Originally Posted by jkahnjones

I thought I'd post this here in hopes that it helps other parents who come along after me. I know I benefitted, to some degree, from the older posts on this and other sites that discussed fitting car seats into Porsches... it's no easy feat!

I have a 2.5 yr old who's very tall and heavy (he's the size of a four-year old). Developmentally & physically, he's not ready for a booster seat. He needs at least a harnessed booster, if not a normal forward-facing carseat with five-point harness.

I need to take him to preschool on my way to work, three mornings per week.

My car is a 2005 911S coupe.

OMG it's almost impossible to find a carseat that will even fit back there! And the ones that do fit, don't install tightly... the main issue being that the female part of the seat belt buckle is in a fixed position (completely fixed; it doesn't even rotate or bend at all), placed inches forward of the normal belt path for a forward facing seat installation.

I researched, and researched, and researched.

I ended up thinking I'd get the Recaro Performance Sport harnessed booster seat to work. It's a very pretty seat, you have to love Recaro, and it does drop down into the seat well pretty nicely in a 997. BUT, there was absolutely no way to tighten the install whatsoever. It was flying all over the place back there... way more than the 1" of movement allowed. And, to properly fit it to my tall son, the headrest portion of the seat was so large and high, it created a dangerous blindspot for me, the driver.

OK, scrap that. I sent it back. Next, we tried the two seats we already had installed in other cars.

One was a Diono Radian RXT. This seat is very narrow, but also quite tall, and not upright enough for the very vertical rear seatbacks in a 997. There was no point in even trying to tighten the install on this one.

The other is a Britax Marathon. The seat is wider, but it's on a narrower base, and shorter than the Radian or the Recaro. No dice either. Didn't really fit into the seat at all, and definitely couldn't be tightened.

More research. And more.

I found a thread on a VW enthusiast site talking about installing carseats in 997s, and one fellow posted success with an Evenflo SureRide, from relatively recently (2013), so I had reason to believe I could find a substantially similar seat new. I examined the specs on this thing, and decided to give it a whirl.

It ain't perfect. It turns out, the fellow who "succeeded" actually had to stuff a rolled up towel to the side of the side (on the side where the seatbelt buckle is), to be able to get a truly tight install. But, if you know about carseat installation, you know that's a total no-no. It gives you the illusion of a tight install, but in a crash, can create an unpredictable situation.

That said, I was able to get this seat situated well enough that I am comfortable using it for my kid, for the very short trips we'll be taking.

It definitely DID require that I cut into the carpeting on the shelf behind the seat, to expose the rear anchor point. This, understandably, was a very uncomfortable thing to have to do. Taking a knife to one's Porsche's interior... well, let's just say I would only do such a thing for the safety of my child. But, the good news: it worked.

So, long story short: if you need a forward-facing 5-point harnessed car seat in the backseat of your 997, and it's anytime around now (February of 2015), go for the Evenflo SureRide DLX.

1. Expose the rear anchor above the seat where you plan to install the Evenflo. Yes, you need a knife. Yes, it ends up a little bit ugly with exposed insulation... just a bit. Sigh. But if you don't use the rear anchor, you will not get a remotely tight install.

2. Do not remove the seat bottom from the Porsche's back seat. It's tempting, to avoid damaging the leather, but it creates a worse, looser install. We tried it both ways. You have to keep the seat bottom in.

3. Use two people to do the install. It's easier for one person to try to push the seat down and into position, while the other pulls the seatbelt through the belt path, buckles, and then tightens it. The pusher/weigher should enter the car on the side that the seat is being installed, and the seat belt operator should climb in on the opposite side.

You'll end up with a seat that's good, not perfect. (So if you are truly a carseat crazy -- you know who you are -- you won't be able to drive your kid around in your Porsche, because you won't find this satisfactory.) It does not move at all at the head, it moves side to side only very slightly (less than 1"), and the only movement that's more profound occurs if you pull up on the front edge of the carseat. But even then, the head stays where it is, and that, to me, is really key.

It looks reasonable, and doesn't create a nasty blindspot.







With the kid in the carseat, obviously we'll have to move the passenger seat forward. It's pretty far back here.





The seat doesn't occlude much of the side window, and none of the rear window.

Originally Posted by tbuff

My car is being shipped to me and the seat is sitting in my garage. Did anyone try the install with this seat with the seat back removed as well? I just see not to remove the seat bottom.

Originally Posted by dmgreen

I bought the Radian R100, tried to install it as you did in your picture and it feels a bit lose. Did you cut a whole in the rear carpet behind the seat in order to find an anchor point for the top tether? Is that how you got it so 'solidly in place.' I am assuming the answer is yes, because as-is it feels very slippery and unsafe.
Any advice on how best to do this cutting?
Thanks!

Originally Posted by kevinthickey

Ended up at Target looking for the diono radian r100. They didn't have it but I saw this Cosco seat that looked narrow and had an almost vertical back.

After install I'm really happy with it. Two things to note were figuring out how to tighten the belt so it "locked" (in user manual) as well as access the rear LATCH system (also in user manual). You actually need to make a small cut with a knife/box cutter to access the latch...I almost **** a brick doing it, but it's the price I pay for my wife to allow me to have a 911 with 2 toddlers