Hundreds Of Products Ready Today. Dispatch/Collection Customer Question: A Cobra Nogaro In A Left Hand Drive Boxster 986, And Which Side To Order
Customer question, LHD Porsche Boxster S 986
This came in by email and it is a properly thought through question, so it gets a proper answer. A left hand drive Boxster S 986, one Cobra Nogaro Street going in on the left where the driver sits, keeping the fore and aft adjustment and the original three point belt, and no drilling anywhere.
He asked two things. Which side to order when our options are written for a right hand drive car, and which vinyl matches Porsche Graphite Grey. The first has a clean answer. The second turned into the longer half of this page, because colour matching is the thing we get asked about most and almost nobody explains how it actually works.
- Our side options describe the physical side of the car, not who sits in it
- Left hand drive with the driver on the left: order the Passenger Side (L) part
- Both frames include their sliders, so you never order runners as a separate part
- The seat belt buckle bolts to the frame, so the original 3 point belt stays
- We will not colour match from a screen. We post samples instead
Which side do I order on a left hand drive car?
Order the Passenger Side (L) part. You worked it out correctly, and here is why.
Our options are written from a UK car, where the driver sits on the right. So Driver Side (R) means the part for the right hand side of the car, and Passenger Side (L) means the part for the left hand side. The letter in the brackets is the bit that matters. It describes a physical side of the vehicle, not who is sitting in it.
Your Boxster is left hand drive and the seat is going where you sit, on the left. So you want the left hand part, which we list as Passenger Side (L). Nothing about the part itself changes, it is simply the mirrored one.
The full bolt-on parts list
You asked for a complete bolt-on installation with fore and aft adjustment and no drilling. There are two ways to get there on a 986, and we would point you at the first one.
The route we would take
Cobra Nogaro Street at £789.00, plus the PCI Racing Porsche Boxster 986 Sliding Sub Frame at £330.00 in the Passenger Side (L) option. The PCI frame is a side mount design with the slider already built in and it comes with the correct runner, so that is the whole job. Two parts, £1,119.00.
The Cobra route
Cobra Nogaro Street at £789.00, plus the Cobra Boxster 986 Direct Fit Subframe at £255.00, which comes with its sliders in that price, plus a set of Cobra Nogaro Steel Side Mounts at £132.00 to join the shell to the frame. Three parts, £1,176.00. Garreth would still take the PCI route, because it turns up as one item with nothing to line up.
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From £657.50 Excl. VAT Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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From £275.00 Excl. VAT Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Keeping the original three point belt
You keep it. The seat belt buckle bolts to the frame, so the original three point belt carries on working exactly as it does now. You are not losing it and you are not being pushed towards a harness you did not ask for.
One thing to check on the car instead of taking on trust. A bucket seat usually puts the buckle somewhere slightly different to the standard seat, so once it is in, sit in it and make sure the buckle falls where your hand expects and is not fouling the side of the shell. Two minute job, and it is the same on every car we do this to.
One thing to check before you commit
The Nogaro is a lovely seat and it is the right sort of seat for a Boxster. But our listing draws it for drivers over 6ft with a 32in to 36in waist. It is worth checking that against yourself before you commit, because a £789 built to order seat is not something you send back on a whim.
If you are shorter than that, say so and Cameron will put you in front of something better suited before you order anything. The 986 cabin is not generous and seat choice in it is decided by the shell, not the badge on it.
Matching a colour to an interior you are keeping
This question comes up on almost every built to order seat, so it is worth answering properly and not just for one car. Somebody is keeping an original interior, replacing one seat or two, and wants the new trim to sit alongside the old without shouting about it. Porsche Graphite Grey is the example here. Audi silver, BMW Sand Beige and the various Jaguar tans all behave the same way.
The short version: we will not name a shade off a photograph, and nor should anybody else. Here is why, and here is what we do instead.
Why a screen cannot settle it
Four things sit between the real colour and what you are looking at, and every one of them moves it. The light our sample was photographed under. Our camera. Your screen and how it is calibrated. And the light your car actually sits in. Two greys that look identical on a monitor can be obviously different held side by side on a driveway.
Low saturation colours are the worst offenders, which is exactly the family most factory interiors live in. Greys, beiges, taupes and anthracites have very little colour information in them, so small shifts read as a completely different shade. Bright red is easy. Graphite grey is hard.
The process we use
It is not complicated, it just has to happen in the right order.
- Tell us the factory colour name if you know it, and the car and year. That alone rules a lot out
- Send photos, in daylight, of the part you are matching to. Photos are for narrowing the shortlist
- We post you physical samples of what is left on the list
- Hold them against the trim you are keeping, outdoors, in daylight, never under a garage light
- Look at it at the angle you will actually see it from once it is in the car
- The one that disappears against the original is your answer
Grain and material move the colour too
This is the part people miss. A smooth vinyl and a grained vinyl in the same shade will not look like the same colour once they are in the car, because the grain changes how the surface throws light back at you. Match the grain as well as the shade and the seat settles into the interior. Match only the shade and something will look slightly off without you being able to say why.
Materials behave the same way. Leather, vinyl and a suede like Dinamica all take light differently, so a suede centre panel will always read darker than leather bolsters in the same colour. That is not a fault and it is usually what people want, because it makes the centre look deliberate instead of like a failed match.
The two cases, and which is harder
Matching a new seat to a seat you are keeping is the hardest thing we get asked to do, because the two end up side by side, in the same light, with nothing between them. There is nowhere for a near miss to hide. That is the case here, one driver seat replaced and the original passenger seat staying.
Matching a seat to a door card, a dashboard or carpet is far more forgiving. Those are separated by distance, by a different material and usually by a different angle of light, so close is genuinely close enough.
One more thing worth knowing. An interior that has done twenty five years has moved. Sunlight, cleaning products and use all take a colour somewhere it did not start. Match to the car as it is today, not to what the factory swatch says it should be, which is another reason a sample against the real thing beats any chart.
Two things and we can get this moving: how tall you are, so we can sanity check the Nogaro against you, and which greys you want samples of. Mention that the car is left hand drive and the seat is going on the left, and Cameron will make sure the correctly handed frame is the one that gets picked.
Common questions on this
I have a left hand drive car. Do I always order the Passenger Side part for my driver seat?
Yes, on any listing where the options read Driver Side (R) and Passenger Side (L). The letter is the physical side of the car. Left hand drive means your driver seat is the left one, so you want the (L) part. Put a note on the order and we will double check it before it is picked.
Will any of this need drilling?
No. Both routes bolt to the factory seat mounting points in the floor. Torque them properly and check the belt buckle clearance once the seat is in.
Do I lose the fore and aft adjustment with a bucket seat?
Not on either of these routes, and neither needs runners bought separately. The PCI subframe has the slider built into it. The Cobra fitting kit comes with its sliders in the price. Either way you keep the full travel.
Can I keep the original passenger seat?
Yes, and plenty of people do exactly that. There is no requirement for the two seats to match, and on a car you are keeping original elsewhere it is often the sensible call.
How long does a built to order Nogaro take?
It depends on the trim and where Cobra are in their build queue. Tell us if you have a date in mind and we will get a realistic answer out of them before you commit, not after.
Where to go next
Ring 0115 9893488 with your height, the shades you want samples of, and a reminder that the car is left hand drive. Cameron will confirm the frame and the side, get the samples in the post, and check the Nogaro is the right shell for you before any of it is ordered.