My car is 135" wheelbase, all new tubing, and in order to give the front hoop a period layback, I had Brian add 4" behind the rear axle- which is what is putting my legs in the position they are with the seat pan flush against the chassis uprights. Over the weekend I replaced the tube under the seat pan with flat bar stock, flush with the bottom frame rail and cut the bottom of the seat out, since the pan protruded lower than the frame rail.
There is plenty of headroom, so the seat pan will end up being about 2" higher, and then I'll move the bottom of the seat 4" forward to put my legs in the correct position. With my car, I still think having the shoulder hoop farther back, gives my torso the extra room and getting in and out should still be pretty easy. I can "hook" the back of my arms on the front of the cage and lift myself out enough to just put my feet on the axle to get out. Granted, I haven't done this with a full suit on yet (I don't have one) so we'll see as I go. I'll post a cockpit shot once I get it sorted, but here's a couple shots of the car itself under construction.
Dean
p.s. Bruce- bitchin' car! Is this the one you told me you guys got bored with?
your cars beautifully proportioned, quite similar to mine, although I thiny my front raise angle higher and my cage isn't so leaned back. I'm also running a bigger tire.
What you decribe in terms of your seat is very simialr to how my altered was. It had an aluminium bucket seat suspended on dzus's but had a 5" wide flat flexible steel strap going from the top rail to the seat crossmember. Very comfortable, however I was unlucky enough to get out of shape at about 150 in the traps once, rear end started bouncing and it pitched side to side, upshot was the back wheels bounced nearly 3ft off the ground trying to get it stopped. I did lot of damage to the car, chassit, motorplate, trans, belly pan, buckled wheels and bent a 35 spline shaft, but also hurt my back because of the angle I was laying at in the car, effectivley dropped me on my back. If I were to build a car in that position, I'd use a poured seat insert to support some of the void areas around my lower back. The way I have mine now, my butts right back and my spines straight, means I sit a little higher in the cage but it's still comfortable, just a pain to get out of in a hurry.
The firesuit deal is another complication. A -15 or 20 in these cars is hard work unless you get an expensive Simpson lightweight suit. I struggled with an RJS -15 suit for 3 season that was very bulky, very stiff and just made getting in and out of my car a chore, and I'm only 5ft 11" and 14st. I found I had to change alot of controls in the altered once I sat in it with a suit. The folds of the suit caught on various things,you could almost deploy the chute whilst getting out so I moved the lever up onto the cage.
