I recently ordered a set of Rottec Carrera GT style (sCGT) seats. Upgrades on my set included carbon kevlar shells and alcantara cushions. The other upholstery is the standard leatherette.

Pros: I am really impressed with the carbon work. The shell feels very strong, the weave is uniform, and the resin is glossy and clear.
The padding isn't that thick but the seat is shaped just right so you're not putting too much pressure on any one part of your back or legs.
The leatherette is actually nice and soft. If you pinch it you can tell it is thin and not real leather but if you just caress it it feels softer than many real leathers.
Ray was easy to deal with and generally answered emails in a timely fashion.

Cons: I'm not that impressed with the rails. This is my first foray into aftermarket seats so I'm not sure if it's normal or not. It's not a problem with the adjuster as that engages confidently. The base metal just has some flex in it. I may break out the welder and attempt to strengthen these pieces.
I'm mixed on the silver plastic seatbelt holes. Sometimes they look cool but sometimes they look cheap compared to the rest of the car. They offer carbon pieces as an option which might be worth it for some. I tried covering with brushed aluminum wrap but the piece was too deeply contoured. I may just try plastidip (though I hate this craze) and see if just making them black and more subtle works better. Or I may do nothing because it's not a big deal.
It took a week to ship even though the seats were on hand.

In summary I am very happy with my purchase. It makes driving the car feel totally different. I lost about 80 pounds by swapping in these seats and removing the rear seats. These seats weigh 26 pounds a piece.

I think the price isn't bad. I would probably pay more for higher quality rails. I think Rottec would benefit from sourcing some for future seats. Although my seats arrived undamaged I would also recommend they use more bubble wrap on the rails so they don't poke through the box.

Keep in mind, these seats are TIGHT. I wear a size 32 pants and have a fit build. They are just right for me. If you are a bigger guy you'll want to look into one of their other designs.

(Feel free to make fun of the horrible green carpet. It's getting ripped out soon.)

 

I hope you enjoy them more than I did - thought they were garbage and immediately removed them from my car.

 

Wow. What didn't you like about them and what did you replace them with?

 

Since the seats and especially seat mounting rails/brackets are an integral part of the crash worthiness of a vehicle, I would think looooooong and hard before installing some Chinese make products which were never tested to any crash standards. Seats are not one place to try to save a few dollars when your life (or the life of a loved one) is potentially on the line. In our cars the seat belt buckle is mounted to the seat itself and thus the seat rail are what takes all the force in a crash and what keeps you restrained in your seat. If your Chinese seat rail fails in a crash, you will go flying in your nice shiny carbon fibre replica seat. Just something to think about.... At least with the factory Porsche GT3 Euro seats, you know they were subjected to strict European and DOT crash standards (for those seat offered here in the US). Good luck.....

 

if you talk to quality race shops like GMG they will tell you no part of any restraint system should ever be secured to the seat itself. always wondered about the catch being mounted to the seat. even my nissan pickup has the seat belts mounted to the floor not the seat

 

Are you sure about that? I think the GT3 and GT3RS are exempt from crash tests due to the limited production numbers.

 

I agree with you. That make sense but I'm sure a multi billion dollar company like Porsche that is subject to strict world wide crash standards has much more access to testing and crashworthiness data than GMG or any other race shop around. I presume that Porsche mounts the seat belt receptacle to the seat so that the seatbelt remains in perfect alignment relative to the seat occupant irrespective of the position of the seat itself along it's seat rail. It's different in race cars as the seat is generally bolted to the floor without any adjusters or the adjustment range is very limited so the harness can be bolted the the chassis in a specific location. No matter what, in Porsche's street cars, the seat rail carries a huge importance in a crash and I personally wouldn't trust my life to some product made in a Chinese sweat shop and sold though Alibaba for a few pennies. But that's just me.....

 

The GT3/RS are not that limited. There have been over 5200 GT3 and RS cars produced word wide with large majority of that sold here in the US. And yes, I'm pretty certain all cars sold in the US have to meet US crashworthiness standards. I know that the 996 Euro GT3 seats were not offered as an option on the cars in the US because they were not tested by the DOT and thus could not be sold here. They were however tested to meet European crash standards and that is enough for me as those are generally stricter anyway. No matter what, I myself feel much safer in a 200mph car knowing the seat and rails were make by Porsche rather than a sweatshop worker in Guangzhau.

 

The seats look nice and improve the aesthetics of your interior. But you mentioned your mounting brackets on the base flex? I guess I'm just not comfortable with non FIA or Chinese aftermarket race seats that are installed in modified high performance vehicles.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/216238444/Car_Carbon_Racing_Tuning_Seat_for.html

 

Well, they are limited enough that the NHTSA and any state or federal DOT has never crashed tested a Porsche. Porsche has to certify the cars meet the standards. Pretty interesting. At any rate, I agree with you.

 

What do you guys think of the Corbeau seat brackets?

 

Or has anyone heard of Wedge? These look like they would raise the seat up higher than stock.

http://wedgebrackets.com/brackets/po...-brackets.html

 

I can't speak on the wedge or corbeau bases for a 996, but I've used the corbeaus, wedges and recaro's in my supra, my STI, and my GTR and the recaros were nice, but honestly the corbeau's were the best to an extent. Most of the brackets require some modification to get the seat to sit at stock or lower level, the corbeaus were pretty easy to modify, the wedges needed more than just the height adjusted on one bracket (had to change the location of the anchor bolt hole as it was off by a bit) and the recaros were just finicky. I've found that unless you do a fixed back seat or go with Bride low/extralow rails it's hard to get the seat to sit lower than stock. In any case from the sounds of the RoTec brackets, I'd take any other rails and use them.

 

In a crash if the rails break your face is hitting the steering wheel. If your face hits the steering wheel you'll wish you were dead. Can't say id ever run aftermarket seat rails in a car unless they came from a huge manufacturer who builds SFI parts certified for competition.

 

I purchased a set of Porsche OEM GT3 seats several years ago. They were on back order and the vendor sent me the import GT3 carbon fiber seats to use until the OEM's arrived. I just could not get past the brackets. After installing them, I promptly removed them, as I felt they were totally unsafe - you could see the metal flex and my better judgement told me to remove them for safety sake.

When my OEM seats arrived with the OEM Recaro brackets, the metal was about 1/4 thick! They appear much thicker than even the BK GT3 seat bracket I have seen and the mounts on the seats themselves seemed more more secure - the import seats are nothing like OEM Recaro's and personally I would never consider using the imports. Unfortunately, I am afraid that sooner or later we will probably hear of a failed import GT3 seat.