Hi gents,

Just blown the dust off the locost after a long winter. Due to my engine/gearbox choise I have had to cut into the footwell area and I'm worried that I wont have enough room for a pedal box.

Moving the engine/gearbox is not a option as if I go any further forward the plulleys and supercharger will hit the farme. Also being 6'2" with size 12 feet may cause issues.

Has anyone else had this problem and found a way round it?

Im planning to use a floor mounted box if that helps.

Any advice appreciated.

You might have to use individual pedals rather than a box?
Or are you wanting to run adjustable brake bias in the pedal box?

In a ideal world I would like to run with adjustable bias.

Jay

You might have to look at altering the chassis where the supercharger will foul,as you can't drive a car without pedals!

And being tall with big feet it's pointless building a car that is uncomfortable for you to drive.

The pedal area is tight at the best of times,be really tight if it needs reducing.

Go for an automatic box and drop one pedal.

What sort of seat do you have? With minimum padding behind your back you can gain 3 or 4 inches (75mm - 100mm) in legroom. You would have to be creative to get a comfortable seat though!

Cheers gents,

I have 9" of room side to side against the bulkhead and 12" across slightly closer to the drivers seat (say 6" back).

Sadly the auto box wont be a option as the merc auto box is probably 20% wider than the manual that im using. I have been toying with the idea of using a rx7 gearbox but its probably beyond my skill set.

Also as for seats... I dont have any as yet, I will probably go for a pair of GRP ones though.

Jay

If you lads have a look at the 11th photo on by build thread (2.3 supercharged locost) you will see what I mean.

Jay

https://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=210912&page=1

I'll have a measure up of my pedal area when I'm next in garage to give you some idea

That would be great, much appreciated.

Jay

I've got just over 9 inches at the narrowest point at front where pedals are mounted,that's between the box section's.
So circa 11 inches total measuring right out to the panels.
Mines got individual pedals though,and I've offset the accelerator pedal to the outside to improve spacing.
I still can't drive the car with normal size shoes on,have to wear some narrow boxing style trainers similar to racing boots to avoid pressing the wrong pedals by mistake!

[Edited on 1/4/18 by CosKev3]

Thanks for that mate, will have to see what I can work out. May be a case of bending pedals to get a few cm's of space.

Jay

Unless you're hung up on a specific wheelbase, you could splice another few inches into the chassis across the cockpit.

The Tiger Avon book shows how to cut out and repair damaged chassis sections; saw the tubes at a convenient point, fabricate replacement structure, join them together by butting them up against a piece of round tubing slid inside to keep them in alignment for welding.

You could cut out the existing center spine and shift the engine and transmission over an inch or two for more room. Some production cars (Corvettes) do this.

Sometimes you can grind off various unwanted projections on the side of the transmission so you can wrap the sheet metal closer to it.

I've also seen a picture of a builder who wound up with a sheet metal box on the outside of the chassis, to make the footwell wider. Looked a bit odd, but consider, "driveable" can overlap "sucks so bad to drive it's no fun."

Another solution would be to use a manual clutch. Then you would have only two pedals in the footwell.