50's or 60's Car for 6'2" Driver

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mr rusty
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Location: Harlow, the birthplace of fibreoptic communication, as the town sign says.

Re: 50's or 60's Car for 6'2" Driver

#11 Post by mr rusty »

All small-chassis Triumphs, I.e the Herald/Vitesse, Spitfire/GT6 come with a steering column with a huge amount of fore-aft adjustment, meaning g that they can easily accommodate someone of 6'2", I am, and with the column adjusted out I have plenty of room in the Vitesse.
1968 Triumph Vitesse Mk1 2 litre convertible, Junior Miss rusty has a 1989 998cc Mk2 Metro, Mrs Rusty has a modern common rail diesel thing.
ampwhu
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Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 5:47 pm

Re: 50's or 60's Car for 6'2" Driver

#12 Post by ampwhu »

I'm 6"3 and fit into my A30 easily. I have around 4/5" above my head still.
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JPB
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Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:24 pm

Re: 50's or 60's Car for 6'2" Driver

#13 Post by JPB »

ampwhu wrote:I'm 6"3 and fit into my A30 easily. I have around 4/5" above my head still.
That's aged Pirelli webbing for you. I found suitable replacement stuff (for my Volvo 144DL's seats) from a supplier of furniture repair materials, but I've also heard of folk adapting mini seat diaphragms to do the job just as effectively. Lengths of 2mm welding rods are ideal for making new clips and the ends of the straps, where they're folded round the clips, can be attached with small machine screws and locknuts if you don't have a suitable rivet gun.
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:
DRH92
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Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:20 pm

Re: 50's or 60's Car for 6'2" Driver

#14 Post by DRH92 »

Thanks for the advice everyone :thumbs: A local classic club are having a meeting on Sunday so I will try to pop along and attempt to convince the owners to let me sit inside any "bucket list" motors that may be there. If not there's the Woburn Abbey and Chiltern Hills shows local to me next month.

-Dan.
Fatbloke
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Location: Royal Wootton Bassett

Re: 50's or 60's Car for 6'2" Driver

#15 Post by Fatbloke »

Good luck and enjoy.

I'm sure most would be happy to let you sit in their classic as long as you ask, are reasonably clean and free of sharp objects and let them prattle on for hours about their pride and joy.

I would be. :)
Mike.

A Fatbloke in a Herald
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Martin Evans
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Re: 50's or 60's Car for 6'2" Driver

#16 Post by Martin Evans »

MGBs have lots of legroom. I am 6'0 tall and in the Midget, my seast is right back but in the MGB, it's nowhere near right back. We don't have open MGBs in the family and the windscreen is higher on the GT, so you might have more headroom in a GT, although the roof of the GT slopes down towards the back, whereas the hood, of an open car, slopes up from the screen. As to spares, I don't think you will better an MGB and they are every easy to work on, with loads of room around the engine. It's popular for people to knock them and yes, by 1980, they were a little long in the tooth but that doesn't mean they were no good (They had a number of successes in motorsport, during the 1960s). My mother runs a 1978 GT and it's a very pleasant car to drive. The later ('76 on) rubber bumper cars handled better than the first rubber bumper cars and the handling is predictable, whilst the ride quality is good (It's more comfortable than my V8). It's not very quick but it delivers an adequate performance effortlessly. It's quite practical too, for two people.

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MG Midget 1500, MGB GT V8, Morris Minor Traveller 1275, MG Midget 1275 & too many bicycles.
Fatbloke
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Location: Royal Wootton Bassett

Re: 50's or 60's Car for 6'2" Driver

#17 Post by Fatbloke »

mr rusty wrote:All small-chassis Triumphs, I.e the Herald/Vitesse, Spitfire/GT6 come with a steering column with a huge amount of fore-aft adjustment, meaning g that they can easily accommodate someone of 6'2", I am, and with the column adjusted out I have plenty of room in the Vitesse.
They Do??? How do I adjust mine then? (Might need to push it away from me soon!! :oops: )
Mike.

A Fatbloke in a Herald
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