996 Hard Back Sports Seats Questions

Those that have Hard Back Sport seats do they have lumbar support? Are the bases the same as comfort seats? They look like they might be? Did they do them heated? Did they ever do them in ruffled leather ? The seats in my car are pretty tired but assume a 2nd hand set of sports seats are going to be tired by now too ? Anyone had them refurbished? Changed the sponges etc ? I read the base sponge part falls through the support underneath? The centre section / panel in the comfort seat looks the same as sports, ? Ie you could maybe swap the ruffled part ? Any info welcome

Hey Bert.... i bought a pair of hardback seats that were factory fitted to a 986 Boxster S.... black leather , non crested and i have to say, immaculate. I was lucky to buy them from a motorsport company near Kidderminster that sourced low mileage Boxsters for the Boxster race series. Lovely black leather seats albeit not heated. Straight swap apart from 1 pin in the elec connector that needed to be removed, no issues. To answer your questions, based on my seats... No lumber support but alot more shoulder support. Seat base is the same as on my comfort seats i sold on. Never seen them ruffled but may do. Heated was an option. All the best. Si.

My hardbacks are heated.

Mine are heated as well, the backs are leather covered despite being hard backs. They are just sat in the garage doing nothing, i assume there are plenty of sets doing nothing as lots of people swap them out. I dont believe the bases are any different to comforts.

I can't answer any of your questions, but I have them in my 1998 C2 and am happy to take detailed photos if you need any. I've heard that the sports seats are a little lower than standard seats, which is curious if the bases are the same. Perhaps I heard wrongly? I have driven a car with standard seats, two weeks before I bought mine with sports seats. Both are too high for me (this is just something I accept to own the car), but I can't remember if one was lower than the other. There's very little lumbar support at all. The only thing I did notice immediately was how much tighter the shoulder bolsters are.

My sports seats are defo lower than my old comforts.

If they are lower, then either the bases aren’t the same or they’re on different runners. The latter seems surprising on a car that was supposed to be cutting costs, and if to that end they made the bases the same to cut costs! Maybe they have less foam in the sear bases? Just a guess, but I think there was a factory option for lower seats that did that?

Perhaps mine are lower as taken out of a Boxster ..? Also the runners are shorter too.

Is the seat height adjustment electric on the comfort seats? Think they're manual on the sports seats. That could possibly be why they go lower.

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Yes, that is a common trait in cars. I was told by a salesman that dealerships actually faced a lot of rejections of the BMW E46 3 series because the demo cars were manual seats, and the electric added so much height that some buyers couldn't fit in their new cars on delivery day. However, the two 996s I test drove both had manual height adjustment on the seats and one was comfort and one sport. Only the tilt was electric.

Both my comfort and sports seats were manual height adjustment and both electric rear adjustment.

I read something about targa seats being lower because of the reduced roof height in the car? No idea if there’s any truth to it, Suppose cheapest way would be to put a thinner sponge base in ? Made me think now? Pretty sure mine have electric back rest but height is manual adjust

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I think I've seen replies that the 997 seat swap helps lower the driving height. I have them in my 996 and originally planned to replace them with OEM sports seats, but lots of people on here told me not to, and i wasn't keen on the prices some were asking at the time! The 997 seats are comfortable though!

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That's interesting. With MX5s it's common to do something called a "foamectonmy", and I bought a foam cutter to do it to some secondhand seats I bought for my MX5. It was quite a lot of work, mainly in stripping the seats back the foam, and I think I gained about 10-20mm. I needed more like 70mm, so ended up buying a bucket seat, which got me where I want to be immediately (eyeline looking through the middle of the windscreen and head clear of the roof). The issue with both 996 and MX5 is that the steering wheel isn't height adjustable, and this is compounded if you want to buy a steering wheel spacer to bring the wheel towards you, as the upwards angle of the upper steering column means that the wheel goes up as well as towards you when you space it out. With the MX5 I plan to do what I've done to my road based racing cars, which is to add a spacer to where the column bolts to the scuttle, but I don't want to do that to my lovely original 996. I've got a spacer coming for my 996, and I strongly suspect that once it's fitted the wheel will be the right height, even though I myself want to be lower in the car. The other issue is your legs - with the MX5 now that I'm sat at the right height my legs have more of a bend in them, and this would be a particular problem with the 996 seats, as the base is very flat, so you'd have no leg support. Personally, from experience of messing around with the MX5, my Elise and all the road car based racing cars I've owned, I'm going to just fit the spacer to my 996 and leave it at that. Yes, I've heard that.

I’ve just had the stock seats in my 996 turbo replaced with a set of 997comfort seats (bought at a bargain price of £135) much more comfortable than the stock seats, best guess would be 1.5-2” lower, and has the added benefit that the steering wheel, with it’s limited adjustment is in the right position, I’m only 5’8” so god knows how the 6 footers manage with the stock seats, they must need a sunroof!