4" chop, 9" channel. Knees just even with window frame, I could drive all day, but took forever to get in and out!
Yes, Colin Chapman…funny thing, have an OT Lotus Europa out in the shop! Love the 7’s too. Built the 27 modified (like an American version of a V8 powered Lotus 7), as I’m too big to comfortably fit in and drive a 7. Probably should sell the Europa…as that’s a pretty tight fit too. Older son doesn’t like Europa’s, and young son really likes them, but is too big…bigger than me!
I hear ya. During my building days I was 6'3", 325lbs. A Europa looked like something that fell out of my back pocket. None of my buckets or 27's were passenger friendly. They were all automatics (powerglides, last few were shortie's), centered steered with quick release wheels, sporting dropped and extended footboxes. Think four wheeled coveralls. Through the years the motors and body suppliers changed, but that interior design never waivered. I do have to admit that the CCR Long T and Zipper bodies really spoiled me. Now days with my knees and hips I could build one and drive it, but I'd need somebody else to get in and out of it for me..lol.
Old age, where knees don't bend so well, and feet don't swivel so well, and the back doesn't bend like it used to, all have a pretty direct effect on how a person views seating in a vehicle. If it hurts when your sitting in the car, its hard to get into the car or hurts doing it, or if its hard to get out of the car, or it hurts getting out of the car, you figure out you don't want to spend much time in the car. I want to drive my stuff. Low seats, and lower floors are two things that will not be in my stuff. Tman, a lot of things change between 55 and 65 for most of us.
Probably more important to take care of your body (exercise), than it is to take care of your Hot Rod! Just saying…
I'd like my arm to rest comfortably on the window / door sill, please. Naturally, seats mounted any higher or lower means (insert the old drill instructor foot stomp here - just before he tells you something you need to remember) that you can't rest your arm comfortably on the door sill.
It is! Just went skiing yesterday. I am 53 and my buddy is 58 that I ski with. Going out on the mountain bike tomorrow.
Always surprises me the lengths guys go to to get low in chopped cars yet I never see this done. I thought I was going to have to do this on my car, but luckily I'm Ford roadster sized.
“Adding Lightness” and “Simplicate” Chapman’s words to live by. I have a couple off theme cars and also a Lotus 7 clone with a V6. Love the car/performance but at 76 getting harder to get in and out off. I’ve always thought you car was perfect for all the reason mentioned by RJP. Thinking that is exactly the car I need and it has doors! How is it to get in and out of?
RJP; "Frame" is birdcage-stype. While it could be done, it'd take a heap of reinforcing & add weight. The body skin is little more than an object to hold paint, & keep some of the wind & water off you. It does add some structural rigidity, though. I like them, but they are so far removed from practicality - for me - that I'll never own or build one. Way too many other fish to fry 1st, esp since age is not only catching up w/me, it' started to run me down, as well as over me... Marcus...
Here's an under construction shot of my old Anglia. 5 and half inch chop and channeled about 9". I mounted the seats through the frame and it worked really well for me at 5' 7". I put a lot of miles on this thing and it was really comfortable! The guy who owns it now must be 6' 4" and he hardly drives it. Think he bought the wrong car....ha ha ha.
Yes. Very important to me [ 6'2" ] to sit low and look cool. At least I accomplished one. 3" dropped floor on my 29 still left room for ovalized exhaust pipes. I am sitting on 2" foam.
Good for you. Mountain bike riding and skiing ended for me in my mid 30s when my born with health conditions caught up with me. I take 12 pills a day just to be able to move (any real physical movement), because of those health conditions. After you live my life for 66 years, we can talk about being healthy in old age, because you have no clue. Some health conditions are way beyond our control. Your health can change in an hour. Enjoy it while you can, but don't be so quick to judge others. Does that mean we should give up the things we love because some stuff just doesn't work like it used to?
No dick flailing. The Moral of the story is to be as healthy as you can. Loved your help at the HAMB Drags in 05" Great designated driver. Us drunkards are still moving fine......
gene-koning I am with you!! At78yo I lost 25lb. so I could get in&out of my coupe.(I am down to 235lb) It's the best thing I have done health wise and eat more salads instead of cheeseburgers. Drive on...............
I can get in and out of my coupe and my truck just fine, but I'm not sitting low in either one. Both were built for my comfort (and my wife's comfort) getting in or out of them, and both are great road trip vehicles. I get a physical every year (its a requirement to get prescription drugs), and every year the Dr. tells me all of the test numbers are right where they like to see the numbers. Without the prescriptions, I can not move. With the prescriptions, I can move pretty well, but there are things that have been recommended that I not do, and some things I can't do well at all. Its just the story of my life. It just bugs me when people want to blame every health issue on a person's weight.
