GT3 buckets & rear seat access

Good day all, Anyone know, or can check, if it's possible for kids (and small adults) to still get into the rear seats with GT3 bucket seats slid fully forward? Doesn't need to be convenient, just doable.

Nick i will take a picture of mine for you. But no, you wouldn't want kids sitting back there. No way to get them in or out. You need a seat that folds forward such as the factory seats.

Here is the seat pushed forward as far as it goes. Plenty of room now in the back, but unless you are only 5 feet tall, you won't be able to drive the car. Here is the seat pushed back as far as it goes. The problem is that there is not alot of room to escape from the back seat from the side of the GT3 seat. Because of the "elephant ear" design, there isn't alot of room in between the seats to escape either. The oem factory 996 seats are "skinny" so you can "squeeze" thru them from the back seat. Not to mention you can fold the 996 seat forward. Whereas the GT3 seat is a stiff bucket so you are stuck. Hope this helps. I have seen folding race seats that may be more applicable.

As a side note, my kids spent a few years sitting in the back seat of my 996 before I had the GT3 seats. I always put the factory passenger seat fwd a little bit and folded it forward as well as a ""just in case" they needed to get out and I was in the way in the drivers seat. It worked well. No way to do that with GT3 seats.

No way to fit a person back there. Don';t try it.

Take a look at the Recaro Sportster CS seats. Similar-ish styling(Allow for 4+ point harness passthrough) but they fold forward. I'm considering these for my 996 so I can still use the space behind the seat for "daily" driving.

Thanks for all the replies; I'm pro-safety and appreciate your input. GC996, I've measured on your picture. The width of my seat belt is 45mm and with the measurements from the picture the gap there should be around 35cm (slightly more than the hight of an A4 paper), can you confirm that is the case?

Not certain if I am measuring exactly what you are looking for so I placed a ruler over the area you "boxed". Let me know if this is what yiu are looking for. Seat is completely forward.

GC996, perfect! I've tested, and measured this afternoon, which gap Is needed to get the kids out fast if needed and also for me getting in to put luggage. Around 22cm is enough for me , so with at least 5cm to spare I will probably not have any issues with the GT3 buckets. I just need to unbolt a seat to get the kid's seats back there.

Fwiw, I would caution against putting the kids in the back with the GT3 seats. Keep the fully adjustable factory seats in the car until they can sit in the front seat. If anything happens. They have no way to get out. Not to mention, a rescuer has no way to get them out in case a unique predicament occurs if they can't move the seats. Not to mention, unless you as an adult and have very long and skinny arms, and your upper body is extremely flexible, you will find that the design of the seats make it very difficult to reach behind you in any way to influence or adjust anything in the back seat. Don't get me wrong, I love my GT3 seats. But I wouldn't even put a pet in the back with running GT3 seats.

Rather than deal with few cm of clearance, why not get a folding bucket seat? I assume you don't want to spend the money on the 997 folding buckets but there are other great options that will fit this use case and look good. Recaro makes the Sportster CS seats that are pretty affordable and have folding backs. There are a bunch of vendors that will do custom centers for you. The seat is modern looking but not so that it looks out of place in the 996 interior. That's the route I'd go.

I'm 5'9 and 160 lbs (so, on the kinda slim side) and it feels like that scene from Ace Ventura whenever I need to get into the back. Granted, I can and do for certain things. My medium sized pitbull was able to get in and out easily enough.

The seat I'm looking to buy is these(almost 1/2 price of the Recaro seats): https://www.corbeau-seats.com/produc.../gt3-996-seats Both in regard to safety and practicality, I think the buckets will work for me. Every person have their own risk level. Everyone on this forum drives +20y old sports cars...often on track...for some that is unacceptable level of risk. For me, changing steering wheel (no airbag) is not acceptable. I would also never wear a helmet in a car without full harness and HANS. I always use helmet when I go bicycling etc. In an accident you can never say what is going to happen, it is violent chaos. The risk of me ending up in an accident where a folding seat is the key for survival I believe is very small.

Not a problem 😎

I got reclining Recaros for this exact reason. You can see the baby seat back there. My daughter is almost 4, so when she is riding with Poppa in the Porsche, the pass seat is slid forward and tilted forward. Not sure I could get both my wife & kid in the car, but wife is short and bonus is that she isnt a fan of the low and loud Porsche so she rarely joins us haha

Quotes source post: 19678404

True but consider this: Your examples regarding safety decisions only affect you in that only you would suffer the consequences of your decisions. In the case at hand you're doing the risk assessment for a child that is per se not able to assess this him/herself but would suffer the consequences of your decision in case it goes wrong. With that goes the responsibility to err on the safe side. Law makers have already given the scenario thought and have decided that it requires tilting front seats in a 2-door vehicle to transport people in the back seats. That says it all, really but if that isn't convincing enough, then remember that in case it all goes horribly wrong your insurance would claim the damages back from you, the prosecutor would take you to court and last but not least you would have to live with yourself for not having limited the risk as far as you could have done.

Nick, don't know if you are looking for buckets because you want to track the car and are looking for more support in the drivers seat? Here what i did until my kids got bigger and could sit in the front seat. From 2002 until early 2007, I kept my factory seats in the car so the kids could use the back seat. So I ran a removable Brey Krause Harness bar in the back seat that took 30 min to put in and/or remove. It allowed me to run a 4 point harness which held me down in the seat on the track. In 2007 I then added a Heigo half cage, GT3 seats and 6 point harness and never looked back. The point being that their are workaround solutions that are safe foe all involved. Just check with the DE groups you run with if applicable on their rules around the Brey Krause Harness Bar. This setup works well with the factory seats because they are relatively skinny at the top and the harness straps wrap around it without a problem. Sport seats may be a bit to wide.

A lot of good looking seats fellas! If anyone has RECARO questions, my information is below, here is a link to styles and finishes available for order as well. https://www.highline-autos.com/product-category/recaro/ Trenton O. Gibson [email removed] Highline Autos Direct: [phone removed] Office: [phone removed]

Quotes source post: 19679106

I plan to use the same Harness Bar, which ultimately will be "an hour" to convert from DD to HPDE spec

Quotes source post: 19683682

You might want to talk to some of your local instructors about using a harness bar first.