General Spyder Replica Question

Just the Perry D (that I know of) and it is rear engine like the stock bug. It sits on a full size VW chassis so plenty of room for big guy.  Dan Blocker of Bonanza had one built.

https://www.hotrod.com/article...-550-spyder-replica/

Check with Carey (@chines1) to see if he has some options to suggest.

I've seen a full WB Perry Spyder in person, it looks really odd....kinda  like a supersized Pinewood Derby car.  I agree talk to Carey he can tell you from past customer's car's (and stature) what the options are if any.

Wish I could help you, Stan. The only thing to remember is that nobody really "fits" in a Spyder. You're always kind of perched on top...

Basically, we're all like these guys.

But our cars are smaller.

Good points, Ed.

You can clearly see in this clip from the video that the factory cars (car on the right) were more compact than later replicas (car on the left), where the cockpit was enlarged for more legroom.

Also note how the replica doesn't quite capture the subtle curves of the original's fenders.

Stan needs more room in the torso area. He wants his noggin behind the windshield, not above. His Speedster is modified to fit him.

Pretty much all replica Spyders except (Anand's current build) have a 2 inch longer wheelbase than the factory cars did.

I know a couple Becks and/or Vintage Spyders were made with a lower floor where the seats go. Contact Carey and/or Greg. The only problem with that is my floor is about 5" from the ground, not sure I'd want to lower the ground clearance much.

I fit just fine in my Spyder, but I'm 5' 9" with a 32" inseam. Kinda average size. And it's definitely in, not perched on top, like an MG LOL!

My point is that no one ever fit in the Spyder with their noggin below the top of the windscreen. 

Unless the windscreen was raised.

Which was done, on occasion, in period. 

As you say, you can't take the floor down more than an inch or so without making real trouble for yourself. You can't make the seats lower than "bolt the shells directly to the floor," as you have done. 

I think what @Stan Galat wants is not a 550 Spyder kit or replica, but a reimagined Spyderesque vehicle at approximately 1:1.1 scale, so that he (or anyone) could sit down "in" the car completely and yet retain the full measure of that iconic super-low profile. I'm sure it's doable, at a price point. It might even be worth doing, given the changing market and modern expectations of what a sports car ought to do and be and look like with a person driving in it.

I know Stan dislikes looking like (in his inimitable phrase) "a circus bear riding a tricycle." Seems so undignified! So counter to the idea of the sleek new Porsche upending the racing world.

BUT: I have checked, and BEAR-ON-CHILD'S-TRIKE is exactly how every legendary driver looked in these cars, all the time, when they were raced. 

Ed, were you spying on us in Maggie Valley this year when Stan sat in Danny's car? 

Ed wrote: No one ever fit in the Spyder with their noggin below the top of the windscreen.   Well the one Spyder I redid,  I sat comfortably below the windshield frame but I had to refabricate the drivers seat some.  If there were to be only one driver,  install the seat in a fixed location directly on the floor without seat tracks.... Ta - Da!

Alan Merklin posted:

Ed wrote: No one ever fit in the Spyder with their noggin below the top of the windscreen.   Well the one Spyder I redid,  I sat comfortably below the windshield frame but I had to refabricate the drivers seat some.  If there were to be only one driver,  install the seat in a fixed location directly on the floor without seat tracks.... Ta - Da!

 

 

Well, I sit corrected then. Alan, who is somewhat shorter than Danny and Stan (and I think even me—and I'm 5-7), can indeed sit down below the screen—after appropriate mods to the seat!

Average American man in 1955 was maybe 5-8 and 160. And they still sat tall in these cars!

Average American man today is 5-10 and roughly 195.

Stan says he's what? 6-1? 

I guess the good news about the replica is that the lower-the-seat-mod is possible to do, thus making it possible for guys like Alan and me to sit way down low in there like the badass gangsters we are. It's not really possible in the real cars without removing the cross brace that the front of the seat tracks bolts to, which is not recommended.

The only way to make Stan fit in a Spyder the way Alan fit in his is to make the Spyder 20 percent larger in all dimensions. 

Perhaps an approach similar to Formula 1 cars would work.  I’m sure that you’ve all seen the aerodynamic undertray that often makes road contact, with theatrical sparking resulting.  Lowering the seat a couple of inches and then putting a similar thingy below to handle the inevitable road contact would work.  I’m certain of it.  Yeah.  🏎 😬

Ed, my seat is indeed bolted to the floor. The car fits me and my head is BELOW the windscreen. I have fabricated pedal extensions so that my 5'3" lady can also drive it. Her arms are almost as long as mine so the seating position/hand placement still works. It's just the short legs we have to deal with, specifically the clutch travel. The clutch needs to go almost all the way to the floor. 

