Race seat for Boxster

[frenchy]

Any recommendation on race seat for a boxster?

The GT3 are great but ridiculesly expensive (1600$ each).

Anything that is not a pain to put in and remove once I'm done autocrossing.

Frenchy

[clubhead]

The GT3 are great but ridiculesly expensive (1600$ each).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've seen a couple of companies in Excellance advertising them for as low as $1,399 in leather. Let me go look up tonight... I was also interested at a point in time but shipping gonna kill me on those seats since I gotta get them half way across the world to Singapore :(

[LVDell]

Check out Excellence. I have seen them as low as $2,400 for the paid in black leather WITH the crest.

Edited December 9, 2004 by LVDell

[frenchy]

Ok, I think I did not express myself clearly (you can blame my French).

I'm looking into doing a few autocrosses and would like to install a race seat. I tried the GT3, like it because they are confortable and yet seam to perform their "race" duty of keeping your *** firmly in place. However, I had no idea that these things were so expensive (I honestly was thinking that the cloth version was going for ~500$, not 1600$... I guess the margin on that are really good :-) ).

So my question is: Beside the "GT3" seat, is there anything that fit well in a boxster? The seat should enable me to re-install the seat belt buckle (the buckle is fixed to the seat, not the floor... I have Brey-Kraus adaptor for my harnest). I do not want to drill through the floor...

Frenchy

Edited December 9, 2004 by frenchy

[trygve]

Several of us have installed the Sparco Evo and Sparco Evo 2 seats, so it's a tried-and-true install for the Boxster. They're very nice seats. The Evo fits probably most people; the Evo 2 is needed by larger folks (it's an inch wider or something).

You can get it for under $600 bucks. There are at least a couple of different ways to attach the seat to the floor. I chose to get the Sparco sliders (so I can slide the seat fwd and back), and got the Brey-Krause floor mount adapters that work with them. Now the whole thing comes out as a unit, with 4 bolts, just like the factory seat (same holes, same bolts), so it's not too bad to swap seats. You can also omit the sliders and get the other Brey-Krause floor mount adapters, and that should give a little more headroom. Total cost for mounting hardware is probably under $200. You can bolt your BK lap belt adapter to the seat. I think you can get out the door with a total cost of under $800.

I notice you're in the Bay Area. Don't forget that in GGR a race seat may bump you up into a different autocross class and prevent your car from being competitive! I forget if that is currently the case, but it used to be.

The GT3 seat sure is nice looking (love that leather) but the price is ridiculous!

[ar38070]

You can usually find a GT3 seat for $1200-1300 on ebay. One thing that you have to keep in mind is that the GT3 seat comes ready to bolt in i.e. it has side plates and seat rails and a place to mount the stock belt receptacle. Any race seat that you buy will need those parts also ($100-200) on top of the cost of the seat ($300-$800).

Brey Krause makes the correct side plates and seat rails for a number of seats (mainly sparco and recaro) for the boxster. If you do not use their parts then you will have to fabricate some kind of adapter to mount the seat to the bolt pattern in the floor of the boxster. If you do it yourself it does not cost much but if you have to farm it out then it will cost you. If you go the Brey Krause route then you need the side plates, seat sliders and the adapter plates to mount the seat sliders to the boxster floor.

Also when you put in the shell you will have to reroute your sub strap. It now needs to run up through the hole between your legs. This will require either a hole in the floor pan (which you said you do not want to do) or yet another mounting bar (brey krause makes one) that bolts between the seat rails. I believe some people have mounted a Y shaped sub belt to the front floor mounting bolts.

If you are buying all new realistically it will cost you $800-900. $500-600 for the seat and $200-300 for the mounting hardware. It can be done cheaper, say $500, (used seat or there are some seats in the $300-400 range) but in that case it may cost more if you have to fabricate custom mounting parts.

[frenchy]

Trygve, AR38070

So beside the Evo seat and the Sparco Slider I need from BK:

R-9060 (side mount)

R-9041 (slider adaptor)

R-9045 (release bar for slider)

R-9030 (sub-strap mount bar)

Anything missing? Do I need something else to mount the standard belt receptacle on the side of the seat, or the stock stuff will still work?

On wheels, what witdth do you recommend, I want to stick to 17" wheels but I'm a bit lost in the different width. I would like to stick to the "stock" spacer, do no want to mess with that... but I do not want to be stock with wheel where there is only one brand of R tire that fit... I would like to fit Vitoracer or Toyos...

[ar38070]

That is what you need. I got a longer bolt and bolted the stock receptacle using the rear side mount location. Or you can drill another hole in the side mount and bolt it there.

