Hey I was driving today, and my seat was all messed up. I folded the driver seat back(yesterday) to retrieve something from the back seat, and somehow the "memory" function didn't work, and it didn't return to the regular position. So in my haste, I accidentally grabbed the lever on the left to raise or lower the seat. Of course I'm doing this while I'm driving---Yes, I know a big no no.

So I'm cranking the lever, and I feel my feet gaining distance from the pedals, and I'm like wow, I thought this control only raise or lowered my seat. Anyhow, I managed to get the seat lower to the floor, and suddenly, I felt FASTER! Ok, it must be purely psychological, but suddenly my steering wheel wasn't blocking my speedo (I have the nav), and the feel of the steering, my position within the space of the MINI, felt different. Nicer I think. More of the go cart like feeling.

So here's the question, I think it's better, but in the context of proper driving position, how do you adjust for up and down?

 

I keep keep mine set all the way down (until it starts creaking again and I have to change the position slightly to shut it up for a while!)

I think it's all about your particular body geometry. When you adjust the "height" you're really adjusting the angle of the seat bottom. If you have relatively long legs and short arms (like me) then angling it back will better support your thighs as they will be bent slightly to maintain a proper distance from the wheel. If you are more normally proportioned and you can extend your legs more fully, then you can probably angle it forward a bit as your knees will be lower.

Whatever feels right (and fast!)

 

Count me in the Seat-All-The-Way-Down-Club. Comfortable and more fun to drive. But ya gotta crank it back up if you've a passenger in the back.

God speed.

 

Keep crankin' boys, you'll eventually turn those MINIs into Lotus Elans.

 

>>Lower seating position almost always "feels" faster, but only your stopwatch will know fer sure.

 

I also keep mine all the way down. I agree with XAlfa that it makes the seat bottom tilt back a little more which gives more support under the thighs.

 

Oh ya...mine is always faster when I wear my black socks.

 

It feels REALLY fast if you close your eyes.

 

>>Oh ya...mine is always faster when I wear my black socks.
>>
>>


Motor Naked!

 

>>Motor Naked!




Blindfolded with your hair on fire!

 

It should feel faster. I know this is an extreme example, but think about looking out the window of a plane. It doesn't exactly look like things are zipping by due to distance. The same principle applies here, it's just more subtle.

 

When I was a teen, I learned the Italian style - arms out, legs stretched. It was the sportscar stance. (Many)Years later I took the Bragg-Smith Advanced Driving school. The first thing they do is teach you how to sit in the car and set the seat. "Hey man, I've been driving for a good long time now, don't tell me how to sit in the car. I just wanna drive it fast on your hot little desert track." Yeah, well exactly. That's what they try to teach too. And it starts with a radically different driving position. Much closer to the wheel with the angle of the front seat really elevated in relationship to the rear of the seat. Also the steering wheel is set up higher, so that the wheel is more tilted than flat. If you've ever seen a Nascar video, you see the driver's arms are much more bent than straight. At first it feels very akward. But, after a couple hours on the track it's benefits become clear-- Better thigh support for repeated clutching and braking with little fatigue; much more precise wheel control, and better lower back support.
And finally (and related to this thread) they remove some of the stuffing out of the seat cushions so that you're sitting IN the seat, rather than ON the seat. It's more than psychological, it's physical. You are planted more firmly and thus are better centered in relationship to the wheel. tach, and pedals.

So yeah, maybe you really are going fast

 

Thanks Everyone! I enjoyed reading your comments. Guess I'm not alone!

 

It is not that you are actually feeling faster, but the car does go faster. It is based somewhat on the theory of relativity and gravitational forces. As you are driving in a straight line down the road, you are actually driving in an arc shape, since the earth is really a sphere. The farther you are from the center of the earth, which is the center of the sphere, the slower you will be moving. As you move away from the center of the sphere (earth), you begin to slow down. This is because you are actually covering more distance at the same acceleration point. Therefore by moving you seat down, even though it is a little, you can actually shave a few tenths of a second off your 0-60 times. Most people are trying to trim weight off the car, add horsepower, decrease the weight of the vehicle, but none of us physicists ever mention this little scenario. It has been proven in lots of lab tests and has been written up in various peer reviewed journals. I did part of my doctrinal dissertation on this phenomenon. Go out and measure it and you will see!

 

After reading that and before you flame me, just wanted to indicate that this is was a joke and I was just having fun. Actually, I lower my seat as well and I like it.

 

I remember my first experience in a Classic Mini back in 1965. With an almost non-existent bonnet and a pretty low driving position (I was a passenger back then) the vision of the road disappearing under the car made everything feel soooo much faster.

Later in life my first experience on a shifter gocart gave me the same feeling. At 70mph it was like doing 200

And so, yes, I guess based on these experiences you would 'feel' faster, but it is purely phsycological IMHO.

 

>>I remember my first experience in a Classic Mini back in 1965.

I remember my first experience in a Classic Mini too!
I was 17, she was a 22 year old nurse.....

 

So was it faster the lower you get?

 

Just as I said. Drive Naked. Use Traction Control.

 

I drive with my seat low too, it just feels more comfy...my cousin has an integra and its lowered, that feels really fast

 

I have the seat all the way down by default for headroom reasons. So, that would put my MINI in 'fast mode' by default as well.

Imagine how fast the car would go if you sat on your head!

 

I'm a seat-to-the-bottom (the car's floor) type as well.

For the record, the airplane analogy is pretty good. Pilots of 747s had to get special training for, get this, taxing them. Seems they sat so far up above the ground, they didn't get the visual clues that subconciously measured speed for them. So they'd race around the tarmac in the simulators, and kept generating simulated damage to the landing gear from cornering too fast.

Same thing applies to driving a go-kart (or a Mini). Put your nose 2' 1/2" above ground level and 45 mph starts looking awful fast. Makes you really appreciate the rush the Winter Olympic Luge (sp?) types must experience.

And in regards to relativity, (stop groaning!), I think the professor got it backwards. To an external observer, time seems to slow down as you get closer to a massive object (lower your seat closer to the earth), so you'd actually seem to go slightly slower when driving the car at or below sea-level, as seen by a guy on a nearby mountain. But any speedos or timers you had with you down there would run slower as well. Argh, why am I bothering?

Oh, finally about the "sat on your head" thing. Anyone else notice the California plates on the mini that read S INIW?

 

Many of the sportiest cars have extremely low driving positions. So you can enjoy the close to the ground sensation of speed by adjusting your driving position. In theory any seat replacement or adjustment to lower you, or lower the car itself- lower smaller diameter tires (by a little and not to go down too much on the load ratings), lowered springs or coil overs, or slighly lower tire pressure-just a tad.

You'll feel faster. Enjoy.