Hello All,

Has anyone driven or sat in a 914 with a Sebring seat from GTS Classics?

I have read several previous threads regarding these aftermarket seats. The owner, Stefan, told me that the Sebring is two notches above the stock 914 seat as far as support goes, with the LeMans being the first step up. From the looks of the two seats, the LeMans appears to offer mostly hip support, whereas the Sebring looks to offer both hip and torso support. I am not racing the car and I do want to keep the backpad. The Sebrings have a much sharper angle at the back of the seat than do the stock seats, so I am not expecting them to sit snug in the backpad recess, but I don't want them to look too out of place either. I imagine with the back of the seat at such an angle, my reach to the steering wheel will be a bit longer. I will be using my stock '74 shoulder belt, but Stefan recommended using a rear seat belt receptacle from a 911 to use in place of the stock 914 receptacle so that I can loop it through the hole that would be made in the seat, as in the photo below.
Any experience or thoughts on the driving feel of these seats or the way they look at the back/against the backpad would be appreciated.
Thanks!
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I have no experience with the Sebring seat, but I am beyond satisfied with my LeMans seat from Stephan at GTS.
It is very comfortable on long drives and supportive at the track with my five point harness.

I had a corbeau seat similar but being 6'0 the back had to be mounted all the way against the wall.

So no experience with this particular seat but I have used 3 of Stefan's seats. All are great for comfort and of course you can go with all kinds of custom finishes. You can even give him your height etc. and he may recommend accordingly.

In the 914 we discussed and I ended up using the Hockenheim seat of his. Very similar to the Scheel seats. I think the upper support is a little less and makes it easier for ingress and egress. I'm pretty sure the sub frame for his seats will be very similar to the Sebring so maybe you can get an feel for the rake of the back rest from my pictures. I of course am not using the back pad so you may have to envision if that looks different. I'm 6'2" and I still have the seat slightly forward but again no back pad.

One thing you must take into consideration is that he has his own seat mount spacing (unless the Sebring is different) and they do not bolt onto the 914 seat rails. I spend some time making them adapt the 10-15mm they were out but then found the seat sat way too high for my liking so I adapted some early very flat 911 seat brackets and the basically sit right on the cross member (kinda equivalent to the lowest seat seating) and they allow me to slide forward and back. He does have his own adapters and rails.

I also use a smaller Momo wheel. I think the regular wheel with high torso support will make it much more difficult to enter/exit as a street car.

As for seat belts, if you want to stay Porsche I gather any early REPA receiver should work. I think the very early 914's had 'floppy' receivers and manual belts??

Hope this gives a little guidance. At least you can ask him the difference in these 2 seats and you have a visual reference.

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James - I have the LeMans seats with the seat belt pass throughs. You're welcome to bring your car by some time and we can swap in the driver's seat for you to check out. At least you'd have some first hand knowledge of if you like them or want something different.

Note that the belts pictured are from Seat Belt Planet and use belt material instead of wire on the buckle side. These also use a different buckle - I did this because this buckle fits through the pass through, making seat removal that one bit simpler.

And if you'd like to talk details, PM me and we can coordinate a call.

Very interested in this thread as i just got a quote from Stefan on a pair of LeMans seats for the 75. I had scheels in my 73 before turning it to tack only use and liked how those felt but feel like too much upper torso support makes it harder to live with for street only.

You won't regret it.

I replaced my Scheel with a LeMans 15 years / 100K miles ago.
I am still as happy with my purchase as I was on day one.

Back to the top. Anyone have pics of the OP request of Sebring seat in the car?

Thanks for all of the responses!
@VegasRacer...good to know that the LeMans has worked well for you both on the street and track for so many years. I will consider that.
@cali914...I am 6' as well, and you had to remove the backpad to get the corbeau to fit?
@Sway Bar...those are beautiful seats. I have a Momo Prototipo with a hub eccentric. I can see where the eccentric helps to get in and out if the front of the seat is at a higher position, as it appears the Hockenheim are that way.
@tygaboy...thanks Chris. I'll take you up on your offer and text you next week to set something up. Super kind of you to offer.

These are my all time favs. GTS Watkins Glen I believe. They belong to a memberClick to view attachment


Suggest you search Stephan’s posts as a good place to get knowledge. His user name is GTS

installed my custom GTS Le Mans seats more than 10 years ago, and they still afford excellent support and comfort

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Bought these leather GTS Le Mans seated with heathers installed over 10 years ago. Really liked working with Stephan and appreciate the craftsmanship in the seats.
The Le Mans fit nicely into the backpack recess, some GTS seats do not.

The GTS Watkins Glen model seats are definitely made for the 914.
They still fit into the recess of the back pad.
I got the bare fiberglass...I think they normally would paint the back sides of the seats black.

Here they are in my car.

