooling? AT least with this info I could determine if a swap was possible if the 14-ways aren't good enough.

FWIW, I'm 6'2" and very lean at 160 lbs.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom!

PorscheAddict

Tons of people track with 14 way standard sport seats, myself included. They kind of suck at supporting you in corners, but it works. I've had cars with the sport seats plus, and they do support you somewhat better, but you're still going to be bracing your knee somewhere because the bolstering is not deep enough to hold you steady at 1g+ like a real race seat. The only really heavily bolstered Porsche seat of this generation is the lightweight buckets, which are carbon and a fortune and pretty much only seen in GT4's. Unless heating/cooling are a big deal, just buy the car you like and put some real seats in there like Sparco or OMP if you're tracking it enough for this issue to be a factor in what car you buy.

Pep!RRRR

hawaiicy

badabing

I've ridden in a number of 981's with Recaro pole positions. Buy the car and switch to those seats. You will not need to switch back and forth.

I have OMP in my track 987.2. The high thigh bolsters make ingress and egress a challenge without a detachable steering wheel. Not so with the Recaro I regret now not buying the Recaro.

These seats in the 981 may be the only true no compromise dual use mod.

hawaiicy

badabing

They do lack airbags and built in HVAC. I guess I was just speaking from a seating position comfort level.

UltraMagneticAL

i think i've seen recaro sportster cs w/ airbags and heating as options. not sure if they have cayman fitments, but i'm pretty sure i saw them for bmw's. might want to look there if you need heat and airbags.

MidEngineRules

I owned a '14 981 S for about 6 months until a loaded '12 987 R came along. The R is a superior performing car to the 981 S in every way I can think of, and you can find many R's with factory GT2 light weight buckets seats like mine had. Rs will also hold their value much greater. It's a better buy and personally I think it's a way cooler car too. Something to consider.

Patrick3000

ramans

I have Recaro Sportster CS's in my 2014 CS, with a Cantrell Motorsports bar for my harnesses (6 point) contact Cantrell for info on how to do this they're great at this stuff. Mine have heat but no airbags

mprog

considering a similar setup... how do you like it at track days?

A432

Couple points because this title will probably come up on a search for others even though it's 3 mos. old.
You probably already know this but I've been surprised while instructing how many people don't understand the seat belt trick of
backward - lock - forward to cinch down....then the sport seats aren't too terrible especially if you need the heat/air for the wife.
A couple more aggressive options besides the carbon buckets (which are made by Recaro) and besides the Pole Position already mentioned
are the Recaro Profi XL which are basically the shape of the carbon buckets but with deeper bolsters, and, at 6'2 and 160lb., you might like the std. Profi SPG (not the XL)
At 170lb I run the std. SPG and don't find it too aggressive but it's on the edge because you do basically have to drop yourself down into the seat. (pic below in the 987.2)
At the passenger seat I'm running the less aggressive Pole Position and haven't had anyone complain.

txbdan

I sold my E36 M3 race car to simplify life with the Cayman. I just did my first track day with the Cayman (standard "sport" seats in the 981 S) and sure, i miss a proper race seat and harness. But then again, it's not that bad. I'm not racing for money, just doing track days and time trials. My knees are bruised up and even my arms are sore in odd ways, but oh well. I had a good time and that's the point of track days. I'm speaking more generally than to the OP, but I think many people get too amped up for track day glory. When you step back and look at it, you're compromising a really nice car and for what exactly? Just have fun and enjoy what you have.