anyone recognize these recaro knock-offs?

[haycait911]

continuing from here:

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...ighlight=seats

here are some better pics of the seats. definitely not recaro. seat halves formed separately, not cut apart. turnbuckle aluminum. gelcoat flatter in finish than recaros. headrests just slide in, no ratcheting. homemade mounting bases. decent quality hand-laid fiberglass. 18 lbs with headrest.

I'm thinking the RS seats here:

http://exoticcarseats.com/

turnbuckle is a little different but everything else looks the same.

purported to have been in the car since the late 70's. any input much appreciated. Don.

[haycait911]

more pics.

[Soterik]

I've got a repro that was done in the 80's (?), but it's at my cabin, and I won't be there till the following weekend. Happy to take a pic then and post, but that would be my most probably guess. They were offered in Panorama at that time, and supposedly the guy who made them lost money on each one.

regards,
Eric

[PJenkins]

I've got a repro that was done in the 80's (?), but it's at my cabin, and I won't be there till the following weekend. Happy to take a pic then and post, but that would be my most probably guess. They were offered in Panorama at that time, and supposedly the guy who made them lost money on each one.

regards,
Eric

I remember the ones that were advertised in Panorama back in the 80's. If we are talking about the same seats they were done locally here in Chicago. I even visited the shop back in the day, kind of an odd-ball place and at the time he was restoring Series I and Series II Land Rovers. I have no clue how he got into the manufacture of these seats? It was one of those places where you went to visit to see if there was anything cool around and he really didn't want to give you the time of day.

The place is still in business:

http://www.coopertechnica.com/index.php

Maybe someone with some old Pano's can come up with a scan of the ad?

Peter

[haycait911]

some pics of yours would be much appreciated Eric. sounds like I overpaid a wee bit.

also, if anyone has a chance to peruse some old panos ( mine don't go back that far ) and scan the ad that would be very cool.

thanks all, Don.

[haycait911]

thanks Peter for the link to Coopertechnica. I emailed them yesterday and got this email in return this morning.

Hi Don,
I did manufacture and offer these seats to Porsche enthusiasts in the late 1980's. They were copies of the fifth version of the originals which were made by Scheel. I obtained original fabric for the seats from their supplier. We made approximately 36 pairs and when the fiberglass molds started to wear we discontinued the project. I found that I could not charge enough for them to cover my costs given the hesitant sales and limited market.

The one in the photos may be one of mine, I can't tell for sure. The ones I made had anodized aluminum adjusters, just like the later ones made by Scheel. The early ones were raw aluminum. I also incorporated provisions for headrests, again like the later versions. The early versions did not.

Since that time, I have mostly focused on restoring European sports and touring cars either pre-war or early post-war. I still manufacture parts as needed but they are for those cars. I found that trying to please all the Porsche enthusiasts, most of whom were experts and discounted all the research I had done on these seats, was a thankless job.

If you want more information, please contact me.

Best regards,
David Cooper

[PJenkins]

Don,

Well I am glad that he responded so quickly, seems his business manners have picked up over the years. Maybe I caught him on a bad day all those years ago. Shame he could not positively identify these as his work on not.

Someone should be able to find a copy of the ad, but, I am not so sure it is going to help any. If I remember correctly it was one of those business card size ads with a picture on it. Let's see if anyone comes up with it.

Peter