AFTERMARKET SEATS ! a ok or a BIG NO NO!! - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

2000SoCalBoxsterS · 04-12-2008, 06:15 AM

Thanks Benny, I'm a 36" waist too. Perfectlap has the GT3 seats but says the headrest wings interfere with looking back over your shoulder when parking. Plus the GT3 seat although very nice are very steep in price. 16 Lbs on the Sparco's is great. Do you know what our stock seats weigh? Mine are power & heated which probably adds even more weight.

heyjae · 04-12-2008, 08:17 AM

Stock seats are real heavy. I think around 40 lb each. I got Cobra Suzuka S seats which are Kevlar and weigh about 16 lbs. I tried the Cobra Imola S and Sparco Evo's and the higher side bracing of the Suzuka holds you in better. It does make getting in and out somewhat harder though. I have to slide the seat all the way back to get in and out, but I think that would be the case w/ any rigid back seat and my cage does not make it any easier.

About comfort, I got back from a long trip up to Laguna Seca last weekend and drove 300+ miles each way. I used a rolled up t-shirt for lumber support and it was reasonably comfortable. I have a 35" waist and the regular Suzuka seat fits nice and snug and keeps me in place on the track. It really helps with fatigue versus struggling to keep myself from sliding around. I have the the larger Suzuka S GT seat as the passenger seat and I made the right decision with putting the regular sized seat on the driver's side. In general, the Suzuka felt slightly bigger than the Evo, so it may be good to go a size larger w/ the Evo. I also cut the bottom foam padding to fit me better. That helped a lot.

Another thing to keep in mind is that side mounts and sliders can be expensive, so budget for that. I tried a bunch of things and spent waayyy too much money trying to get the seat as low as possible while keeping the slider. I'm not all that satisfied w/ how low my seat is at this point, but it's workable. Once my other projects are complete, I'm going to tackle seat height again.

2000SoCalBoxsterS · 04-12-2008, 03:49 PM

Thanks again Heyjae, all great info and detail. When you say the seat brackets are very expensive how bad could they be after spending $850 or more per seat? As to the height issue and finding the right bracket for the lowest possible height what do you recommend? I am six feet tall and per PCA rules for DE events the top of my helmet must be below the level of my rollbar. If I install the Brey-Krause rollbar extender will I sit low enough with the Cobra seat and brackets?

heyjae · 04-13-2008, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2000SoCalBoxsterS

Thanks again Heyjae, all great info and detail. When you say the seat brackets are very expensive how bad could they be after spending $850 or more per seat? As to the height issue and finding the right bracket for the lowest possible height what do you recommend? I am six feet tall and per PCA rules for DE events the top of my helmet must be below the level of my rollbar. If I install the Brey-Krause rollbar extender will I sit low enough with the Cobra seat and brackets?

Happy to help. I believe the BK side mounts were around $170 per set and you can use the stock sliders (assuming you don't have power sliders). If you need new sliders, those are around $70 each plus another $100 for mounting tabs/adapters. It adds up. The problem I had w/ the BK mounts on my factory sliders was that the seat was actually slightly higher than the stock seat at the lowest setting. So I had a local shop fab custom brackets and mounts, but they cut some corners and ended up only being 1/2" lower than the BK mount. I didn't have time to deal with it then.... ugh.

You might want to have a shop that specializes in fabbing race cars install the seat if you want the absolute minimum height. Otherwise, my theory is that the combination of Sparco sliders (lower profile than the factory sliders), mounting tabs and Sparco mounts is the lowest, bolt-in combo. However, I have not tried this so I don't know for sure.

I have no idea if the BK extender & Cobra or any other seat will work for you for height. I'm relatively short, 5 8", and it was a close call when I had a BK extender w/ the stock seat or w/ the race seat.

2000SoCalBoxsterS · 04-13-2008, 09:26 AM

HeyJae, I really like your Boxster setup and color scheme. Do you have some more larger and clearer pictures you can share? I like that black hood. Is that carbon fiber? Very unique.

heyjae · 04-14-2008, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2000SoCalBoxsterS

HeyJae, I really like your Boxster setup and color scheme. Do you have some more larger and clearer pictures you can share? I like that black hood. Is that carbon fiber? Very unique.

The hood and front bumper are carbon fiber as is the wing. I'm getting a CF hardtop too. I actually don't like the way it looks and the hood doesn't fit all that well, but it saves 10 or 15 lbs

Benny986 · 04-12-2008, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2000SoCalBoxsterS

Thanks Benny, I'm a 36" waist too. Perfectlap has the GT3 seats but says the headrest wings interfere with looking back over your shoulder when parking. Plus the GT3 seat although very nice are very steep in price. 16 Lbs on the Sparco's is great. Do you know what our stock seats weigh? Mine are power & heated which probably adds even more weight.

power tilt, and non heat. about 43lbs for mine.

FYI, sliders weigh 4lbs. the bracket is about another 3-4lbs. and the base is another 3-4lbs.

but you still save weight, but better than that, you are firmly in the seat. you don't use various muscles and your other leg to brace yourself.

i did my first autox today with the new seat, wow! i love it. it was my first time with the new wheels+tires too.

not sure if its a different feel of tire or the seat, but under braking and more so with turning, i swear, i could feel the tires compressing down and the softness of the tire.

i feel more at one with the sar, with this seat. i know what its doing as its doing it. the car was VERY loose in the morning, but i never lost it cause i was in sync with the car. before the seat, when on the edge like that, i'd at least spin out once/event or at least have much bigger time wasting "drifts" much less so today. but this could be different tires too, and them being more predictable, but I like to think its both. : )