996 Seats

[msaif]

I thought I'd outline my experience with various seats in the 996 to help all you out there who are struggling to find the correct fit. My first car was a C4S with standard seats and seating position was low and seemed a comfortable fit. Fast forward 4 years and my second Carrera with full electric memory comfort seats provided a non-Porsche like high, seating position so here's my experience:

Option 1 Standard Seats - Will give you the maximum leg room (more so if you remove the seat stop brackets attached to the underside rear seat rails which will give you 15mm more). Will not grip your body due to lack of base and back support. Fiting the lower-seat option XSU might be an option although I did not personally try this.

Option 2 Comfort Seats - Same as above but you site much higher (about 15mm) due to the seat containing more sponge on the base.

Option 3 Hard Back Sports Seats - Purchased on ebay to replace my comfort seats. I had the backs colour coded Carrara White (not a type!) and re-skinned. Huge difference. You sit lower than comfort seats but the same as standard seats. Leg room is less than standard and comfort seats due to the hard back and plate covering the hinge (i.e. where the back attaches to the base) hitting the the b-pillar when the seat is pushed back to the max. More supportive as the base contains more aggressive bolsters to keep you in place, ditto for the back. To get more leg room you'll need to remove the seat stop brackets (give you 15mm more legroom). However, I would say even with the bracket removed they still do not give you the same leg room as standard/comfort seats (about 1.5 inches less which is a lot). I then ordered the XSU Lower seat option part from my local Porsche parts dept which consists of new base and inner back sponge (I paid about 100 british pounds). I only fitted it for the driver's side. This made a huge difference as I now sit lower and my back fits into the seat. Highly recommended. I went on a Porsche driving course so I now know how to set the seating position etc.. so the less leg room with the Sports seats is not an issue.

So, for more leg room keep the standard seats. For the lowest seating position keep the standard seats and fit the XSU option. For grippy seats get the Sports Seats. For looks get the sports seats colour coded!

Edited March 19, 2011 by msaif