The local dealer told me that the GT3 seat, if you look into things very carefully, is NOT DOT approved. It was apparently never sold in the USA as original equipment. He could be wrong, but he's been doing track for 19 years, crashed and mangled more cars than should be legal, and had no reason to lie. He suggested Sparco and leather upholstery to match back when I was looking....

We just need Porsche to sell a GT2 folding 997 type seat for 1.2k per pair or less.... Dump the side airbag...we just need that seat.




I like Ray's option(s).



JB

 

As far as I know, OEM 996GT3 euro seats are not DOT.

The seats weight as below, all number are seat alone without any bracket or sliders.

997GT3 euro seat OEM CF = 15lbs
996GT3 euro seat OEM FRP= 20lbs

996GT3 rep. seat CF = 18lbs
996GT3 rep. seat Kevlar = 18lbs
996GT3 rep. seat FRP = 20lbs

Slider and bracket will add around 5-8lbs per seat.

Just notice from Suncoast site, Porsche have increase 996GT3 seat price double to $5560.40 a pair. Anyone who looking for OEM GT3 seat, this is time to buy!

 

Thanks Ray, and JB, it never hurts to know when you're being "taxed".

Never knew the 996 GT3 seats weren't even DOT approved, that should open some eyes.

 

Well me personally, I'd have no issues using the seats posted for street use.

However, I won't pilot another "high speed car" on a track without a halo of some type. We lost a local NASA instructor last fall due to a side impact with a jersey barrier at Summit Point Raceway. A HANS device would have helped, and that along with a full containment seat would have made the tragedy a minor incident.

The details of the accident can be found elsewhere, but the specifics were that a rotor/caliper failed at the braking zone on the front straight. The car spun 180 degrees to the left and pancaked the passenger side of the car with the barrier. The instructor was known to be a great, solid driver who was safe and very clean in his driving. He was also an aviation pilot and made sure his car was properly prepped at all times. He was driving a Honda S2000 and the accident didn't happen at a high rate of speed. This was one that any of us would have walked away from with the right safety inplace.

Food for thought for those of you hitting 100MPH+ at the track!

Mike

 

And I sold mine for $1000!

Of course they were pretty "used"!

Mike

 

Thanks for all the comments guys. I think i have the answer to what my next mod will be.

 

Sad to hear of this. What kind of seats were in the vehicle? Stockers?

 

They weren't stock. He had a rollbar, harnesses and fixed back seats from what I read. And the problem I have with the GT3 seat for the track is the lack of HANs compatible HALO.

Mike

 

Are they any seats where the halo is "removable" so you can use them with halo at the track, get home, and drive around without it....in comfort (relative).....

As an aside, the "uber" gt2 folding seats don't have a hans compatible halo either.

In essence....no stock car "should" be on the track....at least not in White or above. I can understand and respect your concerns. No neck can handle those side loads...no one is strong enough to take 60-80 G's...

Jeff


JB

 

agree, even profession lost their life in the F1 car when there are accident in the track.

For JB questions. You can either go with more comfortable recline seats or install the racing shell for track days. For OEM GT3 or my GT3 seats. Warp with OEM seats will take 1 hours for both side.

 

Jeff, Seats are the easiest thing to swap. 4 bolts and you have GREAT safety...

It's a personal choice, but in this instance, I'm 100% sure this guys family and friends (and the regional NASA community) all wished he'd been properly equipped... It's easy to make every excuse why we shouldn't upgrade to better safety. But let's face it, a quick read on any of the track day discussion topics reveals the capabilities of these cars and the things we're doing with them... Nothing wrong with the activity, but mitigation of risk is my concern.

Mike

 

the GT3 seats are TUV compliant though (TMK)....who cares about DoT (the ones that have us driving our car higher than designed?)...flame away.

 

Ray is correct, pricing did go up on the factory 996 GT3 seats. We have approximately 10 sets remaining at the current pricing. Once they are sold, pricing will go up significantly. If you're considering these seats, don't wait too long!

 

Plus one on that. TUV is more stringent and the GT3 seats are TUV approved. I was back and forth on this, but I managed to get a set of GT3 seats in good condition from a cup car that hit the wall at Daytona. The seats were in perfect condition and so was the person that was sitting in them

It was at that point, I decided to get the OEM seats over the replicas. Granted, I only paid $1500 for them so the cost savings wasn't as big as paying retail, but it is a piece of safety equipment.

If the replica companies would pay to do some testing (and the results were good), they'd sell a million of them. Too many what if's for me.

My only compaint with my oem seats so far is that the leather is a little wrinkly on the pads (the seats are probably several years old) and the velcroe is shot on the bottom pads. I had to add an extra strip or two to keep the cushions in place. I'm guessing the previous owner was fairly tall and ran them without the seat bottom pads in place.

 

I purchased a set of replica seats originally and was not happy with the quality of the mounting from the recessed threaded inserts on the sides, to the metal mounting brackets. I returned them and purchased OEM GT3 seats and the quality of the overall product is considerably higher (I think the shells of the replicas are OK, but the hardware mounted within and to the shell does not appear as secure, as I would have liked to see). The OEM seats instill confidence when you install them and the replicas, which I did install for a day, scared me and gave me a ton of second thoughts. In the end, my rational was that after all the money I have invested in mods, for an additional 1K, I was not going to risk my life with a lesser seat. They certainly look good, especially in CF, which is what I purchased.