WARNING: This page is still a work in progress! The seat is installed but I'm still going to need to do a little fine tuning on it before my first track event.

I am not responsible for any problems you experience as a result of trying to do anything described here. The hack documented here worked fine for me but may not work for you far any number of reasons.

After doing several events with a 6-point harness with the standard seat I decided it's about time to move to a real racing seat. I looked at several seats and due to my "stature" I was limited to only a few seats. Since my wife wants to be able to drive the car once in a while I was leaning towards more of a sport seat versus a shell seat. I then ran across the Recaro SRD at Northstar Motorsports and found that it's SCCA and PCA approved for racing yet was adjustable for multiple drivers plus it was available with a sub-belt hole.

I also purchased a slider bracket for my '88 911. In the meantime I decided that I wanted a passenger side to match so I set out looking for a cheap used seat that would fit. I did manage to find one and I'm waiting for a decent day to install it. it now.

Before beginning this hack yourself, you will need the following items:

• Recaro SRD Seat
• Recaro Seat Rails
• 6mm Allen Wrench
• 5mm Allen Wrench

One tip I picked up from another shopper at Northstar Motorsports is to get a Porsche emblem patch, stick it to a sheet of Velcro hooks, then trim off the excess. I learned that the material covering these seats is very similar to the loops part of Velcro. I did that and stuck the emblem on and I was amazed how well it stuck!

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Pulled the seat out of the box. Viewed: 946 times.	The boring looking seat without the emblem. Viewed: 375 times.	The emblem makes the car go faster. Viewed: 645 times.
Now I'm getting ready to do the installation. One of my goals with installing this seat was to get a little bit more headroom. The bottom of the seat isn't very thick and the rails themselves are pretty thin as well. Removing the old seat was very simple. First, take the 7mm allen wrench and remove the bolts holding the original seat rails to the seat frame. On my car there were two bolts in front and 4 in the back. Recline the seat back as far forward as possible then tilt the seat back. If you're lucky, all the bolts came out ok. In my case, one of the soft brass bolts stripped so I ended up having to drill it out. There were two wires connected to the seat, one for power to the motorized seats and one for the seat belt receptacle. Remove those and carefully pull the seat out. I then put electrical tape over the ends of the wires to prevent a short in the future then zip tied them down so they wouldn't come loose. Don't lose the bolts and other hardware when removing the old seat. You'll need it to install the new seat. I would highly recommend buying new bolts to replace the ones that were removed. I found I couldn't get them to tighten all the way with the new seat rails as they are thinner.
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Seat rails for my '88 911 Viewed: 800 times.	Seat ready to install. Viewed: 554 times.	'Before' picture. Viewed: 668 times.
Using the allen wrench to remove one of the front bolts. Viewed: 552 times.	My friend Mark taping off the wires. Viewed: 743 times.	The wires are taped off and I was trying the new rails on for size. Viewed: 990 times.
Bolt the rails to the new seat. It's pretty obvious how they attach. Viewed: 1,000 times.	I think I put the washers in the right way. Viewed: 687 times.	The seat bolts in using the same hardware as the original seat. Viewed: 1,164 times.
And now for a couple before and after shots. I did seem to gain a little bit of headroom but less that I was hoping for. The lateral support is FAR better than the stock seat. The supports are very stuff and really hold you in the car.
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Viewed: 185 times.	Viewed: 844 times.
Viewed: 221 times.	Viewed: 614 times.

I had to have Midwest Eurosport redrill a couple of the harness bolt holes to get the sub belt to fit properly. That's being done right now so I don't know how well it turns out.

I also picked up a used seat to put in on the passenger side. I didn't like the way it looked with just the SRD on the driver side plus I still frequently ask for an instructor at driver ed events so I should offer them the same comfort and protection.

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Had trouble with the outside front bolt stripping when I tried to remove it. Viewed: 384 times.	I ended up having to drill it out. Viewed: 477 times.	With the passenger seat out you can see there is nothing underneath it. Viewed: 578 times.
Closeup of the bolts put in by Midwest Eurosport for the harness. Viewed: 516 times.	The new seat bolted in easily. Viewed: 861 times.	With both seats the same it no longer looks goofy. Viewed: 1,238 times.

One thing I still need to figure out is if I want to continue to use the stock seat belt. The used SRD I bought came with the following bracket. If using the harness on the street proves to be a hastle, I might put this bracket in but I would then want to have a similar bracked on the passenger side as well. I found this bracket at OGRacing and it's actually a bracket for a SPARCO seat. The part number for the driver side is 244SB DRI and the part number for the passenger side is 245SB PASS. The bracket to connect the seat belt latch is in an inconvenient place (for me at least) so I found a welding shop to move it for me.

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This is the bracket that was bolted in between the seat and the rails on the used SRD. Viewed: 725 times.	Here is a close-up of the label on the bracket. Viewed: 437 times.

Comments From People Like You! Racing Seat Installation : Greg's Dark Blue 911 - Hacks	add a comment
Greg 02-Feb-2005 14:29
Hi I like what you guys do looking at pictures are better than reading plane old instruction guides and I was woundering is possible that you can me something like that in mail thanks.

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