Leg room beck 550

@Captdan posted:

Folks, I'm interested in buying a replica 550, my main concern is of I will fit. I'm 6 foot 1" tall, inseam 32", and short waisted.  I do fit in my 72 vw bettle, convertible.  But, before I buy a 550 I'm looking at anyone near south lousiana that would allow me to do a fit test.  I'd really appreciate it before spending 50k.  I guess the alternative plan would be to put a hotter engine in my VW - 😀

I'm very similarly proportioned and don't fit. I'd absolutely recommend trying to sit in one before buying.

What Stan said...

I've seen Stan in one and it's a no-go, but not due to the legroom.  I have a 32-inch inseam and fit ok in one, but my torso is shorter than Stan's, whose head is above the windshield. At your height and inseam I would imagine that you are borderline.  Definitely try one on for size first.

I guess “fit” is relative. I’m 6’2” w/ a 32” inseam and although I wouldn’t complain if I had another 2” of legroom, I can comfortably drive my Spyder. Which, btw, is a Gen 1 Beck w/o the extra space in the rear bulkhead.
My new pedals probably took another 1” out of the seat back to pedal face dimension, but it’s very doable, to me.
As I’ve posted before, the only real drawback to the new pedals was losing the space to stretch my left leg out because the clutch goes in a space that would allow my foot to go all the way to the bulkhead due to the design of the VW pedal cluster.

While it’s true I probably look like a monkey humping a football, I don’t drive it because of what it looks like.

You'll fit fine for no-top driving. Yes, you'll be looking out above the windscreen, as is historically correct for a 550 Spyder.

Guys are always trying to sit lower in the car, and you can bolt the seat directly to the floor towards that goal. But the tub is only so deep, the windscreen only so high.

If you don't like the look or feel of yourself sitting in a Spyder as Dr. Komenda intended, you have two choices: buy something else, or fit a taller windshield. Which is also period-correct.

Edsnova,  good answer, and thanks for the photos.  I had a superformance AC Cobra a few years ago.  The " top" was nothing more than a pup tent. I'd probably seldom use a top anyway 👍

When you do sit in one, pay attention to where your shoulder sits in relation to the door top. In every picture Ed posted, the driver's shoulder was even with (or below) the door top. The guys in the picture with the silver and white cars the door tops are even with the napes of their necks. In every picture but the last the cars have Lexan racing windscreens - well over half of the replicas on the road use a Speedster windshield, which is quite a bit taller.

Ed's never seen me sit in a Spyder - but sitting in one, the top frame of a Speedster windshield hits me at about chin level. The door tops hit me right about the center of my biceps (halfway to my elbow).

I'd love to fit, but I don't. Erwin Komenda would have agreed with my assessment, and the assessment of anybody who's seen me try. I'd love to see 6'2" David in his Spyder. I can't imagine it.

@Stan Galat posted:

I'd love to fit, but I don't. Erwin Komenda would have agreed with my assessment, and the assessment of anybody who's seen me try. I'd love to see 6'2" David in his Spyder. I can't imagine it.

Next time I drive by a store front I’ll take a picture. I’ve thought about it before but I figured it would be a little vain.  

As for the shoulder/door frame ratio, my door is a perfect arm rest for me so I’d say the top of my door is just below arm pit level.* I don’t have seat rails so my 2” thick seat base sits on the floor.

Before I replaced it with the lexan screen, my Speedster windshield top rail was right at eye height. (Just like Carey warned me it would be when I had the install it right after I bought it)

*Pretty close to what the driver in the silver 550 in Ed’s post above.

Well.

James Dean reportedly was 5'8". It is my considered opinion that both he and Rolf Wutherich's shoulders are above the door tops in the photo above.

Just sayin'.

Stan and I have had this fight before. And of course he is correct: he does not fit.

Stan does not fit because he has a long torso, because 550 Spyders are tiny cars, and because Stan knows in his marrow that a man must sit in his vehicle, not upon it.

A vehicle should envelope his body as in a mother's embrace, cocooning him inside its steel shroud. The Platonic ideal Stan evangelizes—developed by generations of Midwestern hotrodders—is the exquisite fit of a '32 Highboy upon a high school quarterback: chopped, channeled, lowered & louvered.

It is the fit of a soldier in a pillbox, or a Sherman Battle Tank.

It's All-American.

It's also very much at odds with the reality of sports car racing in the 1950s, where even Old Ford-based contraptions required their drivers' heads to jut above the proverbial parapet.

But, as I said: if you're not comfortable in a car, it doesn't fit you. That's the bottom line. Try before you buy, for sure!

Ed,

I feel like you may have been a t-bucket man back in the day.

... or not. The windshield is too high.

And that, @Captdan, is what we call thread drift.

Mission creep. - lol 😀

.

Ed's right.

If you examine the oldest roots of organized competition in this country, drivers routinely came to grips with riding far above the parapet. Those men of steel just learned to love it:

A long time ago, I was 5'10". Now, at 59 I'm 5'9". It's all OK, though.

I have a 31" inseam. I sit shoulders IN the car. Sometimes I lay my arm on the door, but it's not really comfortable. My head rests on the headrest and my eyes look THROUGH the Speedster glass windshield. My seats are thinly padded and bolted to the floor with a 1" spacer in front raking them back a touch.

This is all done in a 2016 Vintage Motorcars 550. I do put my left foot alongside the clutch, but can only do that when I drive barefoot. I do this as often as possible(gotta take advantage of those great weather days!).

Did someone say T Bucket? ..... One of the two I built....

Smooooother than  Ed Roth @ Rat Fink, eh ? 

6'1" 230lbs (winter weight LOL) 32 inseam, and I can comfortably drive a Spyder, BUT I also realize that it is a small car so as mentioned above, fit is relative.  A gen 2 or 3 Beck will have the recess in the firewall for an added 1.5" of leg room, so you'd fit better in one of them vs. an older one.  You can also mount the seats without the sliders and add 3/4" of head room.  Other than that, the maximization of space has already been maximized...

+1 on the newer models are a little roomier. And, just to buttress what @dlearl476 posted before I hijacked:

That huge stalagmite on the upper right is aka "the scrotal intrusion," and it's a feature of early Becks and Thunder Ranch cars (I don't know if Vintage cars had them as well). It will interfere with your accelerator foot.

I cut mine out after discovering the PO (or someone) had modified my car's gas tank such that the outlet bung was in front, obviating the need for a sloped exit from the bottom back of the tank. Most builders did not.

Before:

After:

Good point Ed. One of the reason I wear driving shoes, but since I did my pedals, it’s not so big a deal.

For reference, that photo is taken from the passenger seat, with the phone about over the shifter. The pedals are shifted to the left, the Neal accelerator is about where the brake pedal is on a stock cluster. You can kind I’d see the original hole for the MC behind it. The clutch pedal is an out 1/2” to the left of the OEM.

No room to dead pedal on the left, but no interference from the scrotal bulge, either.

Thanks for the info gents.  Once more I'll ask if there are any 550 owners in South Louisiana,  Mississippi,  or Alabama that may be available to allow me a short test fit.  I've located a Beck, but I don't want buy it, have it shipped and not fit like a size 8 tennis shoes on my size 12 feet.

I had 2 Spyders in Lafayette (also my birthplace) but one was sold several years ago and the other owner moved back East.  I've asked Brad to double check the customer files and see if there are any others we know of.

Great!  Thanks 👍

Apparently Brad had already been working on this (maybe you spoke to him at the office already?) but so far just a few Speedster owners left in Louisiana best we can tell.  Trying to search parts sales to see who we may have sold parts to in Louisiana that may not have been an original client of ours but has one...