987 - Standard or Sport seats for track day?

[shalmaneser]

I'm looking to put some 987 seats in my car for various complicated reasons.

The standard seats go for around £400 but the sports seats are £1K+

My fiance has a 987 with sports seats which seem good, but are the standard seats much worse? Are they worth the extra £600+ over the standard seats?

Would love to hear feedback from people who have actually tried both on track!

Thanks,

Adam

[edc]

If you are prepared to spend £1k+ on Sears for the track why not get some buckets? You could probably have them retrimmed in budget too.

[shalmaneser]

edc said:

If you are prepared to spend £1k+ on Sears for the track why not get some buckets? You could probably have them retrimmed in budget too.

Well that's kind of the idea of getting the non-sport ones! If they do the trick, of course.

Plus I like the look and feel of the porsche ones and as the interior is grey it will match pretty closely the grey porsche seats. The vast majority of aftermarket buckets are black seats and in a grey interior is a non starter and hence would require a interior swap which I'd rather avoid.

[edc]

Easy enough to retrim to match the colour any buckets you get. I haven't used the 987 seats on track but the 986 seats aren't even good enough for extended fast road driving let alone track. Probably need a CG lock to make it a bit better.

[rdjohn]

I have a 987.1with Sports seats and I do not rate them at all. Compared to the old Recaros from the 80s they are pretty useless.

If you car is primarily for track use, then decent seats and harness make a lot of sense.

[shalmaneser]

The car isn't primarily for track use.

It's an e46 M3 which occasionally gets used on track - the problem is that the existing seats don't go low enough and I have a tough time wearing a helmet - I have to crank the seat backs out of the way to get vaguely comfortable and to avoid hitting my head on the roof. In addition the existing seats aren't very good at all on track in terms of lateral support.

Having driven my fiancee's 987 with sports seats I found them comfortable and much more supportive than the stock seats and having taken some measurements they should sit a good deal lower than the standard items. This should give me some much needed additional head room.

I want to maintain the practicality of the car so don't want harnesses or fixed back buckets, and also want the car to look stock as far as possible. So grey 997/987 seats match the existing interior colour and look stock ish.

Spending £350 on some standard seats might be worth a punt as I can pretty much guarantee that I'll stop hitting my head with a helmet on, and should gain some lateral support as well which is a nice bonus. I work in manufacturing so knocking up some brackets should be fairly trivial.

[edc]

I suspect its not the seat but the rails and mounting that affect the height.

[LennyM1984]

I had a 986 and now have a 987c. I find the standard 987 seats much more supportive (primarily the lumbar support) but from looking at them I cannot tell why.

I haven't tracked it yet but I typically use a cg lock on track days anyway

Why don't you find somebody with a 987 and take a look?

[jakesmith]

I had ones that I think were called 'adaptive sports seats plus' in my 997 C4S they were really good, you could move the shoulder and thigh supports in electrically to really hug my body and hold me in place. I set one memory preset like that and another to my normal setting and then if I felt like a spirited drive I'd press the button for the hugging preset. They were great and probably the most comfy car seats I have had so far, but you do need to be the right shape for them. They were a good compromise for comfort and fast driving / occasional track use but if your car is more for the latter then buckets would probably be better.