Larry Cable

guessing you will have to wait for the RS launch...

denny

My sales guy told me recently that the ONLY way one will be able to get the sport buckets for the GT3 is over the counter. To clarify (or emphasize the point), he said the sport buckets will never be available when ordering a GT3, even as an option. My order locks Feb 6. I've requested to have my lock and build dates moved so I could order the sport buckets if they became available after Geneva. I was told it won't matter; they won't be available.

denny

911dev

Not so sure your sales person knows this for fact. It could be, but not sure anyone outside of PAG knows for sure.

Joe@Fabspeed

You gotta believe that GT2 style sport bucket seats will eventually be available for North American Porsche customers. Porsche must have something planned as it cant be a supply and demand matter. I bet Porsche overcommitted to regular seat production and is having USA customers absorb the regular seats..........euro and ROW customers can immediately get race type buckets.......eventually USA buyers will be able to order the seats in any Porsche sporty car like 911, boxsters caymans and etc.

It's maddening as I have had a GT3 order in for a long time........and i do not want stock style seats on any Porsche car. I've had 4 cars with porsche sport buckets the seats are very very comfortable and are awesome as the recline . Total innovation and design genius from Recaro. I don't buy any arguments or excuses about USA DOT safety regs or new style 918 Spyder seats.........just allow Porsche enthusiasts to buy old school sport buckets and if a better updated sport bucket comes out then just phase the new seats in.

I was at the Frankfurt Autoshow the sport seats are in all the cars I saw and cars and GT3 s at Porsche headquarters. I may have to bail on my order soon. Drat!

frayed

I'd bet he's wrong. PAG is on record stating that the lack of sport buckets in the US is a mistake that will be rectified. I believe it was the president of PAG in an interview who admitted it was a problem and that he had to press on the engineers to get the situation resolved.

Whether a conspiracy or not against the US customers, looking at those statements and the historic introduction of sport buckets, all signs point toward them being available.


Coupla things:

- with your sport bucket experience, were they a PITA for a daily driver or quasi daily driver? my concern is about ingress/egress. . . even though I'm not fat.

- did you get a lot of side bolster wear?

- you sure they are made by recaro? I was thinking that PAG is using a different seat manufacturer.

- why bail on your order if you believe they will be available for purchase separately? I know they will cost a grip, but they should be available.

Hoopumpers

Frayed, they are awesome for a DD. I absolutely love them in my Spyder and feel cheated buying any Porsche without them.

Getting in/out is certainly more challenging, but nothing compared to a true recaro or caged car. It's just not a big deal.

I sort of lift myself out a bit when leaving the car and have zero bolster wear issues.

I'll be retrofitting the buckets. Just hope I can get them with the proper red stitching

orthojoe

I call BS on that.

+1

Not directed at me, but I can answer the questions from my stand point:
- buckets are comfortable and fine for daily/quasi daily driving. You just need to know how to properly get in/out of the seat by lifting yourself out. As long as you have the strength to do this (barely any), then you'll be fine.
- none yet for me. I stopped using my bolster protectors. As long as you lift yourself out properly, I don't see this being an issue.
- I believe the manufacturer for the gt2 seats was lockheed martin
- I made the mistake of getting a boxster spyder that didn't have the buckets optioned from the factory. The path to rectify that mistake was painful and costly. I won't make the same mistake again. Given that the GT2 seats now cost $10k, I'm going to guess that the next generation is going to cost at least $12-15k. That's an absurd amount of money for seats. Plus, you don't know WHEN they will actually make the seats available for purchase from a dealer even though they are available from the factory (Has any one seen the supposedly available for purchase iron 410mm rotors to replace PCCB for track use yet?). Best to get it optioned from the factory. Given how expensive the car is, I don't have a problem with waiting until I can get it spec'd properly. It's convenient that I'm not slated for an allocation until the end of this year, but even if I had one available right now, I would pass. I'm going to be patient this time. All of my car decisions made on impatience in the past have been regretful.

orthojoe

Based on history, red stitching wont be possible on a retrofit unless you buy used off of someone who had it optioned from the factory.