I notice that the 9060 only has one hole at the front. That means that you cannot really change the height only the rake.

Ideally you want to run 8 up front and 9 or 9.5 in the rear. This would let you use either 225 or 245 up front and 255 or 275 in the rear.

With 8's up front you need an offset of about 42mm. With 9's in the rear you need an offset of about 45mm. If the offset of the wheel you are considering is higher, for example 50, then you would need to use an 8mm spacer to get it to fit. There is some leeway here, say 5mm, either way. If you err it is better to err with a lower offset as this will push the wheel out which is usually less of a problem.

You can get by with the stock sizes but you are stretching things a bit if you want to run the 245's and 275's.

If you have questions about width go to www.tirerack.com and look at the specs for the tire that you want to run. It will list what wheel widith the manufacturer recommends for that tire size. Look under spens not sizes and pricing.

I just looked at the Toyos and they are looking for 8-9 up front and 9-9.5 in the rear.

[KevinC]

A couple of notes - the R-9030 bar is for use with the stock Porsche sliders, not the Sparco sliders. Without the bar, there are still a variety of ways to mount the sub strap(s).

I have an Evo-2 with Sparco sliders in my car. I love it. My only complaint is that there is some play in the Sparco sliders, causing the seat to wobble a bit. If I were doing it again, I would try to get a second set of Porsche sliders. This would require the R-907X side mounts instead of the R-906X, R-9041, R-9045 hardware. If you are happy to leave the seat in semi-permanently, you could re-use your existing sliders.

The 907X sidemounts have a threaded hole for a seatbelt buckle. With the 906X sidemounts you can attach it using a longer bolt in the inside rear mounting hole, along with some washers to prevent the buckle from binding.

I agree with AR on the wheels. I have 8,9.5x17" wheels with 245/275 Victoracers.

Kevin

Trygve, AR38070

So beside the Evo seat and the Sparco Slider I need from BK:

R-9060 (side mount)

R-9041 (slider adaptor)

R-9045 (release bar for slider)

R-9030 (sub-strap mount bar)

Anything missing? Do I need something else to mount the standard belt receptacle on the side of the seat, or the stock stuff will still work?

On wheels, what witdth do you recommend, I want to stick to 17" wheels but I'm a bit lost in the different width. I would like to stick to the "stock" spacer, do no want to mess with that... but I do not want to be stock with wheel where there is only one brand of R tire that fit... I would like to fit Vitoracer or Toyos...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[frenchy]

How do you mount the sub-strap without the bar?

Jean

Edited December 18, 2004 by frenchy

[ar38070]

If you have a six point sub belt then you can bolt it to the front seat rail mounting bolts.

I know that you do not want to drill holes but before you buy anything you should be sure you know how and where you are going to attach the inboard lap belt.

[adsach]

I prefer the 6-point sub belts that come together in a V or Y shape - the ones where the belts come together in a metal plate seem like they should help protect the family jewels by keeping the straps apart, but they end up being a pain in the thighs.

[frenchy]

I prefer the 6-point sub belts that come together in a V or Y shape - the ones where the belts come together in a metal plate seem like they should help protect the family jewels by keeping the straps apart, but they end up being a pain in the thighs.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I already have a Pyrothech 6 (5 and a half) points harnest, one thing that I hate with that 6 points is that you sit on the middle strap all the time ( the car is my daily commuter car). I did not think that I could re-use my harnest with a "race seat, one of the goal was to hide the middle starp under the seat when I do not use it...

Jean

[adsach]

... one thing that I hate with that 6 points is that you sit on the middle strap all the time ( the car is my daily commuter car). I did not think that I could re-use my harnest with a "race seat, one of the goal was to hide the middle starp  under the seat when I do not use it... 

hmmm... When I adjust my middle strap, it is loose enough that I can push it in front of the seat cushion when not in use.

[ar38070]

Just tuck the sub-belt between the back cushion and the bottom cushion (where the seat folds).

[frenchy]

Thank for the advises guys

I ordered all the seat stuff. I should get it sometime next week. The only thing I'm going to miss is my heated seat.... I came back from the airport late yesterday and it felt very confortable with the "heat" on...

[frenchy]

Got the seat! It is in my living room and the only thing I can do while I wait for the Brey Kraus stuff is to sit in it and make engine noise...

It is less confortable than I expected. I might not be able to keep it as a daily commuter seat.... or I'll definetly need to bring an iron and a board to my office to press my parts/shirts once I get there...

Frenchy