Nope, I blame the folks that never took care of themselves. I understand health issues, my wife has a couple. A girlfriend prior to that got Parkinsons at 46. My Ex? Just gave up on life and got fat and quit living. We had a great post going here a few months back about keeping yourself healthy until it got zapped for being to OT
At 74 years old (soon to be 75), I may not be the fittest person in the room, but I can still do anything that I want to do. My comment to the younger critics is, wait another 20-25 years and then we'll see if your body still bends the same ways it does when you were younger. And before I get criticized, I have been doing this "rod" thing for over 55 years including building my green coupe 49 years ago. However, staying with the topic of this, I have a problem being able to fit in a lot of cars, including my wife's 2021 Mazda 6 sedan and my C6 Corvette. I am 6' 3", but most of my height is in my back (I have a 32" inseam). Except for my truck and the coupe in my avatar, I cannot get into most cars to clear the door roof line without bending my head forward until my chin is on my chest, even with the seats powered all the way down to the floor. Now, to translate that problem to my current '33 Roadster build, before I purchased a windshield frame and stanchions for it, I had to do a complete mock up of the seat height, front-to-rear seat position and tilt, the steering column & gauge placement, with the windshield height to see if I could use a 2" chopped windshield (hopefully with a removable top) versus the standard height windshield. Plus all of that needed to consider that I am looking for the car to be a "long-haul" driver whenever I want to take a road trip. It will not be a garage queen or a show car - it has to do inter-state cruises (and from central Texas, that means 600-700 mile plus daily cruises.) I really wanted the look of the 2" chopped windshield and top. After everything was mocked-up several times, the final decision was that I can do it if I put the seat (bench seat style) on the floor with no riser, tilt the seat back where the bottom is tilted upward at the front and the top of the seat back is resting against the rear of the cockpit area (with no package or top storage shelf) and the steering wheel/column is positioned where it is comfortable in my hands with my arms relaxed. One helpful thing that I learned was that there are different foam densities that allow the use of thinner denser foam without sacrificing comfort in your bottom . The column mock-up allowed comfortably clearing all of the pedals and misses the exhaust header and I can see the gauges on the '32-style dashboard. However, even with that arrangement, the very top of my head is above the top of the windshield frame, but my eyes are below the top frame. I think I can live with that. It will make traffic lights and overhead signs difficult to see, but I have somewhat the same problem with the green Plymouth coupe and I think I can live with that inconvenience with the roadster. But...I can't live with being uncomfortable in a car that is intended to be driven for any distance over 25 miles.
I highlighted you best comment in red. This is called ergonomics and I would say 75% of folks building hot rods miss this point unless they know better OR talk to an actual interior guy or gal. Almost ANYONE can fit in these cars with the right fit. The only ones that are REALLY hard for even us 5'9-10" folks are early pickups.
I learned that lesson the hard way several years ago. When I was first building my coupster I cut 3" off the windshield frame because it looked good on the magazine cars. Oops, there was this bar interfering with the top of my field of vision. After moving the seat as low as practical and comfortable, the next step was welding 3/4" back on the windshield frame using .030 mig wire and a 000 gas welding tip.
I came across this recently: It might be educational for a hot rod build: perhaps a Z aft of the firewall in a car that looks to be deeply channelled; or a shallow-sided tourer in the Lancia Lambda or OM idiom, with the driver and passenger's butts slung down below the frame rails. In both cases the driver's legs are raised above the transmission, eliminating narrow footwell issues.
That picture above brings back scary memories. In my old Logghe altered the seat pan was placed as low as possible to the driveshaft running under my butt. As a result, at the front of the seat pan was a chrome molly tubing crossmember to anchor the seat pan, about where that driver's hips meet his legs. Above my "H" point. Well, long-story-short, I stuffed it head-on into a concrete guardrail. The impact bent that piece of 1" moly tubing forward, while at the same time compression fracturing my L4 and L5 vertabrae. The 5-point harness did little to prevent such an injury. Nor would his. A molded seat insert (not available back then) would have lessened the pain. Having the engine in the rear certainly will make the possibility of a head-on injury greater. Not much crumple zone.
It's a shame these frames have to be covered up? A frame just waiting for an engine is artwork. You have artwork right there.
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