Joe Weinstein

Hi.
I'm trying to lighten my car and considering GT3 seats. I
searched on Ebay, and found a company in Taiwan making
copies of GT3 seats for about $1,800 delivered. Has anyone
gotten/seen these? PM me if you have info please!
Joe

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsc...spagenameZWDVW

LVDell

This is one of those "do a search it has been covered many times" threads. So....do a search and read away. But I'll give you the same take I have (and others) give every time this topic comes up:

Do you want seats made in taiwan when it comes time (hopefully never) to test them in an accident? Sorry, my safety is worth much more than that. Recaro/PAG developed these seats for use in the car with proper restraint systems and they are made of superior materials. Then a "knock-off" company make a clone seat, you have no idea the materials used, and you want to save a couple hundred bucks. I'll never understand that. You can buy these (real ones) all day long when available for about $1800-2200 and new for about $2500-$2800.

996 Convert

Dell,

Got me some seats! Woo hoo. Now I need BK harness mounts, anti-sub bars, fire extinguisher mounts, not to mention a fire extinguisher and harnesses. Am I missing anything?

LVDell

SWEET!!!!!! Here is what I did when I got the seats:

(1) Factory sub mount $50
(1) BK sub mount w/FE capability $100
(1) BK FE mount for use with sub bar $100
(4) BK harness attachment mounts. Personally I use 2 outside mount for both sides and bolt them under both rear mounting bolts to the seats. I do NOT like the tunnel side mount that attach to the side of the seat since the lap belt is clipped in way too close to the hole.
(1) 2.5 dry chemical FE. $30 Red or $60 Chrome for ABC and $130 for Halon
(2) one set for each side of the Schroth Profi II-6 $285 each
(1) I/O Port Camera Mount for Rollbar $100

996 Convert

So you got two of the 9003s? Where do they attach? ON the seat? Not where the stock belts attach?

LVDell

Correct, I bought 2 sets (1 set of 2 for each seat) of the 9003. Here is a pic showing how they are installed in my car (pic is of my pax seat)...........

FYI....to help orient (in case you can't flip pax seat to drivers seat) both 9003's on each seat BOTH point toward the side of the car to allow for this method.

996 Convert

Interesting. Totally different from the installation instructions but looks like a great idea. How did you come up with this? Also, doesn't it tilt the seat forward a little or did you put washers under the front mounting points. reason I ask is sitting in the seat in my dining room with my helmet on was a bit uncomfortable with the back of the helmet making contact with the top of the seat. Tilting the seat back alleviated the pressure on my neck somewhat. But tilting the seat forward would make it worse.

LVDell

Well basically through trial and error with my performance shop here in Raleigh. The problem with the inside mounts (as I stated) is that if you mount them to the side of the seat even using the "short" tunnel mounts it is still too close to the hole. Mounting them to the seat themselves really didn't alleviate the problem. So my shop guy says "what about bolting them UNDER the seat utilizing the seat bolts?" Tried it out and it works fantastically! Then on the outside mount there was just WAY TOO much crap attached at the rollbar anchor point (rollbar, seatbelt, harness mount,). We tried them both the way I talked about (in the pictures) with the 9003's and the "usual" way and this was just much more user-friendly. The only caveat is that if you share the car with somebody else at a DE and the seat is being moved back and forth you just want to make sure that the harness clips don't fall to the "inner" sides of each mount which could obstruct the aft travel of the seat.

996 Convert

I see. Glad to hear someone who really knows what they are doing signed off on this. What about the tilting of the seat? Did you use washers up front to level it off? Also, what socket do you need for the seat bolts? I've read something about a reverse/external torx? TIA.

LVDell

I'd have to run out to the garage and check on the torx size for you. As for any tilt....you will absolutely never notice it. So, the short answer is no, I didn't add and washers up front.

Standby on the torx size........

LVDell

oops on the torx socket. I just ran out to the garage and realized that I use a normal socket that has the multiple sides (pic attached).

redduck996

james,

its torx socket e12...

996 Convert

thanks guys.

Carrera Mike

Joe,

The biggest concern I would have on those Taiwan made would be your safety. The OEM GT2 seat are actually made by Recaro and have been tested many many different point of impact crashes(lateral/longtitudinal/upside down etc.) Not that they will protect you 100%, but will definitely do better than after market copies. Recaro is well known in aircraft seats too. So their experience and engineering design is in the top of the industry. I'm going to guess too that those copies will not be as comfortable.

You can find the OEM GT3 seats for $1300 (per seat), specially from dealers who offer PCA member discounts. They come with all the mounting hardware.

Good luck.