[thstone]

Sorry, I'm late (again) to the party!

Rule #1 is never skimp on safety equipment. And that includes your seat.

I wouldn't use an eBay knockoff seat on the track regardless of the level of event (DE, TT, or racing). They are worse than a stock seat.

Furthermore, I wouldn't use a an eBay knockoff seat on the street.

Why? Because a knock off seat has no safety testing.

Would your wife want you risking your health just save $300-$500? Impact testing is important. That is why car manufacturers (and true race component manufacturers) do it.

So where does this leave you? There are a couple of options.

First, you could buy authentic Porsche seats like the 996 GT-3 seats. But they are expensive.

Second, you could buy a racing seat from a reputable component manufacturer that is FIA certified. That means it's been safety tested.

There are two other options that might work but aren't good ideas:

Not Good Idea #1: Buy a new or used FIA racing seat that is out of date (the certification has expired). The seat is most likely perfectly good and safe to use on the track, but most officials won't be pleased if they find the certification expired. The truth is that you can probably get away with it in TT, but its not a good idea.

Not Good Idea #2: Buy a sport seat from a well known and reputable manufacturer. The problem with sport seats is that most do not have the bottom cushion cut out for the sub belt(s), aka a seat designed for a four-point harness. If you're going to use harnesses, then you need to use a 5 or 6-pt belt system to keep you in the seat.

Believe me, when I put seats and harnesses in my street Boxster to make it more of a track car, I hated spending $700 on a FIA seat, $200 on a 6-pt harness, $200 in mounts, and $250 for installation. And then I spent the exact same amount for the passenger side.

And those were the same components in the car when I had two racing incidents. I'm not saying that something will happen, but you never know. Neither of those incidents were my fault, both times someone else royally screwed up and collected me. But I sure was glad that I had really good equipment when it happened (and I walked away with no injuries except a couple of bruises both times).

As you can see, I never talked about what NASA or PCA requires. I talk about what you and your wife and your family require. And they require that you come home healthy after every track weekend. Period. End of story. End of discussion. There is no leeway for them in that requirement. You HAVE to come home safe. So do it right and then you won't have to worry about whether your equipment is up to the task of protecting you.