jcnesq

I have a nagging temptation to get a GT3 as a long-term keeper despite the brutal loss I would take on my 04 Targa. However, I would have to have rear seats for my 2 1/2 year old daughter and maybe one more kid to come if my wife has her way.

Is installing rear seats a simple process? Are the wells for the seats the same as a normal 996? Anyone do it?

MJSpeed

Do a search and you'll find a few post discussing this issue. Either way the car is just plain AWESOME!!

TT Gasman

It might be illegal to add the rear seats as the car shipped and DOT approved as a 2 seater.

skl

Who's going to arrest you? I won't tell anyone.... just take those stupid stickers off the back of the seats first!

jcnesq

BTW, search is down for the weekend.

Apart from "legal", it would have to be as safe for kids as a normal 996 4-seater (if you can call them 4-seaters, ha ha).

offroadr35

seats probably aren't as much of an issue as seat belts...

ScottMellor

Jim,

Have you considered the Britax Super Elite (Now called the Huskey). It is a 5 point harness full on seat good for kids up to 80 pounds. I have one in the Audi.
If you could find a way to securely mount it, I believe that you would have an excellent way to secure your kid. As far as I can see, It would not be necessary to have any kind of regular seat for it to be effectiver.

Viken

You guys need to think of insurance issues. God forbid, someone gets hurt in a back seat that is not supposed to be there, they'll turn their back on you without a hesitation. The GT3 is a considered 2-seater in every insurance company's book.

You want to take back seat passengers with you, drive something else.

JS

Exactly my thoughts.

FixedWing

In Europe, cars are licensed with specific seating capacities. But in the USA, I don't believe this is true. Only other vehices (trucks, busses, etc.) are. It is state law so you would need to check the specific laws of that state.

So the issue would be whether the seats were properly engineered. I would think that if one used all standard 996 parts then this would obviously be the case. The only exception would be where the car had either a rollbar or the European GT3 sport seats. Both could cause injury and limit access and so wouldn't be safe.

As for insurance, my feeling would be that so long as it was a car, all you would need to do is respond appropriate to their questions. Just as you don't have to notify them that you have increased the power of the car (which you must do in Europe), so I don't see that you would need to notify them of the seating capacity of the car (up to the legal limit of a car as defined by state law).

My two cents...

Stephen

redcar1

I just took delivery of a GT3, and I have rear belts, seats and hardware on the way. Before ordering my car I checked another GT3 to be sure all of the factory mounting points were in place.

Other than the obvious few pounds of weight, absolutely no reason not to install them. Without Euro front seats that might restrict access, there's no reason not to use them.

Mark McKenzie

sjanes

Jim,

One thing you may want to address is heat. One of the guys in my region put factory seatbelts in the rear of his GT-3 (factory mounting points are apparently under the carpet) so he could take is kids to the track. The only issue that came up was that his son made a comment that his butt was getting hot. The GT-3 does not have the same (or any?) insulation between the firewall and the carpet, so the rear seating area was heating up. Apparently a folded blanket helped decrease the problem. As for the sticker on the back of the seat, pealing it off gave his son something to do during the trip to WGI