When dreams don't come true - Miura
Discussion
Are you sure it's not that the Jota mods have reduced the cockpit size somehow? There's a lot of big, big guys who fit in Miuras. Jay Leno's no midget. I'd head over to www.ferrarichat.com and sign up and quiz Joe Sackey about the problem, he's a Miura expert like no other and I've read of ways of modifying the interior of a Miura to accomodate all sizes...
such a shame OP, but cinsole yourself with 2 things:
1] you've been successful enough in life to be able to afford such trinkets.
2] you actually [attempted to] put your money where your mouth was.
i hope you find something equally stunning, but roomier, in the near future.
1] you've been successful enough in life to be able to afford such trinkets.
2] you actually [attempted to] put your money where your mouth was.
i hope you find something equally stunning, but roomier, in the near future.
Speed addicted said:
I've wanted a Porsche 911 since I was 5. The 930, then later the 964 were exactly what I was after.
So after around 25 years I have the cash to buy and run one as a second car.
Of course I don't fit, head against roof, knees against the dash and my back is too wide for the seat. I took it out anyway to confirm that 8 minutes was long enough for things to start to cramp and there was no point in continuing.
It may be possible to make me fit by changing the drivers seat for something much lower and further back but that's a bit of a gamble and I don't want to ruin the car.
Arse.
how bloody tall are you?! I'm 6'2" with longer than average legs and there's plenty of room in a 964. So after around 25 years I have the cash to buy and run one as a second car.
Of course I don't fit, head against roof, knees against the dash and my back is too wide for the seat. I took it out anyway to confirm that 8 minutes was long enough for things to start to cramp and there was no point in continuing.
It may be possible to make me fit by changing the drivers seat for something much lower and further back but that's a bit of a gamble and I don't want to ruin the car.
Arse.
Sorry to here that story OP, a truly gutting ending to a well written post.
There is a silver lining though......
.....Buy the car to love, admire and cherish and I'll happily chauffeur you around for free upon your request.
And if any of you gits try to nick my idea, I got in first !!!
There is a silver lining though...... .....Buy the car to love, admire and cherish and I'll happily chauffeur you around for free upon your request.
And if any of you gits try to nick my idea, I got in first !!!
Um, you do know they made a convertable one yeh? Its blue and was for sale in classic and sportscar for aaagggeees. you might fit in that.
My heart bleeds for you though, i genuinely feel sorry for you! Id be heartbroken. Buy the drop top....go on....you know you want to.
Oh hang on here it is: http://www.kidston.com/kidston-cars/54/1968-Lambor...
Sorry though its been sold, but give them a call new owner may part with it. All i ask in return for the rekindling of your dream is.........one ride
Simon
My heart bleeds for you though, i genuinely feel sorry for you! Id be heartbroken. Buy the drop top....go on....you know you want to.
Oh hang on here it is: http://www.kidston.com/kidston-cars/54/1968-Lambor...
Sorry though its been sold, but give them a call new owner may part with it. All i ask in return for the rekindling of your dream is.........one ride
Simon
Thanks for posting such a great story. While it obviously finished prematurely it's good to see someone else with such passion for cars. I've been lucky enough to own several nice cars (relatively speaking) and being 5'11" has helped. When I went to try out a convertible Dodge Viper I couldn't believe it. And the noise when it started up. No carbs but 8.3 litres of free breathing V10... My experience diverged from yours at that point as I was able to take a test drive and things just got better. I'll always remember the joy of owning and driving that car
I can't believe you've been denied that fulfillment. Are you absolutely sure there's no way of safely removing the original driver's seat, storing it and having a custom one made in keeping with that beautiful car? Really hope you can make it in to a Miura!
I can't believe you've been denied that fulfillment. Are you absolutely sure there's no way of safely removing the original driver's seat, storing it and having a custom one made in keeping with that beautiful car? Really hope you can make it in to a Miura!
Buy a non-runner and mount it on the wall.
Probably better to look at than to drive anyway.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-0512lamborghi...
Gutted for you anyway, its hateful not being able to do what you want because of something you cant change. When I realised that about my eyesight and not being able to be a pilot it made me realise how bad it must be for people with disabilities.
