Just got my CPO 09 R8 and the seats are terrible

[Drollin]

I just got my 09 R8 Daytona/carbon and full carbon with all options installed that were available at the time. This is going to be my daily driver. It has 27k miles and love everything about the car except for one thing and that is the seats. My 05 911 c2s that I just sold had the porsche sport seats that were infinitely more comfortable. I am 6'3 and the seats do not raise up high enough to give proper thigh support so have had continual back pain over the past two weeks. Is there any way to install a better seat or even my old porsche seats in the r8?

I have already tried searching the forums and everyone seems to be looking for a racing seat with four point harness which is not what I am looking for.

Thanks,
Daryl

[baradona]

Which seats do you have? My 'leccy seats can raise the bottom cushion at each end independently, which I've found to help (I have a 34 inch inseam).

[Drollin]

Baradona,

Not sure about the exact name of the seats but they are the ones that come with the premium package that have the three electronic controls on the side of the seats for sway, height adjustment and forward/back. Just tried playing around with them this morning and it is funny you can raise the seat all the way up and tilted forward until my head is compressed against the headliner but it wont provide just 2-3 degrees of tilt the opposite way which would provide thigh support.

My porsche active sport seats would allow me to raise the thigh portion up independently which the audi ones do not.

[SebringSilver]

That's odd. My car's seat bottom can be tilted upwards at the front to provide plenty of thigh support.

[baradona]

Drollin - I meant the factory electric seats, and like SebringSilver I can raise just the thigh portion. Try pushing up on just the front end of the bottom cushion button.

[R8Spyderman]

Drollin - I meant the factory electric seats, and like SebringSilver I can raise just the thigh portion. Try pushing up on just the front end of the bottom cushion button.

True, the up/down button will raise the front of the bottom cushion or the back or the entire cushion, all depending on where you push the button. You should be able to get the rear of the bottom cushion to go to the lowest and the front to the highest tilt.

[Drollin]

Thanks for the replies. I just tried all of your suggestions thinking that somehow I had missed some hidden adjustment of the thigh bolsters but no cigar. I am 6'3 and mostly legs so that might explain it. If any of you have friends with porsches you should try out their active sport seats. The r8 thigh bolster is just a tilt function and it does not tilt high enough to provide thigh support. The 911 thigh bolster could be raised all the way until your legs were supported and acted independently of the tilt function.

[SebringSilver]

If young Juan over on that S-tronic thread needs convincing as to why Porches (sic) are great cars, we're sending you in.

[KfabR8]

It would take a little fabrication, but how about raising the front of the seats where they attach to the floor? It wouldn't take a lot of height to make a huge difference. I would imagine 3/8" to 1/2" would be more than sufficient.

[rmicroys]

I've found that a lot of cars that have seats that are firm give me pain in my hip, and up my leg. I thought that my problem was first not having my thighs supported. Over time experimenting with different seat positions I learned I needed to sit very far back from the steering wheel and not have the seat 'bucketed' (ie, the proper support for me was NOT having the front of the seat highest and the back of the seat lowest. I had to compromise on my arm position (ie, I cannot put my wrist on top of the steering wheel) so I have to drive with rather straight arms for long drives.

The good thing is that for the track, this issue doesn't seem to bother me at all. All the shifting and supporting while taking the high G corners seems to counteract the support issues.

All I can suggest is to try sitting as far back in the car as possible. Worked for me.