Folding Sports Buckets or Fixed Lightweight Full Buckets

[DD]

Hi all

I'm looking at buying one of two cars - one with Folding Sports Bucket seats and the other with Fixed Lightweight Full Buckets.

Does anyone know where I can buy some rails that will enable me to alter the height of the Folding Sports Buckets so that they aren't quite so high. If I can't do this then it will make a big difference on which car to go with.

Thanks

Dave

 

[IMI A]

Have a chat with 9e via email [email protected] or call them on 01293 226911 and speak to Adam.

Pretty sure they have a solution to lower OEM Porsche folding buckets. Let us know how you get on as I do sit a little high in them too which is odd at just under 5 10. To tilt them back one notch and lower by an inch would be heaven :thumbs:

 

[Slippydiff]

Tarrett in the States have a solution :

https://tarett.com/collections/seat...roducts/seat-lowering-brackets-987-997-cm-slb

I bought a pair and tried them in my 987 Cayman R. I thought they were a waste of time ...

Autoquest do these "seat angle modification brackets" :

https://soulpp.com/product/autoquest-motorsports-seat-angle-adjusters-for-carbon-fiber-lwbs/

They look like another piece of US designed cr*p to me, but may be worth a try.

Good luck whatever you try, the folding carbon bucket seats ruined the Cayman R experience for me, and I hated the CGT fixed bucket seats in my Gen 1 997 GT3 too ...

 

[IMI A]

There is a way of doing it properly and its really involved.

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-turbo-forum/1281298-gt2-sports-folding-seats-reclined.html

 

[Slippydiff]

I, there is absolutely nothing "proper" about cutting and shutting a seat mount side bracket. Period.

In a heavy frontal impact, or indeed being rear ended, at 3g, a 13 stone body weighs the equivalent of one quarter of a metric tonne.

The steel used in those seat side mounts isn't mild steel, rather it's a carbon steel, and having seen what 15 stone body did to it during a huge shunt into the Armco at the ring in a 997 GT3 RS 3.8 (it had distorted badly, but not failed) it is absolutely imperative that you don't take a hacksaw, grinder or welder to it.

If the OP is struggling to get comfortable in either of the seats he's mentioned, buy the cheaper of the two cars and have one or two Recaro Pole Position FIA/ABE (or an SPG) seat fitted using the correct side mounts and something like the BBi floor adaptor or use the Brey Krause adaptor brackets, but do not start cutting and welding any of the existing Porsche mounting hardware.

When I crashed my GT3 up in Western Scotland I estimate I left the road backwards, in the dark, at 70 + mph. My off road flight (literally) ended when the N/S/R wheel and 1/4 panel hit a tree and snapped it.



The resultant impact cracked two ribs such was the force I was subjected to when the car de-accelerated and my ribcage impacted the seat shell sideways.

The seat and side mounts were the stock leather carbon buckets, and the side mounts were distorted from the impact.

99.9% of the time you may get away with modding the OE seat mounts,but you'd better be sure they're safe come the fateful day when you DO need them to restrain you and the seat, because they will save your life.
Quite frankly what that individual had done to his side mounts on RL can only be described as reckless.

Here's the seat install I carried out on my 1M Coupe :

https://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=833495

This install was a gamechanger, the seats shell did not move millimeter and the driving experience was transformed, such was the increased connection to the car.

Edit to add additional images.



The red arrow in the image below is pointing to the rear crossmember which has been shattered and snapped, leaving the mounting point and bush still attached to the chassis itself (you can see it to the left of the snapped crossmember).

 

[IMI A]

Ha "properly" the wrong choice of word! I did think about this looking at his work :grin:

 

[Senoj]

I had the Tarrett ones linked above in my 997 and it worked well for me. About a 25mm drop. I had them on the shelf for ages and procrastinated fitting them then when I eventually did I wished I had done it years ago. Just drivers side. Wish I could achieve the same in the 996 but sorted that by taking the cushion out on track days and have put a bike racing a self adhesive dense foam seat pad in there. Works a treat.

 

[mikelb04]

Wow properly isn't the way I would describe that either
longer bolts with nuts for spacers hardly any extra force on those bolts in an accident
Really like the finish with filler and paint over the welding.
Looks perfect, makes all the difference, what could possibly go wrong with that
As Slippydiff says the forces in a big accident are massive and the manufactures spend fortunes testing for safety you have no idea how your weld or modification will hold up in an accident
Not sure what some people are thinking about when it comes to safety, I was horrified when I checked the crotch strap fixings on my car after doing two track days and found the previous owner thought he would save money by simply wrapping them round the seat adjuster bars (think flimsy 10mm mild steel) instead of buying the proper mounting bracket from Porsche
There seem to be kits to lower seats on lots of cars but I always wonder just how much calculation goes into the design of them.
The big names like Tarrett look ok but clearly they can't do actual testing