I am taller at 6'2" and big enough at 205 lbs and fit into the seats with no problems.
They have great lateral support for whatever you might want to do with your car....street, auto-x, track, etc.

The quality was 1st rate as well.

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Yep, this just reinforces that these are my all time favs!!! The Tartan is 100% class and Your car is very cool.

The way Stephan alined the white stripes in the Tartan show his artistry

Thanks for posting Rayne

The Watkins Glen was my choice. Fits excellently. Doesn’t interfere with the parking brake. Love the side support in spirited cornering.

(Looks large in the picture due to being in the foreground of the photo..... just camera perspective.)

Love the raw fiberglass variant ! Good thing for my old six is I would only need one !

OK, so maybe I just can’t see it without all of them being pictured side by side, but which version has the easiest ingress/egress? They all seem to add enough side support but I am just not seeing clear advantages or disadvantages of one over the other. Can some expand on why they picked one over the other?

@chrisg - IMO:
Stock = none/not much hip or upper torso support
LeMans = greatly improved hip support, and a bit more upper torso support
Watkins Glen = hip support plus even better upper torso support

In the end, it's down to some combo of personal preference (do you fit comfortably in seat X?), desired look and use case.

I like my LeMans but am considering selling them and getting something with more upper support.

Been down this road, with three pairs of seats.

Seating is extremely personal, but the stock seats seem to be extremely comfortable on long drives for most people. Always got a lot of comments about that, and from a wide variety of people/body types; the lack of negative comments were even more impressive…until the corners came up. Just as a number of passengers did, I wanted more support. I wish there had been a thread like this one back then. A lot of good inputs, and experiences shared.

I'll add two more:

1) GTS Classics "Le Mans" seats in vinyl/basketweave were my first move, and Stefan was great to deal with. Added heating elements, and also asked for basketweave on the sides of the lower cushion—an idea I had after seeing a similar treatment in a 908. Added a bit of dimensionality. What's great is GTS will do things like this. I was impressed with the workmanship of the seats for the price, their strap system for the lower cushion, and the way they fit into the stock 914 back pad. Unfortunately, they didn't offer the upper torso support I was after—though they did lock my rear end into the seat. I spent some extra money to "shrink" the 914-style headrests, which looked too big to me, but the bigger issue may have been personal: The way I sat in them left me uncomfortable after even medium distances. They weren't a match for me; I wondered if I should have done something more like an ST seat, though those Watkins Glen with Tartan have me wondering…

2) I decided to try Scheels after Russ @bullethead offered a very nice pair of Scheels when I was in Florida. Having sat in Scheels before, I knew they would offer the torso support I was after, and hoped they would be more comfortable for me on longer trips. Turns out, they're both—and they mount perfectly on the stock seat rails. They are a bit restrictive (I can't imagine they're fun for someone wider than me), and ingress/egress will be tricky for some, but I really like them. I'll use them for a while, and then have them restored in similar materials.

If at all possible, try to sit in the seats before you buy. Replicate the angle they'll be mounted at if you can, and bring a book/tablet/phone/etc and read for at least 30 minutes if you can. What I discovered: Seats might be the most important interface in a car. If they're good, you can drive all day. If they're bad (for you), you won't drive the car nearly as much.

100 % TRUE.

My seat search journey was the exact opposite of @horizontally-opposed .

The Scheels worked fine for me at the track, but I was crying uncle two hours into a road trip.

I was one of Stefan's early customers. The Watkins Glen was not available. I sat in a LeMans he had on display at a racetrack and refused to get up until we made a deal. It has proved to be one of the best investments I have ever made.

Seats are Personal. Try before you buy. It's worth it.

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Don't get me started on how much I the Carbon Fiber Sport Buckets in my Cayman R.

^ Love this.

Only underlines my feelings on this. Where I hesitated before to say this...it's really worth trying a seat out. In normal times, I'd even say it might be worth traveling to GTS (think about the number of hours you hope to drive your 914...). Or, if that just isn't feasible, consider ordering one and trying it for a while before ordering up the second one. The good news with GTS and Scheels and some other seats is you probably won't lose a lot of money moving from one good seat to another. Those GTSs I bought still had good value when I sold them on years later—and they still looked great, too.

Upshot: Just because two body types (or backs, or backsides...) don't agree on one seat doesn't mean they won't agree on another. I also love those "lightweight folding buckets," and added them to a 987.2 Cayman S years ago and did miles and miles in them on road and track. My only beef was that they sat me a bit too high in the car, but I have a long torso—and there are aftermarket mounts that lower them.

