sitting in f1/road car

[tomislavp4]

Does anyone knows can you make the seat of a road car low as in a f1 car? Would it be street legal or no? What do you think guys?

[DaveKillens]

Yea, it can be done, but you would be looking at the footwell. Lowering the center of gravity is important, and since a driver's mass is considerable, it contributes to performance. But a Formula One driver's eyes are about the same height of the front wheel. Since the wheel's diameter is maximum 640 mm, then the eyes are located approximately the same height. Two feet from your arse to your eyeballs.

[tomislavp4]

I´m wondering, why don´t they do it? I mean Ferarri, Lambo, Koenigsegg, Bugatti....

[Tom]

Because the ride would be so utterly crap, your ass would be rubbing on the ground even on the smoothest country road.

[RH1300S]

I think the answer is simple common sense.

The height of the driver will have a relatively neglible effect on the cars performance just as long as he is reasonably low.

For normal road use there is a bigger gain in sitting a little higher up - you can see further and will therefore be able to travel quicker and more safely (believe me, my car is incredibly low and even undualtions force you to lift a bit until you are sure there is nothing hidden).

Even if they chose to let the driver sit that far down, because a road going car needs some suspension travel (otherwise that would also slow it down) the visual blockage of the wheels would be even worse than in an F1 car making it even harder to see.

The driver's percentage of the car's overall mass is far less in the cars you mention, so the impact on the CofG is relatively less. They will probably get back more overall performance by concentrating on maximising the whole package to deal effectively with normal road conditions.

Hands up Porsche (I'm not a fan, but.........) here is a company that produces real world cars that are still devastatingly quick in all conditions.

All in all - getting the occupants low down is a good thing - but only to the point where the seating position does not actually detract from the cars usability.

And I'm avoiding mentioning the fact that they need to make cars that rich middle aged men can actually get in and out of with reasonable grace

Don't underestimate the importance of a good view - look at rally cars - the co-driver tends to sit lower than the driver (he doesn't need to see much) - but there's a big clue when they chose not to sit the driver down low too...........

[tomislavp4]

Ok but the supercars aren´t about comfort, if you want comfort buy youself a limousine! It doesn´t need to be as low as an f1 car but it can be close, let´s say 4 to 8cm higher then f1. It´s still going to be lower then ordinary car.

[Tom]

Saddly supercars are about comfort now, its not speed enthusiasts that buy them anymore, but instead wealthy people who want to appear fast by driving one.

Anyway if you want a car like that you might aswell buy a track car like an Atom, or Radical.

[tomislavp4]

Yeah i supose that´s right the best example is the McLaren Mercedes slr

[RH1300S]

Not sure where this thread is going.............

If you now agree that it can't be as low as a Formula car - then it comes back to making the seating position as low as is sensible. Which, you will find all the above manufacturers address in one way or another.

Personal experience - a quick bit of guestimation tells me that my eye level is about 950mm from the road in my car. My seat places my bum almost on the floor and the pedals are a little higher (almost f1 stylee ). My steering wheel is almost in my lap. If my seat was reclined any more (ignore the bodywork) - then I would be looking through my wheel. My backside can't really be much lower otherwise I would have no seat and/or the car would be too low to get over the smallest hump.

Eyeline around 850/900mm is probably about as low as you could go (measure 850/900mm aqainst the door of your car )