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I'm also about 6'2" and found a solution on this board (may still be in the archives) that's easier than taking out the seat tracks (screws often VERY hard to remove.) Took me about 15 minutes and cost maybe two bucks. Here's what you do:
-- Take out the driver's seat by sliding it all the way forward and lifting it out.
-- Turn over the seat so it's bottom-up. You'll notice that it consists of a tubular base onto which the fiberglass shell is bolted via metal tabs molded into the shell.
-- Take out the bolts that hold the two front tabs. If you turn the seat over and sit on it, you'll find that you can rock back (gently) to "recline" it up to about an inch. Determine what amount of "recline" is most comfortable for you.
-- Now it's off to the hardware store to buy some "mending plates." These are flat strips of steel with holes in them. You'll probably need the shortest ones they make. (I bought four -- two per side, for extra strength.) Also get some bolts, nuts and lockwashers to match the holes.
-- Hardware in hand, turn the seat bottom-up again, lift the tubular base away from the molded-in tabs, and bolt in the mending plates so they act as spacers between the base and the tabs.
Your seat is now semi-permanently reclined at a greater angle. Put it back in the car and you'll find you now have just that little bit more headroom that makes all the difference. If you find you've overdone it to the point that your thighs are too close to the steering wheel, try again using a different set of holes in the mending plates to lower the seat a bit.
I found this really helped a lot in my enjoyment of the car for normal driving. For autocrossing, though, it's still a scrunch to fit my crash-helmeted head in, so this spring I may look and see if there's anything that can be done to lower the seat at the back, since I think I've already raised it at the front as much as is practical.
(PS -- Satch Carlson wrote on the VSAAB mailing list about some rich wildman in Alaska who currently is having a rally Sonett built and is dealing with this problem via a custom fabricated floorpan that drops the whole seating area a couple of inches. This is probably the ultimate headroom solution, although it would make my butt feel a bit jeopardized via low ground clearance unless I also was going to raise the suspension, as you'd probably do anyway in a rally car.)
(PPS -- I suppose you also could approach the problem from the other end by cutting a hole in the fiberglass roof and fairing in a "head blister," like the one on the Gurney-Foyt Ford GT40 LeMans car, where they had to install a roof bulge to clear Foyt's Texas-size noggin...)
posted by 204.76.1...
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