It's too bad Porsche didn't homologate them for the North American 981/991, as I prefer them to the (very good) 918-style buckets and they still allow access to the rear interior/rear seats in a 991. You can buy the Euro versions (with heat!), but it so far appears impossible to keep the U.S. airbag system happy. Some people have "tricked" the system with dummy seat position sensors, an extra seat belt buckle, and (and this is the biggest problem) a DIY passenger weight sensor when Porsche says the cushion/sensor/harness must be changed as one item. Thing is, there is no such part for a U.S. 981/991, and "tricking" an airbag system or putting a passenger in a car with a system that may not operate as intended is a nonstarter for me. So 987/997 owners with those seats are super lucky.

When you see a seat that has broad appeal over a lot of body types, that's a very well-designed seat. The gold standard for street seats across all most body types, still seems to be Porsche's late 1980s/early 1990s sport seats—and never better than the cloth-faced versions for the 959S (with harness pass-throughs!), 1989 911 Speedster, and 964 RS America. Have yet to meet someone who didn't love those seats…super comfortable and super supportive. Doubt they would look right in—or fit into a—914, sadly...

Just wanted to follow up on this. I took up @tygaboy on his offer to let me try out his LeMans seat. We were going to put it in my car and the plan was to drive in it, but Chris and I determined that just sitting in it would tell me a lot. It was very comfortable and it looks so right in the 914. I am a thin guy and noticed that I did not feel the hip support that someone wider might feel. According to the GTS Classics weight and dimensions chart, the LeMans has one of the thinner seat width sections at 12.2". I was considering the Sebring because it does have more upper side support, and the seat width(13.7") is 1.5" wider than the LeMans. I spoke with Stefan about this and he explained that the LeMans feels "looser" because the sides of the LeMans seat curve out more than the Sebring. This feels less supportive for a more slender frame like mine. The Sebring, although wider in the seat, has more of a straight up position on the sides, which Stefan explained would be more supportive for me. I am definitely leaning toward the Sebring, and would love to sit in one or even a Watkins Glen at some point to see how it feels if anyone in the area has one. Thanks to all who commented on this thread and thank you again Chris for letting me test out your seat.
Cheers!

This thread is so timely for me. I am going through this dilemma right now.
I have been talking with Stephan at GTS about the Lemans and the Hockenheim. I like the look of both, and I like that the Lemans supposedly is a direct bolt on to the 914 rails. The Hockenheim needs an adaptor to attach to the rails and I am concern that it will make the seat to high. Stephan says that the Hockenheim has better knee support and more torso support. I have a nice pair of 914 modified seats in the car now but I don't feel like I have enough side support higher up. Someone mentioned that the seat is one of the most important interface between driver and car, and I agree 100%. And buying one of these seats without sitting in them is like buying a pair of shoes mail order. You can order the right size but will they feel comfortable. I looked at the photos posted in the thread and I can't see much difference in the side support between the seats. At least in the photos the Lemans looks to have plenty of side support for the torso, but yet some have said that it did not have enough. I wonder how easy it is to get in and out of the car with the Watkins Glenn seat as those are similar to the Hockenheim.
Decisions, decisions.
Bill.

@daytona

i brought this up a while ago in another thread and have been looking and searching for a seat that would fit in the 914, be low enough and back be taller for actual head protection if you are 6 foot tall , and not break the back window or your head if you are rear ended!. so my search also continues. I will keep my stock seats for show, they are nice and the recover job is perfect, but i dont want to wear them out- i also want more lateral support in AX or mountain driving,

- i think those Watkins Glen look interresting, and either the Cobra or the Recarro Pole Position seats i think may work but i dont have that much extra cash, id like to sit in them before i buy them, but no one around here has a set .

i have just recovered a set of stock seats that have better lateral support and look nice, but will probably list them soon to raise the funds to get a Pole position seat from CareBone Poland. If anyone has had one of the newer Pole Posiition seats in a 914 id like to hear from you and see pics.
also there are a few seats ive found on Ebay that looking at their measurements and design may fit and work well and more into the budget. 2 biggest issues we have is any other seat sitting to high, but the Cobra and the Recarro have very thin seats and shells so they may work well, the other is the stock back pad. i want the head rest to be high enough to give support and protection, right now a stock seat headrest top comes to the base of my neck that is not acceptable.

like these’

or this...

too wide i think,

here is the spec in those seats , 19.5” wide on the base would be tight but would fit,

DRPHILL914,
I have been suffering through this dilemma for a while. I end up getting involved with other projects and I forget about it, but then it returns to haunt me again. I want and am ready to buy nicer more supportive seats for the 914, but not being able to do a sitting test is hard to commit to the expenditure.
When I got my car it came with one modified 914 racing seat that was done by Renagade Hybrids. It bolts right to the stock rail (after all it is based on a 914 stock seat), and for a while I contemplated just buying another one of those. But it is not the look that I am looking for. So, I'll be listing it for sale here, and my search continues.
Good luck in your search for the right seat.
Bill.