Years ago my friend Walter drove my car and I followed him in his 911. It struck me how you couldn't even see his head in front of the headrest. He was 5'9", same as me. It's the proportions though, he had at least a 34" leg with a short torso. I'm thinking Stan has the opposite problem, short legs and LONG torso. He'd be good if we could re-make him with a shorter neck........

None of this would be so if I had a plexi screen. Then pretty much anybody would be above the screen.

What is mentioned above is about all that can be done.  We've deleted seat tracks and modified seats for a taller driver, but that is about all you get.  There is a little room between the rear "firewall" and the engine so a custom recess int he firewall may be possible also, but there are some other considerations that would have to be made along with those changes... i.e. any additional recess to the firewall would prevent engine install from that side, so you'd have to make the battery tray removable so that you could install the drivetrain from the passengers side.

We've made custom lower floors for our GTS to fit 6'6" drivers, and even cut out the bottom of the seat and made a custom bottom cushion that attaches directly to the door itself... I'm just not a fan of my a$$ being the lowest part of the car...

I'm all about (fake) authenticity and I'm still saying that requires at least one's forehead to be exposed to wind and bugs and I will die on this hill. 

edsnova posted:

I'm all about (fake) authenticity

I’m not. I want to sit IN the car, not on it. Thank you all for the input. 

@Stan Galat Give Greg at Vintage a call. He is a very tall guy and he can tell you his experience with tallness and Spyders.

Stan’s issue is the length of his torso.  I believe his inseam is only on the order of a foot or so.

I have the same problem, I don't fit.  My roadster has all sorts of mods to drive the seat back, lower, I have Recaro's so thinner, etc etc.  NO luck on this one Stan, maybe a coupe

I hear you, Ray. I'm in an IM (which sits deeper than a pan car), with Fibersteel seats and Spyder (thin) padding, mounted with the seat-base on the floor, and tipped back like I'm in a Saturn rocket. I sit behind the windshield-- I did not when the car was delivered, even though I worked at length with Henry to get his seat shells to sit as low as possible. Getting it like this took a lot of fab-work, and no small amount of money. 

I love it. My wife said it feels like being 4 years old, and not being able to see over the dashboard.

The Spyders are just so very, very cool.

Yeah, my wife complains of not being able to see over the dash ... I told her I can modify it for her but she does not really like going far in the car so we have paused on making the seat adjustment as my son is now in the drivers seat as well. Never alone for sure... _ 

If we ever go the same meet with our cars you can try my seat set up... you can have a real head rest on a long trip. " 

I put an 62-2961 EMPI vinyl seat in the passenger side for Jeanie. It is as ugly as a mud fence, and was meant to be a temporary solution for Tour de Smo 2017, but it became permanent.

She loves it. She likes it better than an E-class Merc seat. I'd make some smug comment-- but I like sitting in a $1000 bomber seat, and she's way too pretty to be riding around with an orangutan on her left-- so there's that.

Well Stan your still smitten ... that's good

IaM-Ray posted:

Well Stan your still smitten ... that's good

Have you met Jeanie?  How could he not still be smitten?

I have to say, I have not had the privelege of meeting any member of the Galat family nor seen any in pictures.  Good for Stan  

Stan, there is a guy in Arizona named Nathan that frequents Spyderclub. I seem to recall him having a lowered floor in a Thunder Ranch so he can fit. He also has a type 4 and flared fenders like Angela's car.

No more TR, so call Greg, I'm pretty sure that he has modified some cars with lower floors and pockets in the firewall. In a Vintage, there is more room as there is no torsion tube.

Carey: I have bottomed my old car when I had it sooooo low. I was going up a dirt/rutted driveway. I have not bottomed the new car as the ride height is not high but like Goldilocks: just right LOL! The old car had a huge nut between the seats. No not me! There was a large heim joint that the shifter rod slid through. That nut secured it on the bottom and hung down about an inch. I only hit that a couple times in the 40,000 miles I drove the car.

"The old car had a huge nut between the seats. No not me!"

Dang it, Danny!  You leave a perfect opportunity our there and then take it right away. 

I wasn't born yesterday, Dad.

@Stan Galat, @edsnova

Thought you fellahs might enjoy my new license plate...

:-)

Stumped...

Me too.

My thought was circus bear, but I still don’t know what that would mean.

I got nothing...

Crocs Brrrr? (Your feet get cold when you wear crocks?)

Ohhh! Tom is a big dude. Maybe it is Circus Bear. Did Jay Leno call him that? 

Crocs get you tossed out of the Harley Factory tour in Pa  

^ 

You got it, Ted!

Thought that the "circus bear riding a tricycle" discussion made it relevant.  

Hmm...  Perhaps I should have gone with "WOOKIE."

https://media.giphy.com/media/...O3pjQa5h28/giphy.gif

I think for the Spyder I might go with 4N JOB

Was also thinking something along the lines of P TEND