Yes he's local. I met him over the weekend at Alice. Super chill guy and we both got invaded by a super intense Vette/Mustang owner in a nice morning. Who bitches and moan about his blown GT350 motor and how Ford isn't giving him his deserved warranty.

If we need to plug in to a plug we'll likely need to remove the seat. My harness transplants under the GT2 bucket has turned into a huge cluster f, super hard to reach.

@marinb I think if we get this to work, from your side all you need to do is get all of the harness from my T and an additional bladder.

 

This should be straight forward. Just drill a couple of holes in the base and they'll hold. Plus this will all be sandwiched between the cushion and seat, so that will hold it in place too.

I think so. When I was on ebay searching for the part, I looked at Porsche, VW, and Audi parts of similar model year, and all the parts looked the same. All about $40 on ebay.

It connects to the gray box in the upper left. That's the occupancy sensor module.

Exactly. The seat cushion just velcros on to the base, so as a quick trial this is what I'd do.

 

Wonder if there are higher res shots of the above? Some useful part numbers look to be visible. Even if only for that bracket, it might point to the number for those fasteners and some other bits?

 

I am about to pull the trigger on these for my 981. I have done a fair amount of research on this but everything I know is 981 based (therefore 991 as well).

Based on other confirmed installs as well as input from three local Indy performance shops, these seats are very close to plug and play. The only feature that is lost is the passenger occupancy sensor. When the seats are installed they will show and airbag warning because the occupancy sensor is missing. An Indy shop can code out the occupancy sensor but at the same time activate, and confirm the function of the thorax airbag. The coding operation forces the occupancy sensor off and the passenger airbag to be on at all time similar to the drivers side.

For me these seats are the best acceptable compromise to upgrade a car without buckets with a harness setup for track. Fixed buckets are very hard to come by and very expensive. Racing seats are best on track but lose the side airbag completely and are not really compatible with 3-point belts. For me, $7500 OEM seats with functioning airbags (and heated function!) are a very acceptable compromise. I guess if I had a small child or drove small children in my car I might be concerned about the occupancy sensor, but I do not.

If someone can figure out a good occupancy sensor solution, I would probably consider adding it as well but until then, I am good with this solution...

I am not sure if this is exactly the same for the 991.2 but I would guess it is since it seems that people have installed the seats into 991.2's successfully (BGB):

 

I can confirm what @sonorous has written above. I recently installed a set of 981/991 ROW Club Sport (GT2) seats in my 981. The large yellow connector plugs right in. As installed the seat heaters and the seat belt warning system worked. I had an airbag warning light on the dash, and the overhead passenger airbag off indicator was active. Took the car to my local Porsche shop and the car was set up with the passenger airbag always on and thorax airbags enabled. Now, there is no way for me to be 100% sure without "testing", and I hope I never have the opportunity to do so. I do trust the shop.

I took a picture on the control box on the bottom of the driver seat, below. If a solid solution comes out for the occupancy sensor, I'd consider adding it. On the occasion I do have a passenger, it's always an adult. But full function of the system would be nice to have.

 

I'm surprised your dealer was willing to code the airbags ON.

 

It is my understanding that dealers either can't or won't do this. But it seems that any good Indy shop can do it. I know of three in my area that have done it and will do it no problem.

 

It was an independent Porsche specialty shop. Fortunate to have a few great shops local to me.

 

Update 11/30:

@marinb brought his bladder he bought online (cayenne?) and tried it on my harness. Good news - It did not throw airbag light or error code, and when pressing against it it turns off the "Passenger Air Bag lights Off" light.

When we removed the seat we discovered my local shop actually transferred my occupancy sensor bladder from the original seat, but he only mounted under the seat (not sure why). so we moved the bladder to under the seat cushion. Tried and and it seems to sense the passenger and it turns off the "Passenger air bag lights off" light. This tells me the airbag should be ON.

I also moved the original seatbelt buckle to underneath the seat to be always plugged in, and re-mounted the folding bucket buckle so I don't damage the seat. Overall I think it's working.

For @marinb and anyone with GTS, he's working on trying out the cayenne bladder on his harness see if it works. He'll probably need to transfer his occupancy harness (the grey box) over.

