ERA/SPF question

[DanEC]

If you have big shoulders and arms you may want to try to find one to sit in. The top of door does come in pretty tight on these cars. Some who have built FFR cars (and maybe others) have actually cut and removed a bit of the roll in at the top of the door to get more upper body room. ERA will adjust the pedal spacing at your request but there's no way around that it's not roomy down there. I wear a 13M and even with my pedals spaced as far apart as they will go - I wear a set of sneakers that the soles are cut narrow and don't stick out from the upper of the shoe. Other shoes seem to catch the side of the soles on the pedals. You may want to consider a quick disconnect steering wheel too. Patrickt is all-knowing on ERA quick disconnect steering wheels and custom adjustments for fit in the cockpit.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by DanEC

Patrickt is all-knowing on ERA quick disconnect steering wheels and custom adjustments...

A lot of Patrick's all-knowingness is that he flew up to New Britain 15 years ago and left a big fat check with Peter P. Everything then turned out happily ever after.

[the shadow]

Originally Posted by DanEC

If you have big shoulders and arms you may want to try to find one to sit in. The top of door does come in pretty tight on these cars. Some who have built FFR cars (and maybe others) have actually cut and removed a bit of the roll in at the top of the door to get more upper body room. ERA will adjust the pedal spacing at your request but there's no way around that it's not roomy down there. I wear a 13M and even with my pedals spaced as far apart as they will go - I wear a set of sneakers that the soles are cut narrow and don't stick out from the upper of the shoe. Other shoes seem to catch the side of the soles on the pedals. You may want to consider a quick disconnect steering wheel too. Patrickt is all-knowing on ERA quick disconnect steering wheels and custom adjustments for fit in the cockpit.

Good info as I do have wide broad shoulders and arms, never thought of that aspect when coming to fitting. again if I could find someone with an ERA/SPf near me in southeastern PA I'd ask to sit in one. I found a SPF for sale at a high end dealership about 1.5hrs from me, I may have to make a road trip to sit in it. I hate acting like im going to buy it to do it but that one is new and out of my price range.

[patrickt]

Here's the trick when assessing a Cobra if you are a large, or in any other way unusually built, man. Take the driver's seat out of the car (it's just four bolts from underneath) and sit in the car with no seat whatsoever. That's as far as you will ever possibly be able to go. If that works for you, then you can have a nice comfortable seat made for you, that looks absolutely stock, but that holds your butt 1/8" above the floor board when it has 200 lbs. on it. You can tilt the back just enough so your arms fit nicely, but the seat still looks normal. You can angle the steering wheel so that it tilts up a bit, but your fingers still clear the cowl top when turning and it all looks right. When it comes to the pedals, they can be spaced out farther, and set back farther for fat feet and longer legs; albeit with some extra hydraulic pressure. It all can be done. When I flew up to New Britain for a "butt in seat" test Peter didn't think they could fit me, but Doug measured me from floor to knee, knee to butt cheek flattened, flattened butt cheek to shoulder, and arm length and pronounced "I can do it." Then, when he was putting the car together, he had to make a temporary "child's seat" for him and the other guys to sit in and test out the car because most of 'em couldn't reach the pedals with it configured for me. Nothing is adjustable, it's all configured for me. The car absolutely fits me like a glove and I'm 6' 4" 200 lbs. and have 12 EEE feet. It's all doable unless you're about 6' 6" and 275, I would say. I also sat in a car that was set up for a vertically challenged individual and the whole shop broke out laughing.