knorrena

I have a factory stainless roll bar in my 2004 gt3. I am 6' tall, 33" inseam, and weigh 195lbs.

With the roll bar in I am in an acceptably comfy driving position for aggressive driving for short periods. For long distances, i.e., more than an hour, I get an *** cramp and have to stop and stretch. Its not due to a wallet. Its truly a muscle cramp and my right glute starts to spasm.

I live in Calgary and have an 11 hour drive in 2 weeks to the Porsche event in Blackrock on Victoria Island. I think if I take out the roll bar I can move the seat back far enough to be comfy for the whole drive, but I also would like to have the roll bar in the car for the added protection, but I think the tequipment roll bar is really just for seat belts and offers no additional protection.

So is it worthwhile taking it out in your opinion?

himself

If just leave it in. IMO, it's a real pita and I wouldn't want a broken windshield. That'll ruin your weekend.

Also, I'm pretty sure the bar offers roll over protection, especially when strapped in. But I have no real authority to support that. Hopefully someone else can chime in that has looked into this.

-td

Burger

The bar is a functional safety device. There are other bars on the market that have the harness cross bar recessed, allowing the seat more room to go back.

Consider selling the factory bar and replacing it with one of those, or remove the bar. It's not required for 3 point seat belts or street driving. GT3 are/were sold without them.

AudiOn19s

Standard Seats or Euro seats?

knorrena

Hard backs.

Here are a couple of really bad pics of the car and bar in question.

AudiOn19s

I'd ditch the bar if I were you. It's meant to be part of a safety solution for the track but without the harness and euro seats / race seats in combination with it you're almost at MORE risk of injury inside the car on the street with the bar in there.

Jim H.

The GT3 / Euro bucket seats provide much more leg room and work much better with the teq bar. I'm 6'2" with 34+ inseam and have no problem with spacing. In my experience, the bucket seats are comfortable on long rides as well.

Also agree that safety is probably worse unless you're 5 or 6 pointed in...

himself

I've never had a car with buckets and a roll bar. Can you get more room without the bar? [Is the crossbar hitting the seat such that you can't go further back? That is, if you tilt the seat back, can you get more leg room?]

Agreed that the roll bar isn't necessary if you aren't running Euroseats.

-td

997rs4.0

Beautiful white 996gt3. The Euro seats will give you a little more space but have fixed back rests. 11h is a long drive in a 996gt3. I would just take plenty of brakes and stretch the legs.

rbahr

If you track the car get seats more appropriate for you & roll bar, if you don't track the car, sell the bar and become comfortable. It is completely unnecessary for the street with very minor exceptions.

Ray

porschedog

My roll bar is a great place to mount the GoPro. I'm a bit less than tall, so I have no issues with seat adjustments for me. Wife is Size 0 so no probs on the right side, either.
I like the look and the safety factor.

Do what makes YOU happy.

JGB

<RANT ON> It's VANCOUVER ISLAND the city is VICTORIA. </RANT OFF>

Have fun at Blackrock, the location is very nice, hope you booked an ocean view room. The hpde and autocross are low key at the airport and fairly low risk. Since you don't have the gt3 buckets or harness the rollbar isn't buying you much so I'd take it out. If you don't want to do the BBQ and fireworks book a dinner at Norwoods ( make a reservation now if you can), you can thank me later.

Jim