3D printing is nothing new in the auto industry, but customizing form-fitted sport seats for customer racers is an innovative way to test out a potential new personalization product. Then again, Porsche…

Porsche creates innovative new 3D-printed sport seats for 911 and 718

Porsche 3D-Printed Bodyform Full-Bucket Seat
Porsche’s new “3D-printed bodyform full-bucket seat” uses sandwich construction for form-fitted comfort. (Photo: Porsche)

3D printing is nothing new in the auto industry, but customizing form-fitted sport seats for customer racers is an innovative way to test out a potential new personalization product.

Then again, Porsche has long used motorsport to hone its road cars, so the act of creating 40 prototypes of its “3D-printed bodyform full-bucket seat” for some European-based 911 and 718 client racers isn’t too much of a stretch. 

Porsche Tequipment will start producing the new six-point safety belt-equipped “bodyform” driver’s seat prototypes in May 2020, and after it receives enough feedback from those customers, which will be incorporated into the seat’s development, it will start making them available to road car customers in soft, medium and hard firmness levels and various colours though its Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur division from mid-2021.

“3D-printed bodyform full-bucket seat”
The coloured components in the 3D-printed “lattice structure” give the seat a wholly unique look. (Photo: Porsche)

Just to be clear, custom-fitted driver’s seats have been part of the motorsports world for almost as long as car racing has existed, but 3D-printing technology will allow the same level of personalization in Porsche’s road cars, as long as enough owners expressed an interest.

Together with a driver’s seat specifically designed around an individual customer’s body contour, the new 3D-produced seats would allow for “an extended range of colours” so that owners could match their cars’ interiors to Porsche’s available “Special” colour palette, and their “Custom Colour” requests.

Porsche 3D-Printed Bodyform Full-Bucket Seat
Porsche produces this “lattice structure” in a 3D printer and then incorporates it into the seat. (Photo: Porsche)

Along with the ergonomic fit for enhanced comfort and control, the new 3D-printed bodyform driver’s seat will allow for a totally unique interior design, plus lowered weight, and even “passive climate control” says Porsche, the latter due to the seat’s sandwich construction.

The base support, which is produced from expanded polypropylene (EPP), gets bonded to a “breathable comfort layer consisting of a mixture of polyurethane-based materials.” The external skin, made out of “Racetex,” features a perforation pattern that allows for climate control, while “window panels” expose the coloured components in the 3D-printed “lattice structure” and therefore give the seat a completely original look.

Porsche 3D-Printed Bodyform Full-Bucket Seat
The breathable material allows for “passive climate control”. Photo: Porsche)

“The seat is the interface between the human and the vehicle, and is thus important for precise, sporty handling. That’s why personalized seat shells customized for the driver have been standard in race cars for a long time now,” commented Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche. “With the ‘3D-printed bodyform full-bucket seat’, we’re once again giving series-production customers the opportunity to experience technology carried over from motor sports.” 

Thirty-seven years ago a skunkworks division at Porsche transformed a 409-horsepower Type 935 race car into a handcrafted, slant-nose, big-winged, one-off road-going supercar filled with cream coloured…

New Taycan EV available with Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur upgrades

2020 Porsche Taycan Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur
The new 2020 Taycan Turbo EV can now be enhanced with special Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur features. (Photo: Porsche)

Thirty-seven years ago a skunkworks division at Porsche transformed a 409-horsepower Type 935 race car into a handcrafted, slant-nose, big-winged, one-off road-going supercar filled with cream coloured leather and rich hardwood inlays. It was exclusively made-to-order for Techniques d’Avant Garde (TAG) owner Mansour Ojjeh, a company now best known for its popular TAG Heuer luxury wristwatch brand.

This innovative team became known as Porsche’s “Personalisation Programme” as it continued building unique versions of its iconic 911 sports car for individual clients, one of which was a wealthy sheikh that ordered six identical custom 959 super cars, plus this division also created low run special editions before being renamed Porsche Exclusive in 1986. They developed a special Panamera Exclusive series soon after, plus a modified Macan, a special version the new Cayenne Coupe and more, while in 2017 they took on the name of the Zuffenhausen-based special projects team’s headquarters, Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur.

2020 Porsche Taycan Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur
These 21-inch wheels include stunning carbon aeroblades. (Photo: Porsche)

Now, at the beginning of Porsche’s era of electrification, it makes perfect sense to provide Exclusive Manufaktur upgrades to its upcoming Taycan electric four-door sports car, with this first foray resulting in in 90 customization options including three different Sport Design packages.

These packages “differ with respect to the inlays in the lower front apron, in the sill panels and in the side fins of the diffuser,” said Porsche in a press release. A bigger aero piece than previously shown was added under the headlights, while each Exclusive Manufaktur model also showed a more sculpted front fascia. The side fins can be painted body-colour too, or, depending on the package chosen, left as woven carbon fibre.

2020 Porsche Taycan Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur
Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur offers a host of specialty paint options. (Photo: Porsche)

Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur will also provide Taycan owners with LED matrix headlights featuring “a three-dimensional circuit board graphic in the headlight housing as well as daytime running light elements in Glacier Ice Blue or other colours,” continued Porsche, while the headlamps will also include Porsche’s Dynamic Light System Plus. Enhancing the exterior design further, gorgeous 21-inch Exclusive Design wheels boast aeroblades formed from forged and milled carbon, these chopping 3.2 kg (6.6 lbs) from each standard alloy wheel’s weight.

Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur offers modifications to the Taycan‘s interior too, one of which is a Carbon Interior Package featuring a variety of contrasting colour motifs, seatbelts available in eight different colours including Blackberry, Bordeaux Red, Crayon, Graphite Blue, Lime Beige, Meranti Brown, Slate Grey, and Truffle Brown, and matte carbon fibre trim on the front and rear doors plus the centre console.

2020 Porsche Taycan Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur
A Carbon Interior Package adds matte carbon fibre inlays and more. (Photo: Porsche)

Additionally, Porsche announced an expansion of its Exclusive Manufaktur factory so as to manage expected growth. The once 2,000 square-metre (21,528 sq-ft) facility has increased in size by a third, with the updated floor plan now including four new lifting platform workstations, increased storage space, and a direct line to the finished-vehicle loading platform.

So if you’d like to have your new Taycan, or any other Porsche model “painstakingly hand-finished with high-quality components and special equipment packages for the exterior and interior to achieve an even higher degree of personalization,” make sure you talk to your local Porsche retailer about the Exclusive Manufaktur program.

Pricing and features information for the new 2020 Taycan can be seen at CarCostCanada, where you can also learn how to save on available manufacturer rebates, in-house financing/leasing options, and access otherwise difficult to find dealer invoice pricing that could save you thousands on a new vehicle. Check out CarCostCanada for all the details.