Get the backets and order from Porsche OEM leather and stitching you need as spare parts.

 

 

 

I have those in my 997 GT3 RS and like them. Plug and play too. Nice to have the shoulder belt option too. But I bought them in 08 and they were just under 8k at the time.

 

 

I know there have been other threads on this, debating swapping my 991 GT3 buckets out for the folding version for a lot of similar reasons mentioned above.

Can anyone speak to first hand experience with this? The buckets aren't impossible to get, but just curious if people have done 997 buckets and swapped electronics, or gone for the 991 version from Europe?

 

Whilst sourcing from Europe is doable, my belief is that you will need to proceed with caution...

The main reason for this is that, within Europe, on the 981/991 generation cars there are no 'occupancy sensors' fitted to passenger-side seats (of any type, whether sofas, folding buckets or LWBs); the passenger airbag is always live (once the ignition circuit is powered up) unless it is switched-off via a key-operated switch that is not even standard fit and which has to be ordered and fitted as an accessory item. In North American markets (in the main, USA and Canada), occupancy sensors are fitted to the passenger seat so that the airbag is deactivated if the seat is not occupied (and, I believe, the airbag is programmed to give a different, more gentle, deployment in the case that a lightweight occupant, such as a child, is detected). So, as a general rule, seats purchased in Europe will not have any occupancy sensor fitted which leads to the reported problem of having the airbag warning light permanently lit.

And, in the case of folding buckets, I think you will struggle to overcome this. I'm not absolutely, totally, completely 100% sure but I believe it's the case that the folding buckets have not been engineered for 981/991 generation cars with any form of occupancy sensor (the logic would appear to be that they could not satisfy recently updated safety regulations requiring height adjustment to be incorporated, so if they are not legal and cannot be fitted, why spend time, money and effort in developing a sensor system?). In the earlier cars (987/997.2), occupancy sensing on folding buckets was achieved through use of piezo-electric pressure transducers that were integrated into the seat rails and mounting points on North American spec cars, and there's a double-whammy at play here; newly sourced 981/991-era folding buckets (eg: from Europe) will not have sensors and, fitting older 987/997-era folding buckets will not work as the 981/991 generation cars are not compatible, electrically, with the senors fitted to the older seats.

All of that said, a good place to look for new or nearly-new seats (folding buckets or LWBs) from within Europe is at www.teile.com, who have operations in Poland and in the east of Germany; I have good personal experience of the quality of their service and for excellent support from Michael who works there.

Probably not the information you were hoping to uncover and, whilst there are some parts of what I've written that I can't be absolutely, totally sure about, I'm confident enough about my findings to recommend you to take care if you step into this area. Folding buckets are expensive paper weights if you can't get them to work properly in your car!

James

 

Thank you the in depth explanation, James. Most helpful.

I was told that BGB Motorsports are able to retrofit GT2 seats (unsure if these are 997 or euro 991.1-2014 spec) to the 911.1 GT3. When I pm'd them about this process, they confirmed they DO perform this conversion with all lights addressed. But that know-how is kept close to their chests as, they do a "deeper" programming so that seats are accepted.

I believe I've also seen another RLer successfully retrofit a drivers-side only to their GT3 without airbag light issues. (was not clear if some sort of advanced programming was needed).