Porcupine

Hello all,

Thanks in advance and sorry if this is a repeat (spent a little time searching but couldn't find an answer).

I DE and Auto-X my 996 a little bit and am about to enter the Cannonball Run/One Lap of America with a good friend of mine. He's suggested we should put in a real race seat and harnesses. My challenge is, I'm 6'5" and worried about legroom. Headroom, oddly enough, hasn't been as much of a problem.

I fit fine in my sport seats, but tried a 996 with the Tequipment bar and GT3 seats and found it to be too tight (legroom) for comfort. I've heard that the DAS sport bar allows more seat travel, but haven't had the chance to sit in one yet.

Might go the Brey-Krause harness-bar route, but still concerned about the seat position being limited.

Any suggestions for a taller driver?

Thanks again,

-Erik
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2003 996

Chads996

I am 6'6"...and I had a 996. The trick is to buy GT3 seats, but use the Brey Krause adapters. If hip and thigh room are the problem go with the Sparco Evo L plus. The back is a bit taller to accommodate taller drivers and the seat has a good bit of room.



As for the harness situation, I would always recommend a roll bar versus just a harness bar. The roll bar offers just a bit more protection for you. The DAS Sport bar is an excellent choice. The fit is great.

Good luck.

C.

RedlineMan

Hey;

The 996 is a very diffcult car to get serious equipment in. The center tunel hole for an inner belt mount is pretty easy. The holes in the floor do not make it easy at all to mount race seats, either with sliders or solid brackets. Those holes are also made with thread forming bolts, not machined threads, so the threads are very fragile. You will want a fairly upright seat (10*). Layback seats just did not work well for me at in when I installed them in a customer car.

Being tall makes it worse. Any roll bars rely on the outer lap belt hole for mounting. I am not impressed by this mounting method whatsoever from a structural point, but this also restricts seat travel. There is just no room there for the seat to go back.

I spent a lot of time trying to protoype a bolt in roll bar for the 996, and even builkt a couple. In the end I just was not happy with the entire project, and so sort of let it die.



In fact, of all the cars I've done system installs on, the 996 was the one car that just didn't work out right at all.

TAI2

You might want to try a hybrid seat such as Recaro Speed. This is a cross between a Racing seat and regular seats. It offers more leg room as the bolsters are not as high and you can adjust the back and Recaro make a decent slide. It works with harnesses as long as you get the right brackets, etc...

Dan Jacobs

The safety device roll bar mounts far enough back that it does not interfere with seat movement. This bar takes a fair bit of fabrication to be install correctly and requires that mounts be weled to the chassis.
I installed this bar and a Kirkey ( 18" deluxe we dubbed it the "throne") seat in a 996 GT3 and was able to fit a 6'5" 250 lb driver quite easily

jerome951

If legroom is an issue, consider getting a steering wheel with an extended hub. This will get the wheel closer to your body so you can move the seat back a little more, providing more legroom. I had to do this in my 951 to get a comfortable driving position (I'm 6'5").

Porcupine

As always, impressed by the spped and quality of replies...thanks all.

I'm thinking the DAS / Evo Plus combo might be right for me...have a few calls into some shops for recommendations. I'll take a look at the safety devices also...not too worried about weld-ins, as I'm keeping this toy for a while.

Didn't even think about extending the steering wheel hub...good idea. That will give me a little more room to work with. Can I do that with a stock wheel or do I need to go aftermarket?

Cheers,

-Erik

Bull

I had great results with a Safety Devices unit (rear half of full cage), an 18" Kirkey Deluxe Roadrace seat, and a Cup wheel with a Snap-off quick release.

paralleltangent

Can't advise about 996 specific fitment, however I can concur on the Evo2 Plus. I'm 6'4" and 200lbs and I'm quite happy with the seat. A big concern of mine was the relationship of the harness openings to my shoulder height, and with this seat they line up in a way that my harness straps have a horizontal path to the crossbar of my cage without interference from the seat. On many other seats I tried the openings were too low.