cord fabric looks good!
cord fabric looks good!
Fabric is good and original. Vinyl is difficult to tell on the photo from that perspective.
Scheel used at least 6 different black fabrics between 65 and 76. Yours is different from the ones on the R seats but the same I have had on a couple of 60's seats.
here e.g.
What an office chair, uai!
My guess is they were probably from 1968, at least the drivers seat. The spare - installed as the passenger seat when sold - may have been as late as 1970 when the car was sold, but more likely the same year. But you both probably could tell better!
I find my Scheel 300s more comfortable than the Recaro Ralley. I'd probably find them on par with the R (not ever having sat in one) but, I think the 300s are built for a trimmer frame. That R seat looks to be more forgiving for the larger, over 50 crowd.
I also find my 201s more comfortable than my Factory Recaros. It's hard to quantify why exactly.. Admittedly I stumbled onto Scheels because I liked the period look and they were "less seen" when I started searching. I wanted something a little more unique and out of the mainstream. Had they been uncomfortable for me, I wouldn't own them. I feel lucky in that they satisfy both requirements.
Seats and steering wheels are the direct connection to the driving experience of a car and so, it's important to find what suits one best rather than go with what might be perceived as most popular.
Michael
“Electricity is really just organized lightning”
-Dusty 70S Coupe
-S Registry #586
The experts can state more certainly, but those Scheel R seats were put by factory werks into many of their race cars in the late 60’s. Were the recaros? I don’t know.
I still think the seats I first posted here that the Rev Institute has in their R are the most spectacular looking of any I have ever seen! Wow.
Willing to bet that seats were most often than not, the choice of the driver and not specifically the directive of the factory. The 911R while being more prototype than not was still built as a limited production run. That said, it makes sense if they were all initially delivered with the same seats. I imagine factory delivered STs to private teams were handled the same.
Michael
“Electricity is really just organized lightning”
-Dusty 70S Coupe
-S Registry #586
I’m sure you are right. But the RS lightweight and RSR? It just seems that Recaro has more mind share than Scheel as it comes to early 911’s, perhaps since the heavy sport seats were Recaro? It would be interesting to see a list of werks drivers and what their drivers seats were. In endurance races with multiple drivers I wonder how it was decided?
many years ago i was lucky enough to meet a former employee of the "Porsche repair department" from the 1960s. this department was responsible for the repair and maintenance of racing and rally vehicles. my contact person was one of the two mechanics for Björn Waldegaard's cars. the old man told me a lot about that time. about the 911R he still knew that mr. scheel often showed up at the factory to plan the development of the scheel 911R seat. Nevertheless, other seats were also installed in the 911R (from the start). I am mainly familiar with the "recaro bucket seat" also known as the 4-leg or later called rallye 1. apparently there were also shells from racing cars (in the experiment it may also be installed as a passenger).
what racing cars like e.g. rsr concerns the exact seat that the respective professional driver favored was actually installed in factory cars. I would like to use the 1967 (!) 911R scheel seat in the 1971 (!) larousse 914-6GT as an example because it fits perfectly. remarkable that a seat was built into a 71 series car that was already 1-2 generations ago. but if the driver wants it, why not? :-)
regards
Thanks to UAI, Recarno and 70SATMan's knowledge and guidance; I finally got myself this beautiful Recaro Rally seat...I will never reupholster/restore this either but i believe the left side vinyl has been replaced but that's all. I love the history of it.
That's an interesting point on the endurance races and yes I agree, Recaro is more thought of for the 911. They supplied the seats for production whether Comfort or Sport so, on the RS it doesn't surprise me that they would continue that supplier relationship on yet another production vehicle. Werks operated outside the realm of regular production, no? Didn't the 914/6 GT predominately use Scheels? There might have been physical differences between the two companies offerings that made the installation of Scheels preferable to say the Recaro Ralley. Also, Scheel used to market their Scheel 300 as being the factory offering on the 911ST.
Michael
“Electricity is really just organized lightning”
-Dusty 70S Coupe
-S Registry #586