Removable seat extensions for the rear jump seats

[Richardnew]

I love it. A few weeks ago I had no idea. Now we have them in different colors. I can see that if you have a '71 you're going to need these.

They should show up on the COA as well since they were a factory installed option.

Richard Newton
Historic Racing Images

[70SATMan]

They should show up on the COA as well since they were a factory installed option.

Richard Newton
Historic Racing Images

Richard, they won't show on a COA because they were not an option. Basically they were standard for the 71S. Just like sport seats won't typically be listed for the 71S. They were standard for the 71S and if you wanted comfort seats with the 71S, they were the listed option.

I rather doubt that someone could have ordered these extensions on their 71T for example.

[911T1971]

Agree, there were NOT an option and could NOT be ordered.
They can be found only on a few S, never possible on any E or T since its connected with a homologation request.

They were mounted on a few 71S only, during the time Porsche tried -again-to homologate the 71S 2+2 seater as a 4-seater saloon car (!), eligible therefore for Group 2 racing if produced in minimum 1000 numbers.
Everybody knows a 911 is not a 4-seater car....but Porsche used a loophole interpretation in FIA rules about seat/lenght dimensions in 4-seater cars, stating if their 911 rear seats do have a certain size, they are counted as.

Reason why Porsche invented those removable extensions, extending the rear seat to 4-seater seat dimensions in combination with "thinner" Sport seats, gaining another inch of rear seat space.
However, FIA was still not satisfied (they probably feared the dominance of 911S on racetrack against true 4-seater saloons) and did not accept the request.
According to Ludvigsen, Porsche abandoned the request for Group 2, also realising it will not be able to build 1000 911S prior to the deadline, only a handful of cars were factory equipped with, probably if sold by late 1970 and early 1971, before the homologation time ended.

These equipments never served their "intended purpose" they were designed for and made the rear seats an area with no foot room at all but -on paper- were introduced to the opposite: to make the 911 a 4-seater car, alowed to compete against saloon cars like BMW 3.0CS/CSL and Ford Capri, amongst others.

[Richardnew]

The most interesting part of this whole thread is that the 911 was declared a sedan by the SCCA in 1967. Ok, they agree with Porsche that that the 911 was a sedan.

Peter Greg won the Daytona race in 1967.



This is from the 1967 Daytona Trans Am race. I think it's Bert Evertt. SCCA was a little more open to the Porsche request to race as a sedan. Then again they needed to keep the car count high. Once it became apparent that the Trans Am series was healthy Porsche wa no longer welcome as a sedan.

Richard Newton
Useless Tech Stuff

[911T1971]

Hi Richard, agree.
The same goes for Gruppe 2 under FIA rules, European Touring racing car series. The 68/69 911T was alowed to run but they changed the rules for 1970...and the 911S couldnt anymore. Also and as documented, the Ford Capri was quite competitive and in Ford Capri RS spec, even better than the 911 in some race categories, same for the BMW CS/CSL who won the trophy twice.

[LongRanger]

. . . According to Ludvigsen, Porsche abandoned the request for Group 2, also realising it will not be able to build 1000 911S prior to the deadline, only a handful of cars were factory equipped with, probably if sold by late 1970 and early 1971, before the homologation time ended . . .

FWiW . . .

. . . the tan extensions were included w/ 9111300499 --- aka 'Patrick'



Be interesting to hear from other Owners of '71 'S's --- whether their cars included these extensions (or not) . . . + any VIN data



And davep . . .

. . . any data to share?



............

[LongRanger]

And a poll --- who has 'em? . . .
http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...eat-Extensions

[mscott842]

I own a silver 1971 S with seat extensions. I've done a fair amount of research on the 1971 S homologation cars and even communicated with Jurgen Barth last year to ask him questions about these cars. I have a database of 71 S cars with seat extensions and have found fewer than 15. Interestingly I have spoken to a few owners who commented that they found some "headrests" in the trunk when they acquired their 71 S cars and threw them out because they had no idea what they were. The question remains, how many cars were delivered with seat extensions?

Further research (pertaining to the rear seats mentioned in earlier posts) revealed that one of the issues was the rear seat-back inclination angle that became the sticking point with FIA homologation rules pertaining to Group 2. Jurgen Barth confirmed this. In the pursuing the question about seat backs, I discovered that my car had two snaps in the rear seat-back straps. I think this is directly related to the homologation efforts and I postulate that all 1971 S coupes had two snaps in the rear seat straps to adjust the rear seat-back vertical inclination angle to comply with the FIA rules. I have yet to find an original 1971 S coupe without the double snaps. The ones I've seen with a single snap have been restored examples to match 1970 cars or Targas.

Last year a fellow 71 S owner and Registry member pointed me to an auction of Porsche factory documents and papers belonging to Rico Steinemann, the head of Racing and PR from 1969 to 1971. I won the auction and being in possession of over a hundred pages of original documents in both German and French, I was compelled to organize and translate them so I could make sense of the story. The result is a 120 page "coffee table" book that I self-published titled "The Lost Archive." The papers tell the story of a conflict between Steinemann and the FIA culminating in Porsche threatening to sue the FIA in the spring of 1971, for revising homologation regulations without adequately informing manufacturers. They eventually backed down from the suit but the relationship between Porsche and the FIA was damaged.

I'm trying to determine how much interest there is from Registry members in the purchase of The Lost Archive book. I printed a 1st run of five copies and now trying to determine if I there is enough interest in 25 or maybe even 50 books. I'd like to maintain the quality of the linen-backed, hardbound book so printing is expensive. At this point I have a significant financial investment in the project (not to mention the hours of translation and organization) so I'm currently pricing copies at $275.

Anyone interested please reply to this thread. I will eventually create web page so buyers can make a purchase and track their orders. Thanks for reading this post.

[edmayo]

Sent you a PM.

[Simonjjb]

pm sent also