I thought about it for a long trip but with 4 kids, we do quite a few change outs. Until we have a his and hers 911, we can't bolt anything down yet.

 

Won't work. The surface is not even once you take the seat out.

 

It does work - at least in a coupe with Cosco high-back harness boosters. If you also remove the seat backs, you have to add a filler block to provide something for the back of the kid seat to push against. You also have to reconfigure the Cosco booster to have the top tether strap come out one of the slots in the shell (instead of over the top of the shell). The added bonus is you get quite a bit more leg room (maybe 1.5 to 2 inches) and don't have to worry about the boosters causing indentations in the seats.

 

No offense or disrespect intended to anyone so please don't take anything I type personally.

As a parent, there's simply no way I'm going to risk the safety of my child by reconfiguring the way a safety seat is supposed to work, adding padding here, removing pieces there. There's a very scary statistic published by the California Highway Patrol about how many children are hurt and killed because they aren't properly secured in their child seats.

Having benefited from several CHP safety inspections of child seats in five different cars over the last 3 1/2 ears I am confident in saying that there's absolutely no way that the CHP would pass what's suggested above. No way at all.

You make your own choices. For me, and my family, a rear facing child seat was a non-starter in the 911. They grow out of that rear facing seat quick enough and then the forward facing seats open up a lot more choices.

 

i agree, i removed the seats last year when i got the 991. i didn't think it was a good fit. i played around and got it to work somehow. but then i decided against it when i realized that safety may be an issue.

 

I'm not understanding. Are you modifying the seat itself? I thought someone mentioned holding the seat down on the box only. I agree with the above 2 posts. I don't think it is a good idea to stuff here and pull there to make a tight fit. The 2 models I spoke of don't require any mods even the high back with head protection.

 

Hi there

I'm new to the forum and am looking to purchase a 991 coupe. I've got two kids aged 6 and 7, both quite tall. At the moment I have a family saloon car and use high back seats that use the seat belt for restraints.

When I've tried these seats in a 991 I found that

1) My child's head is right up against the roof

2) The top of the head side protection section is rubbing on the pillar

3) My child is pushed forward quite a bit such that I have then have the front seats forward. (due to the base being too wide to sit completely back into the car seat)


This seat can also have have the seat back removed to act as a booster but I never got around to trying that.

I did however try the Porsche older childs seat with the seat back removed ie to act as a booster. Now this allowed plenty of head room and the seat belt in the correct position. HOWEVER there was now nothing behind their heads ie their heads were at a height beyond the upper limit of the car seat back. As a result in the event of a collision there would be nothing at the rear of their heads to act as a cushion.

Has anybody found a suitable child seat for this age group?

Any advice greatly appreciated as if I can't get this to work I won't be able to buy a 991

 

I would never do this.

Car seats are not designed to be rigid enough in the horizontal direction without a seat back to rest against. By removing the seat back, you create a point of leverage on the back of the car seat lower than intended, which could result in Very Bad Things happening.

 

Indus, your observations are accurate and there's no solution. I have a 7 year old daughter who's on the tall side. I use a Porsche seat which, with it's extended head rest support hits the rear roof. I have to move the passenger seat all the way forward for her to have a little room. My daily driver is a Cayenne and she has no desire to be back there. When she turns 8 I won't need a seat/booster, but to your point, as of today, half of her head is over the rear seat back - personally unacceptable to me from a safety standpoint. So the only option is the front seat. In the 997 you could have the dealer put in a key activated air-bag cut/off switch. They discontinued that in the 991, so if I want to safely and comfortably transport her, I'll have to wait until she's 12, when I'll probably have a 995 (or whatever 9 number they use for the new model).

The solution is for a higher arched seat option, or a flip up head rest - the trade off is that you may lose the ability to fold the seat flat - but that's a price I'd be willing to pay.

 

I've commented on this 2 years ago and my recommendation is still the same. Get 2 Bubble Bums. They are cheap, have no sharp edges, travel well, and the kids love them. I have a 9, 7 and 5 yo and they all use them (well any two of them at the same time). Just make sure you use them correctly, running the belt through the loops. Our kids were able to do this from age 4 on.

Realize that the purpose of a child seat is to position the seat belt correctly, i.e. tight around the lap and on the shoulder, not the neck or head. That's the only function forward-facing child seats are tested for, both in the US and EU. There is no such thing as "side-impact protection" or whatever else car seat manufacturers print on their huge seat bolsters. It's just marketing playing to the fears of irrational parents.

So, bottom line I guess is: get 2 Bubble Bums, problem solved. If you somehow feel like boosters with a back and sidewalls are somehow "more safe", you got not one but two problems

 

Thanks for your feedback silversled.

Chancludo, wouldn't the bubblebum have the same issue as the booster I tried? In other words when the child is raised enough such that the chest portion of the seat belt is positioned correctly then the child's head will be above the car seat back?

Thanks for your help.

 

The Bubble Bum has two loops around the hips and a strap behind the child's back that, if adjusted properly, keeps the belt correctly across the child's shoulder. If you google "bubble bum" images, you'll see what I mean. Here is an example. Look for the red loop above the shoulder. That's the strap I'm talking about and that's all that's needed:



Whether your kids' head is going to hit the roof and/or is above the backrest of the seat itself is a different matter. Mine are pretty tall too and their head is not fully above the backrest and certainly far from hitting the roof. Of course, the 991 backseats don't have a head rest. If that's a concern, you may be able to slot a padded board or something similar with a cushion protruding forward at head height in the deep vertical space that's behind the backrests and the rear stowage perhaps. I don't do that.

Edit: In the photo above, I'd say the back strap isn't tight enough. It should pull the belt lower. See the instruction PDF.

 

Thanks. Perhaps I should just buy a bubble bum and see how it fits at the showroom.

 

I'm a big fan of Bubble Bum and just used them on vacation in Huntington Beach. They're highly rated, but the issue as you point out is the child's head protruding over the rear seat, like many things it's an engineering problem and a little disappointing Porsche hasn't addressed it.

As to side impact protection I thought it was tested - even if it's not, my view is some insulation is better than none- but appreciate all the information sharing here!

 

The NHTSA just proposed rules for a side impact test in January 2014, albeit only for seats designed for children up to 40 pounds. According to the proposal, this is the first specification worldwide and tests the "containment capability" of CRS that "larger wings and padding with energy absorption characteristics [may provide]" (p. 8-9).

There is a NYT article (among many others) that's a bit more readable.

The expected benefit of the rules amounts to a reduction of fatalities by 1.25% (5 from 400 down to 395) while car seats in general helped reduce fatalities by 33% over the past decade. Obviously, the full picture is surely more complex, but this should put the proposal in perspective.

Overall, I'd be cautious to assume that "some insulation is better". It seems intuitive, but so did front airbags until it emerged that they cause net harm to children. But again, I am not an expert and don't really know anything about it.

My summary takeaway from all this would be that, given the marginal expected safety improvement and the fact that it only applies to seats <40lbs, it makes little to no sense to obsess about it. If you'd really care about safety, your goal would be to be significantly heavier than any other vehicle on the street. Say, the Marauder, which, at 10 tons, ensures that all cost of an accident is borne by other vehicles. Of course, that'd be politically incorrect, but at any rate, you'd not buy a 1,450kg 991. It's all about tradeoffs.