F50 Seat Height

Simple question.....I was just wondering if there was anything that could be done to lower the seat in the car. How do taller people manage? I either bash my head on the roof or my knees on the dash! Thanks.

 

The only thing you could do is remove the adjustable seat rails and custom make a hard mount which might give you an inch or so. Other than that, you would have to remove the standard seat and fit a thinner race seat to get you closer to the floor.
If you are much taller than 6ft 1 you would find an F50 pretty uncomfortable to drive. I have a 6ft 4 inch friend who looked like he was curled into a ball when he was in the drivers seat. No chance he could drive.

 

Sounds like the only option is to remove the top and drive in the Barchetta configuration, but that only solves half the problem.

 

thanks. I think I only need about an inch or so. I was thinking about trying to reduce the padding on the seat. Am 6'2, so it is a bit of a squeeze. Unfortunately I am not good looking enough to drive it without the roof on.

 

A good race shop should be able to help. There are a lot of things you can do. Custom seat. Lower floor under seat, move pedals forward so you can have more rake.

 

Clarkson is 6'5'' and he was able to drive it (with the roof of though).

I guess if you completely remove the seat rails and mount it on the floor you will have a couple more inches of head room.

for more leg room, fit a steering wheel spacer.

 

I had the seats out of my old car and underneath is sound insulation over the carbon tub. I am not sure I would be cutting that up myself. The pedals are supposedly adjustable (I never tried) so that might be an option.

I wouldn't cut the padding in the standard seat either. It was done to an Enzo that was here briefly and it looked VERY odd indeed. Might be hard to reverse too if you cut the original padding. Parts for F50's are starting to be harder to get.
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I remember him driving that car. I have no idea how he did it as his legs would have been wedged firmly under the dash. Interesting, maybe his height is in his torso rather than legs?

 

haha. i saw that too. always thought it wouldnt be a problem. only ever drove it without the roof on before i got it. its not a huge issue now, but just annoys me a bit. I was thinkg of getting another seat and modifying it. I dont think moving the pedals will help me, but I will def investigate that. thanks for all the help, it's greatly appreciated. car is lovely apart from that.

 

A shame supercars are designed for such little people...if and when I reach the income level needed to purchase one it will be tough to find one I can fit in (a **** hair under 6'6")

Off subject but I do hear however the koenigsegg can accomodate taller drivers...and I know for sure the murcielago can..but that's not a supercar

 

The murci was a pain. Every time i took my foot off the clutch i cancelled the left indicator signal if i was turning. made roundabouts tricky. Meant that it was a bit of a non starter unfortunately.

 

Even without cutting you could build a seat that was part of the floor as many race cars have. Basically padding that uses the tub as a bottom. A smaller diameter steering wheel also would help with knee room.
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the wheel is actually ok. Am convinced that lowering the seat would solve all my problems. I have tracked down a donor seat - just need to find someone to take a saw to it now...

 

I don't mean to get off topic, but that is a neat picture. I've never seen one with the interior taken apart.

 

The car had spent a lot of time in Paris with the roof off and the interior was in need of a refresh. All the switches, levers and door handles had gone sticky and were replaced at the same time. It was a big job.

It is interesting to see how much sound deadning material is in the tub. Ferrari had massive NVH problems during development of the car due to the hard mounted engine on rigid carbon tub. One person described sitting in the interior as "being inside a bell as it is being struck". This was part of Ferraris solution; but an F50 is still a very loud car- tons of mechanical noise, bumps and thumps transmit inside.

 

I was just reading about that same thing in an old Autocar book about the F50. People always seem to say the same thing after sitting in a running F50 for the first time. I've heard everything from "sitting inside a bell", like you stated, to "I thought the car was going to fall apart, it was so loud and shaking so much". I can't wait to experience it for myself, I've never heard responses like those for any other car.

 

I have heard that there are some spacers underneath the seat that will allow me to lower it. If this is not the case, I think I might just get a racing seat that I can hard mount directly to the floor. I still havent been able to establish if the pedals are adjustable yet either.

 

here are a couple of pics of the outside....
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Absolutely gorgeous, good luck finding a fix for the seat.