Original Seating, Did you eever notice..

[CSX 4027]

Did you ever notice or figure out why the original cars pictured with average size people behind the wheel seem to fit nicely and sit low in the car even with the seats on the original Leverol Seat Tracks? And the new cars Shelby or other brand) seem to sit an average size guy way too high and make him look like the car is too small for him?

Any explanations welcome..

[computerworks]

People were smaller 38 years ago.

[REDSC400]

Torso length has alot to do with how you are seen to fit in a Cobra. A guy who I work with is 5-11" however his upper body length is abnormally long and he has short stocky legs. He looks rather "large" in my ERA. His head and shoulders appear to be way above where they should be.

Whereas I am 6-0" and appear lower or not so large. My legs are long and upper body is perhaps normal for the height.

[SCOBRAC]

Most original cars had far less padding in their seat. People were smaller as well. All the Cobra race drivers were under 6' with the exception of Dan Gurney who was 6'2". You will recall he needed a special roof line in the GT (40) to get in the car with a helmet on.

I'm 6' but have a rather long torso. I use what I like to call the "cobra scrunch" driving position. It is essentially a position in which if I were to roll the car I would be able to sink below the level of the fiberglass and potentially survive a roll over crash. I would suspect anyone who thought about rolling a car like this at speed would do the same.

[misfit41]

I have wondered the same thing,,I was thinking maybe most of the pics we see are of comp cars with racing seats,,thus much thinner,otherwise I am with ya,,I wanna know,,Tim

[Cal Metal]

Ron is right. Compare the average offensive/defensive line weight of high school teams today with that of the NFL 35 years ago. Not much difference.

[RACERAL]

my wife says i look like fred flintstone in my fake cobra

[CSX 4027]

I did drive Shelby's continuation car when I first visited the small Las Vegas facility in the beginning. McClusky did make it as per original and the seats did sit me way down in the car as opposed to on the car. When I started to sit in other 4000 cars I noticed I sat way up in the car. I found the original seat bottoms were designed different than they are now and used horse hair in the cushion. The new rubber bladder and foam are not good at letting you sink in to the car so I had my 4000 seat custom made. The production 4000 seat sat too high.

[RACERAL]

I know what you are talking about. My seats were only about 2" thick. I took out the foam and made it 3" with a much dencer foam. Now they are to hard and I set on them and not in them.. back to the drawing board... When I drove Jim Maxwell's real 427 cobra, man, those seats spoiled me.. I am now searching for that feel...

[maxrpm]

It's referred to as the "Magilla Gorilla" stance

[SCOBRAC]

My photo galley has a photo of CSX 2019 the Dragonsnake Cobra prototype. The little guy working on it was the original driver Tony Stoer. Tony is about 5'1" or so in workboots.