986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post

johnsimion · 03-07-2011, 07:43 AM

I am 6'-4" and 200 lbs, 34" inseam. I owned a 99 Boxster and had no problems fitting in it or driving it. HOWEVER, there was a major problem. After I bought the car, I discovered that if I tipped my head back, my head made direct contact with the roll bar. In a rear-end collision, it was going to be a direct hit, not even a glancing blow. I think this is a major safety issue; I wrote Porsche to ask about it and naturally received no response at all.

My seating position had the seat at the very bottom of its travel. IMHO the seat itself simply isn't tall enough in the 986 even though the headroom is adequate. The only ways I could think of to solve this would be swapping out the seats from a 987 or installing different seat brackets. The former would be cost-prohibitive and I could never get a clear indication from Brey-Krause which bracket would actually lower the seat or how much.

At the time (2008) I had a great deal of concern that a 99 Boxster with 15,000 miles was a fairly high risk of IMS failure and cost-prohibitive to repair if it did happen, but that is another topic. Anyway, that is how I ended up trading for the 08 Cayman, which has huge headroom, tall seats, no rollbar to hit one's head on, and a warranty. All I'm really saying here is to check that your head won't hit the rollbar if you want to buy a 986 because that can kill you.

03-07-2011, 07:43 AM	#14
johnsimion Registered User Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Missouri Posts: 112	Tall Guys Beware of 986 I am 6'-4" and 200 lbs, 34" inseam. I owned a 99 Boxster and had no problems fitting in it or driving it. HOWEVER, there was a major problem. After I bought the car, I discovered that if I tipped my head back, my head made direct contact with the roll bar. In a rear-end collision, it was going to be a direct hit, not even a glancing blow. I think this is a major safety issue; I wrote Porsche to ask about it and naturally received no response at all. My seating position had the seat at the very bottom of its travel. IMHO the seat itself simply isn't tall enough in the 986 even though the headroom is adequate. The only ways I could think of to solve this would be swapping out the seats from a 987 or installing different seat brackets. The former would be cost-prohibitive and I could never get a clear indication from Brey-Krause which bracket would actually lower the seat or how much. At the time (2008) I had a great deal of concern that a 99 Boxster with 15,000 miles was a fairly high risk of IMS failure and cost-prohibitive to repair if it did happen, but that is another topic. Anyway, that is how I ended up trading for the 08 Cayman, which has huge headroom, tall seats, no rollbar to hit one's head on, and a warranty. All I'm really saying here is to check that your head won't hit the rollbar if you want to buy a 986 because that can kill you.