Sorry if I missed this, but now that there are some GT4s in the US have you figured out whether the hard points, slits in carpeting and other features of the ROW GT4 designed to allow the installation of the Club Sport rear half-cage are present in the US or NA market GT4s?

 

I'd love to know too.

 

AFAIK and read on various forums they are not in US spec cars. Luckily Heigo is only about 1 hr north of Stuttgart.

 

No first hand information here yet?

 

Per PCNA: club sport package is not DOT approved and will not be available from Porsche Motorsport. You will need to get OEM from Europe as it is not Canadian DOT approved as well.

 

Understood--same as GT3 seats for the 996s. Are there structural parts missing from the NA cars that will make it impossible to fit the rear Club Sport cage?

 

Honestly, I didn't take it that far. I inquired about the ability to get the parts and was shot down. I'll ask someone there and find out.

 

No slits in carpet for harness attach points on firewall or floor carpet. Passenger seat does not have sub feedthru.

 

I had read here that the 918 passenger seat did not have pass throughs in NA, but was easily modified to accommodate so belts. Any idea whether the hard points behind the carpet are there?

 

Answer below concerning retro fitting club sport from my PCNA source:

"Here is what I learned from a very reliable internal source:

A retrofit of the RoW Clubsport Package into a US car wouldn't be worth the cost & time, in my opinion. There are additional mounting points & reinforcements in the body of RoW cars that are not fitted to US cars. For example, a RoW car has anti-sub belt mounting points installed under both seats, reinforcement brackets for the rollover bar mounting points, and blind rivet nuts installed where the fire extinguisher would mount on Clubsport cars. The factory also bonds & rivets reinforcements for the damper mount (in the upper strut tower plates) into the bodyshell during manufacture of Clubsport and race chassis. I would recommend having a cage fabricated & safety equipment installed by a reputable race shop, one that would be sure to put reinforcements in place during construction.

Basically because the US market is restricted in different ways than the rest of the world, the car is assembled slightly different from what you see in the Euro magazines for example."

 

Larry, does your source say that the fire extinguisher available in the NA market from Porsche is different from that included in the ROW Club Sport package? All rang true but that comment.

Lots of good photos of the ROW bits in post #84 of THIS THREAD. Hope someone who already has the car in NA can determine if the hard points are really missing.''

I'm not eager to install the full Club Sport cage, or a cage of any sort, but harnesses properly attached (sub, shoulder and lap) is a high priority for driver and passenger with the LWBs.

 

Totally different.

NA Option Code 509 Fire Extinguisher:


ROW Clubsport Option Fire Extinguisher:

 

I don't understand why Porsche wouldnt put the mounting points in there knowing a large number of these cars will be sent to the racetrack

 

It's a very very delicate subject. They don't want Club Sport available in the U.S. for liability and other reasons and definitely don't want folks trying to retrofit it. There is a race car on the horizon in their mind for this purpose. The problem is that there is an enormous amount of people that don't want a cage in this car and don't want a race car but a dual purpose beast and who could blame them when all they really want is a traditional style 4-point hoop like what was sold in the Tequipment catalog for 997 and 996 owners.

I guess if you make a bar like that for 981 owners that you've sold 20 of so far and have since made sub belts work with race seats without drilling holes in the aluminum floor, people like us will be busy but i can understand all of your frustrations. I wish this weren't the case but the entire reason we did the whole 4-point bar/hoop thing was because I had a feeling the DOT would prohibit Club Sport from being a U.S. option.

 

Really surprised that the chassis would be different for ROW and NA. Perhaps the difference is Club Sport and non-Club Sport. Pending further confirmation of what is and is not in the NA cars it looks like a harness bar/sub belt bar option is the way to go with modification of the passenger seat to allow pass through for the sub belt.