[DeTomaso] To Drop or Not to Drop
jderyke at aol.com
jderyke at aol.com
Wed Apr 28 20:32:52 EDT 2021
I tend to agree with the don't-cut folks. I'm 6'2" and by simply and cheaply modifying the stock (early) seat back-rake angle, I always had plenty of headroom even when wearing a helmet. Plus, I shared the car with a 5'2" wife who obviously did not need a dropped floor, so it would have forced us to carry some sort of booster aboard a rather small street car. The adjustable-rake seat(s) make getting either of us comfortable a few seconds adjustment in either seat- even while on the road.
Cutting the floor often means you lose fore-&-aft seat adjustment for pedal position as well. If so, floor mods can complicate the situation with multiple drivers & pedal extensions etc. If you're the only driver, cut away (just not the floor-stiffening crossmember. The Pantera monococque is none too stiff anyway!)
-----Original Message-----
From: Garth Rodericks via DeTomaso <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
To: Mike Thomas <mbefthomas2 at gmail.com>; DeTomaso Mail List <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
Sent: Wed, Apr 28, 2021 4:39 pm
Subject: [DeTomaso] To Drop or Not to Drop
Don't do it!
From everything you've told us, you don't need to, so don't. If and
when the time comes that you need to make an adjustment for more
headroom (e.g. because of a new seat), you can modify it then. And
frankly, there are less intrusive ways to get more headroom before
going to dropped floor pans.
That's my 2-cents, and it's only worth what you paid for it! :)
-------------- original message --------------
OK, the forum has been pretty quiet lately so I'll throw this one out
there.
Doug Braun and I are both having our cars restored at the same time by
the same guy. Doug has done a dropped floor pan for more clearance
when he has a helmet on but so far I'm not planning to do a drop.
Since my car is in bare metal right now and about to go on the
rotisserie for all of the other metal work, I'm wondering if I should
reconsider while I have the opportunity. Headroom for me has always
been just `adequate' and I do have the seat springs removed from the
bottom cushion of my C4 seats so I'm basically sitting on the floor. I
don't plan to track or autocross the car so don't need helmet clearance
but it would be nice to be able to consider a seat upgrade sometime in
the future if the C4's get old.
Thoughts . . .
Thanks, Mike Thomas
Panteras Northwest
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-------------- next part --------------
I tend to agree with the don't-cut folks. I'm 6'2" and by simply and
cheaply modifying the stock (early) seat back-rake angle, I always had
plenty of headroom even when wearing a helmet. Plus, I shared the car
with a 5'2" wife who obviously did not need a dropped floor, so it
would have forced us to carry some sort of booster aboard a rather
small street car. The adjustable-rake seat(s) make getting either of us
comfortable a few seconds adjustment in either seat- even while on the
road.
Cutting the floor often means you lose fore-&-aft seat adjustment for
pedal position as well. If so, floor mods can complicate the situation
with multiple drivers & pedal extensions etc. If you're the only
driver, cut away (just not the floor-stiffening crossmember. The
Pantera monococque is none too stiff anyway!)
-----Original Message-----
From: Garth Rodericks via DeTomaso <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
To: Mike Thomas <mbefthomas2 at gmail.com>; DeTomaso Mail List
<detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
Sent: Wed, Apr 28, 2021 4:39 pm
Subject: [DeTomaso] To Drop or Not to Drop
Don't do it!
From everything you've told us, you don't need to, so don't. If and
when the time comes that you need to make an adjustment for more
headroom (e.g. because of a new seat), you can modify it then. And
frankly, there are less intrusive ways to get more headroom before
going to dropped floor pans.
That's my 2-cents, and it's only worth what you paid for it! :)
-------------- original message --------------
OK, the forum has been pretty quiet lately so I'll throw this one out
there.
Doug Braun and I are both having our cars restored at the same time
by
the same guy. Doug has done a dropped floor pan for more clearance
when he has a helmet on but so far I'm not planning to do a drop.
Since my car is in bare metal right now and about to go on the
rotisserie for all of the other metal work, I'm wondering if I should
reconsider while I have the opportunity. Headroom for me has always
been just `adequate' and I do have the seat springs removed from the
bottom cushion of my C4 seats so I'm basically sitting on the floor.
I
don't plan to track or autocross the car so don't need helmet
clearance
but it would be nice to be able to consider a seat upgrade sometime
in
the future if the C4's get old.
Thoughts . . .
Thanks, Mike Thomas
Panteras Northwest
_______________________________________________
Detomaso Email List is not managed by POCA
Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
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or approve the archiving of list messages.
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