6'5" + 260lbs + S30 + Sit LOWWW In The Car = ?

[seanof30306]

OK, so I'm REALLY wanting to do an S30 street driver.

 

As the title shows, there are a few challenged.

 

I've been kind of discouraged, but I just saw Sung Kang's 240Z on Jay Leno's Garage

 

 

I was amazed at how low they sat.  Leno is 6", and he has to crane his neck to see down the hood!

 

I solved this problem in my '89 Formula Firebird by swapping over to Fiero seat braackets.  They drop the seat about 1 1/2", and it makes a HUGE difference.

 

I solved it in my Jeep Cherokee by having a fabricator cut 2" from the front of the set brackets, and 2 1/2" out of the rear, then taking a BFH to the transmission tunnel over the transfer case.

 

I'm pretty sure it's going to be a bigger challenge in the S30.If it needs fab, or the floorboards/structre cut, that's OK.  I would prefer to have the seat still adjustable, but that's not a dealbreaker.

 

Here's the Carbon Signal driver's seat from the Fugu Z.

 

http://www.autoblog.com/article/fuguz/#slide-3786152

 

 

[seattlejester]

Looks like you are 6 inches taller then Jay. My seats are more sport seats with cushioning and I get maybe 4 inches of head room with it bolted to a plate welded to the floor. I still fear you will be quite close to the roof even if you bolted the seats straight to the floor. Those deep bucket seats might be good for a little more room.

 

Just a couple small considerations as it seems you do not have a z car at the moment.

 

A 240z will be easier to get the seat in just from the fact it doesn't have the cat hump. 

Even if the seat is low enough to fit, just be advised your knees will be quite bent and your elbows as well, my 6"2 or so friend has to sit pretty uncomfortable to drive my car, like knees bent out and elbows at 90* and out like chicken wings. 

[johnc]

Cut out the stock seat mounts and weld in two 1" x 2' x .065" wall tubes across the seat area under the floor pan.  Use those as your seat mount attachment point.  That will give you an additional 3" of cabin height.

[JMortensen]

I had a friend just out of high school who is 6'5" 265 (fat, not muscle) and he drove my Z just fine. I think the smaller 14" diameter steering wheel helped, but he actually used to talk about how much foot room there was. 

[seanof30306]

Cut out the stock seat mounts and weld in two 1" x 2' x .065" wall tubes across the seat area under the floor pan.  Use those as your seat mount attachment point.  That will give you an additional 3" of cabin height.

 

Directly mounting the seat, without sliders?

[seanof30306]

I had a friend just out of high school who is 6'5" 265 (fat, not muscle) and he drove my Z just fine. I think the smaller 14" diameter steering wheel helped, but he actually used to talk about how much foot room there was. 

 

I've driven a number of Zs, and the issue has always been headroom, not legroom.  I'm confident if I can lower the seat enough, I will be comfortable.

[seanof30306]

Looks like you are 6 inches taller then Jay. My seats are more sport seats with cushioning and I get maybe 4 inches of head room with it bolted to a plate welded to the floor. I still fear you will be quite close to the roof even if you bolted the seats straight to the floor. Those deep bucket seats might be good for a little more room.

 

 

Even if the seat is low enough to fit, just be advised your knees will be quite bent and your elbows as well, my 6"2 or so friend has to sit pretty uncomfortable to drive my car, like knees bent out and elbows at 90* and out like chicken wings. 

 

Do you have any pics of what you did?

 

I've sat in plenty of 240, 260, and 280Zs, and I didn't experience any of the problems your friend did.  I just needed more headroom.

 

In my Firebird and jeep, I learned by dropping the rear of the seat more than the front, the angle and support on the legs was much improved.  Maybe that's part of the solution here. 

[seattlejester]

I needed new floors, so I put in a frame rail and welded extensions off of that and straight to the floor. I put my seat back as far as I could and leaned back a good amount. I guess it depends on if you are lanky or not as to how your arms and legs will sit. If your floors are good I would follow John's advice, the factory seats brackets are on the higher side.

 

I wouldn't recommend doing it the way I did mine. The most height by far, but definitely a possibility the seat will just rip out a square patch in an accident if you don't have some kind of brace. And if you are building a cross brace, might as well just put two braces and use those as seat mounts as john says.

 

Sliders will raise the seats so you will have to decide if they are worth it. I'm only about 5'10 and I have my seat as far back as it could be mounted. I use the slider to get access to the bolts for the seats. I guess if you used studs welded to the seat you could get away with having to use a wrench or allen key to hold the bolt while you undo the nut.

[JMortensen]

Miatas don't have a lot of headroom either. One thing guys do there is a "foamectomy" I did this on mine, basically you cut some amount of the foam out of the seat bottom. I suppose if you're not going with stock seats you can also pick a seat with less padding too.

[johnc]

You can mount the sliders to what I mentioned above.  Just need to space them up about 1/4" so they clear the floor.

[Nelsonian]

As for the height issue I can't comment on that as I am a shorty at only 5'8" and a buck sixty, but when installing old BMW Recaro seats to the stock mounting bars, even I at my short stature was getting cramped with space. Once I got a serious game plan formed for my build, I had new mounting bars and seat brackets installed along with the new floors and frame rails. The rear bar is lower than the front. I am using a Recaro seat made for the Mitsubishi Evo 9 with the sliders intact for that seat.  

Edited March 18, 2016 by Nelsonian

[seanof30306]

As for the height issue I can't comment on that as I am a shorty at only 5'8" and a buck sixty, but when installing old BMW Recaro seats to the stock mounting bars, even I at my short stature was getting cramped with space. Once I got a serious game plan formed for my build, I had new mounting bars and seat brackets installed along with the new floors and frame rails. The rear bar is lower than the front. I am using a Recaro seat made for the Mitsubishi Evo 9 with the sliders intact for that seat.  

 

Very nice work.

 

Sitting in the mounted seat, do you feel you are lower than stock?  if so, how much lower?