Spork

Now that I have relocated to northern NV and eastern Sierra region I find myself actually using my car!

The roads up here are amazing, smooth and twisty with incredible views, wide open spaces and hardly any traffic. I am really looking forward to lots of great drives which leads me to my next mod: new seats.

I have power seats with the 3 setting switch and have one setting for my preferred driving setup and one set for moving the seat all the way back to make it easier to get in and out. Other than that, I don't adjust the seat.

The problem is I have to hold the button down and it takes a while for the seat to adjust. A manual seat would be much quicker.

I'd also prefer a race type seat to hold me in place a bit better. My Uncle has a RUF RGT and I got to drive that car a few times. The seats are very nice so would like something like that.

Wondering if I should try to find Porsche sport seats or just go aftermarket?

joseph mitro

in my experience true race seats (FIA approved) have a fabric that is not conducive to daily driving. IE not conducive to in/out like a daily driver.

I'd love to have some GT3 seats like you show in the photo.

MoeMonney

Pics of your uncles RGT please!

Spork

It is an amazing car. Wonderful exhaust note, naturally aspirated engine with great torque. This is the car that convinced me to buy a 911 after driving it.

Palting

Here you go. 996 GT3 seats by Porsche. These seats are made by Recaro, and you can find them without the Porsche logo. My wife won't ride in the car anymore, though. LOL

NYoutftr

dkraige

I'd go one step further in qualifications: would love to see solutions people have come up with that:

A) allow use of a 5- or 6-point harness

B) preserve the ability to get into the rear seat area relatively easily

Most non-fixed-back seats I've found don't have the hole in the seat base for sub belts. And I think with a fixed-back seat, even with sliders, it would be a hassle to get in the back. I don't care about people getting in the back, but I do put cargo back there and the folding seats make it a piece of cake to put relatively large storage cases in and out of the back for track tools/supplies.

The only seat I've really had my eye on that seems to meet all the above qualifications is the OMP Style seat:




http://www.ompamerica.com/product_in...roducts_id/605

The main reasons I haven't gone for it are:

A) money
B) loss of heated seat function
C) the stock seats aren't THAT bad for lateral support
D) money

Ahmet

The stock seats are TERRIBLE for side support. If you've driven a car with buckets, you wouldn't ever think stock seats are passable! I believe Recaro makes some folding 5 point harness supporting seats with substantially larger bolsters. I want to say they came in the Honda Type-R elsewhere in the world. Great seat

dkraige

Yeah I should clarify that it's the combination of the seating position, handling of the car, and seat design that combines to make it passable; not the seat alone, which I agree has remarkably small bolstering for a "sports" car.

My old track car was a B5 Audi S4. The combined handling/seating package of that car meant that at the end of a track day, my arms were fairly tired from bracing myself using the steering wheel, even with a 4-point harness installed. When I upgraded that car to fixed-back race seats and 6-point harnesses, the difference was absolutely remarkable and my ability to control the car was an another level. However, it came at the cost of it being a pain in the *** to get in and out of the car, not to mention the dollar cost.

With the 996, I don't get anywhere near that same tired feeling at the end of the day. I pre-tension the seatbelt with the seat in a reclined position and then use the memory function to move back to my preferred seat position and hold the seatbelt cinched, clamping me in the seat. With that done, I don't really move around much and I don't feel like I'm using a lot of upper-body strength to support myself in the seat, so the car isn't quite begging for a seating improvement the way a 4-door front-engine sedan was. Up until now I haven't been able to justify the sacrifice to everyday practicality that serious race seats would bring.

I was mostly interested if anybody has found other seats that are a good fit for both daily use and track use with harnesses, while still looking good. I've found very few models that fit the bill.

Ahmet

OK, fair enough. I've done my fair number of events w/the seat belt tricks also, but man it's just so much better to have proper restraints... I feel you on the folding aspect also, don't know why Porsche didn't decide to make the rear shelf accessible with a hatch. If you put a roll bar in with fixed seats, the room behind the seats becomes pretty much completely useless, shame.

Anyway, the folding seat from Recaro, I could find out which model if you want. I don't think they're that expensive either.

Gbug

Pole Position's perhaps? Similar in some ways to the euro GT3 seats, but much more modern looking and easier to obtain.

808Bill

They did, It's called a Targa

bsewell

Not a DD but I do drive it on the street sometimes.

Palting

Take a look at the seat of that seat, the area where your butt is . The is no lateral butt support. You'll have a harder tine keeping your butt in place when you go deep and hard into a corner on the track. This is the problem with most if not all "folding racing seats" . In the effort to allow room for the back to fold forward, you lose some of that lateral support, either in the back or in the seat.

dkraige

Yep, it's definitely a compromise. Use of a harness would help quite a bit but there's no substitute for major side bolstering, which then comes at the cost of making ingress/egress more difficult. The search continues! You'd think somebody would make a product satisfying this need since there are lots of people that drive 2-door cars and want to dual-purpose use them. This is not at all a 996- or even Porsche-specific need.