Z356

It is not a mistake. The official line is that there was a change in US DOT regulations which prevented Porsche & PCNA from offering the 'sport bucket seat' (folding w. airbags, known to us as the gt2 sport buckets) in the 991 or 981. That seat is continue to be offered in ROW on the 991 & 981, including the current gt3 (i.e. Macca's). I had a personal conversation with Detlev von Platen in Stuttgart in April 2013 on this subject, which was duly reported in this forum, which stated this particular position. And there has been multiple other confirmations from von Platen & other Porsche executives that a redesigned 'sport bucket seats' will be eventually offered in the US market, although all the talk has concentrated on appearing in the US version of the MY2015 991 gt3 RS! Whether or not they will be offered in any future base 991 gt3, nobody knows. In fact, we don't even know if there will be a MY2015 & beyond gt3 or RS due to the Cycle 6 emissions issues.

Even on the 918 Spyder, which has the new fixed back sport bucket seats w. airbags that some expect will be the same as those offered in the gt3 RS, Porsche has not been able to offer an electrically adjustable passenger seat due to the difficulty of meeting a new air bag rule by US DOT. In the ROW, the 918's passenger seat will have an option to be fully adjustable - up & down, rake, etc. On the early 918's for the US (until they get this issue resolved), they expect that passenger seat will need to be fixed in place. The only movement will be forward & backward, pretty much as you could move the gt2 seats of the previous generation. So there is certainly some new airbag regulation in the US that is effecting 'sport bucket seats' and Porsche is obviously trying to deal with the situation in all fronts. There are a lot of very wealthy 918 prospective owners that are similarly not happy with the restrictions on the passenger buckets on their about to be delivered million dollar car!

Saludos,
Eduardo
Last day in Scottsdale

.

frayed

Thanks for your thoughts.

Roger that and understood.

I just could not pass up on my early allocation with the hope that I could successfully get a later allocation *and* buckets became available.

12 to 15k would seriously suck, but I figure if I keep the car forever then I can cope with the hit. If I sell, I'll put my then brand new and pristine factory seats back in and sell the buckets for 1/2 price. Figure there should be a strong market for the buckets given all the 991 cars running around with regular seats.

orthojoe

That makes good sense to me. I certainly can't fault you for not passing on an early allocation. Like I said, my situation is 'convenient'

frayed

The way it was presented by the PAG exec in the video was that in the tone of regret. Perhaps not mistake but that the situation was unfortunate, and he specifically referenced the engineers IIRC.

Frankly I don't buy the conspiracy theories that RL's love to get into. I'll just go with the stated reason.

Joe@Fabspeed

Getting into and out of the sport buckets is easy. My Boxster Spyder was bought used and the drivers bolster is worn somewhat as I think the prior owner simply plopped into the car.

My company fabspeed has removed and replaced many sets of gt2 sport seats in cars when wonders requested rollbars and other modifications and I believe there were Recaro stickers under the seats on the flawless carbon fiber. I believe Recaro is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leer Sigler company possibly a unit of Johnson controls


I have a guards red car ordered with steel brakes, red belts and logical options and the base seats in the event I pull them and replace with Recaro seats. I'm up in the air. The car was supposed to be in my possession before this pat years end. Was considering the other cool red metallic ......has anyone seen the red metallic?

I have several local customers that are breaking their cars in and soon I should have a couple in for baseline dyno testing and exhaust system development. The car looks great......I hope Porsche really does a lot Moreno the RS as Ferrari really went crazy on the Speciale and Scuderia.

orthojoe

Doh! I think you're right. The GT2 seats are made by Lear Corporation. I knew it started with the letter 'L'... just not lockheed. LOL.

Z356

Here is the interesting history of Recaro, which sprung from REutter and CAROsserie (vehicle body), after Porsche bought the old Reutter factory in Zuffenhausen! It is today part of Johnson Controls, but that part is very recent.

https://www.recaro-automotive.com/us...y/history.html

Saludos,
Eduardo

PS I don't know who built the gt2 sport bucket seats for Porsche. I never took them apart the seats on my Spyder to find out the tag underneath!