Vintage Seats vs GTS Classics

[Tut]

Does anyone have a basis with which to make a quality comparison btw. Vintage Seats and GTS? I've read ruwoodbury's recent thread and, to use his term, the "spendy" nature of the Vintage Seats. Then you have "you get what you pay for." Looking for information.

Thanks.

[Travis Neff]

I believe that the seats each vendor sells, are on in the same!

[ruwoodbury]

I haven't seen GTS seats in the flesh, the basis of my purchase decision was the simple fact I was able to see and sit in the Vintage seats. I also spent time talking with Michael and am certain he builds his own seats. I did use the term "spendy" in my post but also am satisfied with the quality of the seats and my view is they represent high value for the money spent. I highly recommend Vintage Seats which is in no way a denigration of GTS--I just like my seats.

[tctnd]

I was able to sit in both at the same show a few years ago and ended up going with Vintage (one st, one rs), but bear in mind that its kind of like shopping for clothes or shoes and what feels good to my butt might not to yours. The vintage seats are are a more faithful replica of the recaros but the gts are a quality product and certainly worth considering.

regards,
Phil

[RSBob]

I bought GTS and the fit and finish was excellent. I was able to custom order the inserts and the support on questions for sliders and brackets was great.

[dafischer]

I love my GTS Nurburgrings. Excellent fit and finish, and look great in the 72. Comfortable as well.

[blucille]

I have a fair amount of experience with GTS, ended up buying vintage seats from Michael for my 79 SC lightweight project and could not be happier.

The two companies operate very differently, and the seats they build have nothing in common.

Vintage seats builds their shells as 'reproductions' but they stiffen the shells and make some subtle changes for increased safety and comfort, as well as long-life. Michael takes great steps to provide accurate materials, custom perforated vinyl, accurate German vinyl, proper houndstooth, correct headrests.

Upon installation, you will find the seats go right in, you won't have to do any custom tweaking, and you won't be cursing up a storm. Not the norm with most other repro seats.

You'll also find that vintage seats, the company, will bend over backwards to build you the seat you really want, in a timely manner....no, you can't have them tomorrow, but you will get them when promised, with all the bits you need to complete the installation.

I didn't find them to be significantly more expensive that the other seats I was looking at, but when I saw the up close and personal, they were significantly better seats.

[ibmiked]

I have owned several sets of GTS seats, including the Nurburgring, before discovering Vintage Seats. I have also spoken extensively with both Stefan and Michael when ordering my seats in the past. With all due respect to GTS and Stefan, there is no comparison.

I would describe GTS seats as decent, period-looking seats but not in any way correct for our cars. They are approximations which look like they 'could' have been in a period car. My sets of Vintage Seats are exact visual replicas of real Recaro and Porsche Sport Seats. I have seen and handled NOS and real vintage seats and the VS product is absolutely top notch. Aside from the fact that they are perfect reproductions, they use modern materials and reinforcements which you would not have if you bought actual period sport seats. 50 year old fiberglass seats should not inspire confidence in anyone, and the fact that you can buy perfect modern copies is really just unbelievably cool for this hobby.

On a final note, the sets of Vintage Seats I have installed have taken me minutes to do. On all three sets of GTS seats I needed to make custom brackets. They took about an afternoon on my own to install with a lot of cursing, knuckle-busting, and fabrication. Considering the cost difference is not dramatic and we're talking about installing something designed to keep you in place in the event of a sudden stop or accident, I prefer to not be sitting on a set of modified brackets, even if I did make them myself.

You do get what you pay for. The question is whether or not the slight price increase is worth putting the right seat in your car or not. It's tough to tell if a car has Vintage Seats or 'real' seats. With a GTS seat you can spot them as fakes every time. Here are two side-by-side pictures of the (outgoing) GTS seats and the (incoming) Vintage Seats. The seat on the left is a Vintage Seat, and the one on the right is a GTS. They are both supposed to be Porsche 'R' seats. You can see that they are dramatically different and you can guess which one is 'correct':





Cheers,
Mike

[Bob Harriman]

I'm going with Vintage. Michael knows his **** and was very informative at the Phoenix club last week.

[rhart]

My experience was the same as ibmiked. It took hours to install the GTS seat and the quality of workmanship aside from that was not great. -

[Bob Harriman]

Old thread but an opportunity to show off my R passenger and RS driver from Vintage.

[rhart]

Real tidy

[techweenie]

I put TRE seats in my 'Sinister Black' hot rod and came back for more in my followup 'Dove" car. Seats were made with material I selected.

They are actually made by TRE, not the other guys in the thread title. Very happy with quality and communication.

[Rich Gas]

Will Vintage make the 930/911 7?/1984 sport replica? How much we talking here $1500-$2500.

[Bob Harriman]

Grommets are on the R seat, not the RS. Very flattering when members of our Porsche community ask "do you mind if I sit in them"

[mreid]

I have GTS seats in my RSR and frankly they look cheap and the fit and finish is poor. Wish I knew about vintage when I bought them.

[BURN-BROS]

Michael has an apex product and is enthusiastic is getting you the best he can achieve . I use him exclusively.

[regency]

I ordered a set of GTS early sport seats for my 73'. When they arrived I was happy. I struggled to install them, had to give up and call Stephan. To Stephan's credit, he shipped me some different brackets. So, I waited then finally, tried again when they arrived. I struggled to install the seats with the new brackets. Got pissed as I kinda scratched the lower side of my new expensive seats while using a pry bar. Finally got them installed but I would call it a "rough install". You know.....was I cross threading some of those bolts????
Anyway, the seats are in and I'm driving my car and I decide I don't like the feel? Too short and falling away from my shoulders?........the lower seating area seemed short too, like no seat under my thighs? It drove my nuts until I decided to remove them ( another struggle ) and re-install my old seats. Which, BTW slipped in in about 10 minutes each.
I blame myself for not actually sitting in them before deciding to buy.
I ended up selling the seats at a pretty good hit but was able to find a sweet pair of 81-84 black leather sport seats that bolted right in and feel great.

1973 911T MFI Coupe, Aubergine

Steve

[GTSinLV]

Hi Guys,
Since the last order with brackets we have changed the pattern- away from the flush design and back to the bigger hole- for more tolerance in our cars and tolerances in the seat mounts.So Customers are getting now brackets with bigger holes,shims and not countersunk bolts for an easier installation.The exception are the cars from 74 on as the OEM sliders are only one side locking and we try to provide the double locking sliders so that you don't have the feel to rotate around the adjusting sliders.So here we have to use a bracket that bolts to the car and the sliders will fit over the flush screws on top.

[regency]

"Well ain't that nice" ( think, Brad Pitt - Inglorious Bastards ), Doesn't cut any ice concerning my experience, just saying.

1973 911 T MFI Coupe, Aubergine

Steve