AFTERMARKET SEATS ! a ok or a BIG NO NO!!

[jonnycool]

just wondering on how other members regard fitting aftermarket seats, brands such as MOMO, OMP, SPARCO and RECARO....ect make great looking seats but are they worthy of pride and place in your porsche, do fibreglass shells cut the mustard or do they HAVE to be carbon fibre? do they have to be leather? buckets only or do recliners have a say?.............discuss.

[Benny986]

i have the sparco evo II in mine. i like it a lot.

if you are going bucket, then no leather. thats kind of oxymoronic. the bucket to hold you in, and the leather to make you slide around again?

bucket or reclining work, its up to you.

[jonnycool]

yeah good point! now where does that leave the gt3 seat in leather? great looking seat, factory fit looks, in keeping with the marque, but is it the ultimate seat for a boxster?

[2000SoCalBoxsterS]

Originally Posted by Benny986

i have the sparco evo II in mine. i like it a lot.

if you are going bucket, then no leather. thats kind of oxymoronic. the bucket to hold you in, and the leather to make you slide around again?

bucket or reclining work, its up to you.

Benny, can you post pictures of your Sparco Evo II seats? I recently started a similar thread. I want to get seats for club DE events but want them comfortable enough for weekend drives as well. Also, is the Evo II the wider seat?

[easyc]

Best bet is to go around and sit in as many different seats as you can... I personally find my GT3 seats more comfortable than my old manual seats... Race shell seats, (the fixed back recaros, sparcos, omp's, cobra's, including the GT3 seats, and others), are made to hold you in... they are comfortable to a point and over extended use can cut off circulation... If a seat is FIA tagged for safety than the only difference between a carbon fiber seat and a same make not in CF is a few pounds... You will only see Carbon fiber race shells in professional race cars for the most part... where every pound means something... reclining race seats can not properly use a 5 or 6 point harness as they don't have proper side holes, but if they are what you want... then go for them... I would not recommend them though. You won't find many fixed back seats in leather for a few reasons one of which is the aforementioned reason of sliding, but if you are using a harness, you will not see much a difference... I know of a few Club racers who race in leather GT3 seats with no problem... the main reason is that cloth doesn't show wear as much and absorbs sweat...

If you are looking for a good DE seat then there are many options from OMP, recaro, sparco, and others... what you have to decide is if you want to replace the seat to OEM when not at the track or leave in permanently... also what brackets and etc you will use... not to mention harnesses!

[2000SoCalBoxsterS]

Besides a DE event where can I try the seats out first for comfort? I haven't been able to find a place here on Long Island yet. Anyone know of a place that stocks these seats in a showroom in NY, NJ, CT, even PA or DE, MD ?

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by jonnycool

but are they worthy of pride and place in your porsche, do fibreglass shells cut the mustard or do they HAVE to be carbon fibre? do they have to be leather? buckets only or do recliners have a say?.............discuss.

Worthy of your Porsche? Do they HAVE to be carbon fiber/leather?

Dude, it's a f_cking car. And it's your car. Do with it what you want! Put in the seats you want, that fit you and what you want to do with the car. They don't HAVE to be GT3, carbon fiber, or leather. In fact I personally wouldn't buy the GT3 seats. I think they're WAY overpriced. If/when I do get race seats (I have them in my daily driver/autocross car, but not the Porsche yet) it wouldn't be the GT3 seat, carbon fiber, or leather. :P

[Boxtaboy]

I've driven a pal's 3.4L converted Boxster, and he had Sparco seats in his. Not sure if was Evo 1 or 2, but they were very restrictive, imo. I personally found it hard to get in and get out of the seat, but when in, it was very snug, and definitely would do its job on the track.

If you are not going to go to the track often, however, I would recommend the OEM factory GT3 seats. I've tested a set out while driving another pal's 996 GT3, and these felt great. Not hard to get in or get out of the seat, very comfortable, and yet nicely supported. With these seats, you can definitely use them everyday without hassle. They are expensive, but IMO, worth it. I think they look the coolest too, but that is just a personal preference.

[jonnycool]

i was being diplomatic when i said WORTHY of your porsche, i really don't give a ratz a$$ if something has a designer name or not, but i mearly sugar coated my question to get as much feedback from as many members as i could, it has been known for SOME porsche owners to buy the car for the NAME and not for the kick you get out of it, now that does'nt include any of us!!!..!?!...lol nope i'm just looking for well proven products for my car....ok ok and a bit of style

[kt1]

You guys do know that Recaro is owned by Porsche right? And the stock seats for Porsche are Recaro made.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recaro

[2000SoCalBoxsterS]

Originally Posted by kt1

You guys do know that Recaro is owned by Porsche right? And the stock seats for Porsche are Recaro made.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recaro

That may be true but the "Recaro" seats in my Boxster are nothing like real sport driving seats and would be pretty poor on the track.

[blinkwatt]

I've been looking at seats for the past month. I've sat in almost everything there is; Recaros,Momos,Corbeaus,Sparco,OMPs & Sabelt. The Recaro Pole Position is an awesome seat! All the Corbeaus,Momos & OMPs all look and feel similar. I'm going to look more into the Corbeau FX-1 Pro and see if I can get it in black microsuede...then maybe just maybe I'd buy one. Weights 16lbs,hehehehe.

The ultimate seat is the gt3 cause it looks AWESOME! Fits snug and looks classy,just look at the crest in the headrest,it fits in perfectly with the car's interior.

check out http://soloracerdotcom.stores.yahoo.net/seats.html

They are awesome and have GREAT customer service. Not to mention free shipping and no sales tax. From what I understand all their stuff is shipped to you directly from the manu. so you don't have to worry about your seat being all scuffed up like that would happen if you bought them at a local shop.

[Benny986]

Originally Posted by 2000SoCalBoxsterS

Benny, can you post pictures of your Sparco Evo II seats? I recently started a similar thread. I want to get seats for club DE events but want them comfortable enough for weekend drives as well. Also, is the Evo II the wider seat?

I'll get pics up when I get off my lazy butt and get the second seat in.

I sat in an evo II, which is the slightly wider one. You can find the specs online. It was SOO comfortable, that I went out, and got 4 seats the following weekend. Two in my car, and 2 in my brothers car. We use his car for SCCA autox, Its an 02 GTI 1.8t in DSP. It has 285s all around, so we need the support. My brother daily drives his GTI, and he thinks the seat is just fine. And he even has 800lb or higher rear spring rates.

I am a 36 waist, and I fit. A 38 would not. You would have to go up to the next wider sparco, in which case, it might not fit in the boxster. Mine is pretty snug. I like how my shoulders actually fit in the seat now. Instead of laying on the seat. I hated how the mid to top of the rear pinched in so much. Who is that narrow?

FWIW, my seats were like $600/ea. so thats MUCH cheaper than the OEM seat, which I would love, but not love to pay for.

Getting in and out. Its a little more awkard than stock, but not much. I just slide the seat all the back when i get out. So getting out/in is a snap. Then I just slide back forward. In my brother's car, he hard mounted it, meaning, no sliders. He doesn't even need to push the steering wheel in. We can get in and out pretty easy. But he does have a much taller door. PS, getting in and out of my car, is a million times easier than getting in and out of a stock elise.

[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.

[heyjae]

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]

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?

[Benny986]

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. : )

[heyjae]

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]

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.

[racer_d]

Originally Posted by kt1

You guys do know that Recaro is owned by Porsche right? And the stock seats for Porsche are Recaro made.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recaro

Read the second paragraph next time. Porsche bought the Reutter Coachworks. What was left over (Recaro) became an independent seat maker.. eventually sold off as well to another company.