 

Happy New Year to all!

Stopped by the parts counter at Porsche Marin today with a buckle off of a RoW 991 folding bucket "GT2" passenger seat in hand, to see what their computer might display for the same piece for a US 991 GT3 "918" bucket seat. The result? A buckle that appears to have the wires we need along with a stem length and "kink" angle that look like a match—so I ordered one. Here's to hoping it works, as I love the idea of 100% factory parts, and the price is very reasonable—right in line with what you see for the passenger-side buckle for a standard 991.2.

I'll take some pics, including the part number, when the buckle arrives. If this plan works, that leaves the bladder. Curious to hear what the latest is?

Cheers,

 

Hi Pete, happy new year!

My latest is moving the original buckle from 4ways down underneath the seat and using the original GT2 bucket buckle on the seat. If your part works out I'd be interested to swap out to the correct one.

​​​​​@marinb I'll let him speak on his side his he's a bit more complex.

 

I'll definitely be interested in this once you get it. Please measure the stem length too. (I'll try to measure mine the next time I have the seats out).

On a positive note, I almost have this 100% solved at this point, just waiting on 1 more part. I'm trying to do it by not removing any parts from my 18-ways, which has made this much more challenging. I've ordered half a dozen incorrect wiring harnesses from the dealer before settling on the right set. (waiting on parts from Germany has made this a really slow process)

I can do a full write up once I'm done.

Currently I have a different solution for the belt buckle, which is to just have a second US991 version of the buckle under the seat w/ a piece of buckle always clicked in. This seems like an ~ok~ solution, since the weight sensor will turn on/off the airbag based on weight in the seat (the only time it will be bad is if someone sits in the passenger seat unbuckled, because the airbag will be active based on weight alone).

As for some people mentioning the seat is a little high, I really haven't felt that. But I found that Cantrell makes a new bracket that can fix that if you want. It'll raise, lower, or change the angle of the seats. I haven't bought this yet because the seating position seem great, but I could imagine needing a bit more angle if you want to run these with a Helmet on.
https://cantrellmotorsport.com/produ...side-mounts-2/

 

I appreciate the continued updates on this gents! My 991 seats arrive Monday from Europe and I will be fitting them into my GT4 this winter. I would be happy to share any information from them once they are un-boxed and as they are installed. I am interested in any progress and details on the bladder solution. I would love to get that working. Also I appreciate the Cantrell suggestions. I am 6'1" and height is the only thing that has me worried. My shop seems unconcerned about it and mentioned that there are height adjustment solutions if needed so I may go down that path. There also seems to be a solution from Tarett: https://www.tarett.com/items/986-987...slb-detail.htm

I did not go back and re-read this entire thread but I had a question... Are you guys trying to fit the 991 version of these seats or the 997 version? I am still kind of perplexed as to why there are so many buckle and wiring concerns. It might just be a 991.2 thing as I have never heard of these concerns in a 981.

 

The 991 version of these seats. Read the quoted section in post #66.

Didn't know about Tarett. Thanks.

Also, if you want to run a harness, the sub bar from Cantrell works very well. I see that Tarett has a sub bar too, but I haven't tried that one. I did try the Brey Krause sub bar, and it was terrible, made the fore/aft adjustment bar almost unusable; not sure why all the 997 guys raved about this sub bar.

 

Thanks for the link on the Tarrett! Wasn't aware of it.

Can't speak to the others here, but the seats a friend was letting go have 991 part numbers—despite the "997" p/n on the buckle I removed. The seats look largely identical to the pair I installed in a 987.2 I had many moons ago—though these have 1) no Porsche crest on the headrests, 2) heating elements—a boon, and 3) black stitching instead of GT Silver. I suspect the sliders are different, and I am hoping my memory is correct from the two 991s I sat in with these seats in Europe...the seating position was better (lower) for me than it was in the 987/997, as these seats sat too high in those cars. We'll see, but nice to know there are two solutions, at 5/8" and 3/4" lower. I guess I would do driver's side only, but we'll see. Thinking about installing the driver's side seat today just to try it. My base Carrera may end up becoming more focused, in some ways, than my GT4. I love the non-suspension bucket seats in these cars...nothing connects you to the chassis quite the same way.