Sure not being able to drive a Miura or for me not being able to fly for a living is gutting, but imagine not being able to walk, not being able to socialise or not being able to do the things we take for granted.
Probably better to look at than to drive anyway.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-0512lamborghi...
Gutted for you anyway, its hateful not being able to do what you want because of something you cant change. When I realised that about my eyesight and not being able to be a pilot it made me realise how bad it must be for people with disabilities.
Sure not being able to drive a Miura or for me not being able to fly for a living is gutting, but imagine not being able to walk, not being able to socialise or not being able to do the things we take for granted.
Well written piece - and I totally and utterly feel for you since I too experienced an identical situation with a Miura way back in the 80's, and have had many similarly disappointing experiences with classic exotica, summarised below :-
I was a child of the 70s and my Dad was in the car design business for a while, so I often got dragged along to everything from the Earls Court Motorshows to track days at Brands Hatch. First time a car really got under my skin was seeing a Lamborghini Bravo in mid 70's.
Next obsession was the DB5 that Connery drove in Goldfinger, but that was quickly supplanted when Bond drove an S1 Esprit in The Spy Who Loved me (1977!) and hammered home by the white Esprit Turbo in For Your Eyes Only (1981), even if I nearly cried when the anti-theft device obliterated the car and took out half the local scenery !
So, after much hard work and good fortune in the 80's I eventually got my first test drive of an Esprit Turbo in brilliant red, with gold decals and black rear slats, and it looked the mutts nutts basically …. (pic below)
However, that all nearly ended in disaster. I could only just get my feet around the pedals after shoehorning myself into the driving seat. My feet are wide and a tad large at sz 14… and during the test drive there was a panic moment when the brakes were needed pretty sharpish, and I couldn’t swap my foot onto the pedal quick enough because my kneed was jammed up against the underside of the dash, and when I did manage it with a side ways foot … I pressed pretty hard only to find we had full on brake failure, and the next few seconds were all about shooting across a T junction, and doing a left / right turn into a field through an open gate ending up amongst the cowpats. I didn’t buy it… and have had to avoid them ever since
Some time later, during the late 80s classic car boom, I too tried a Miura, and I just could NOT get in it properly at all ! It was designed for the proverbial Italian gorilla shape of very short legs, long lanky arms and a truncated torso. I don’t consider myself oddly shaped, well not much, but at 6'2 and 15 stone, I'm not exactly a freak either !
I once tracked down a Toyota 2000GT in the UK - and couldn’t even get in it, its that small
Another bad experience was trying to get my knees under the dash overhang on a De Tomaso Pantera GT5, complete with bleeding great delta wing on the back. I physically could not get my legs under the dash due to pedals being too close to seat, and very low dash underside (see more pics below). The sympathetic owner was a stocky 5'5 and had no problem during the test drive, but he drowned my sorrows with copious Gin and tonics and talked cars for hours and has become a good friend over the years.
Then there was the Ford GT40 that damned near sliced off the top inch of my head because of the weird roof / door arrangement. That drew blood and felt like it cracked my skull in half when slamming the door shut …
Finally, I went back to lusting after a DB5. But the first time I drove one it seemed to have no braking ability, and led to some scary moments until I realised I needed to start braking about half a mile before I might need to stop, or chuck an anchor out the window. The seller tried pointing out that this was entirely normal back in the day. I wasn’t buying in to that, so I had some subtle modern braking adaptations put on it.
Here's a 20 year old Top Gear Lamborghini piece - well worth seeing. More recently Top Gear had a Miura Review and had Hammond driving it - wonder why
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzIQO7HcVyg
Here's the only Lotus Esprit Turbo I've ever tried driving, 30 yr old photo -
Illustration of why GT40's can decapitate you :-
And why only people with very short legs should drive Pantera's :-
And just for the hell of it :-
And finally, this was perfect in every way :-
I was a child of the 70s and my Dad was in the car design business for a while, so I often got dragged along to everything from the Earls Court Motorshows to track days at Brands Hatch. First time a car really got under my skin was seeing a Lamborghini Bravo in mid 70's.
Next obsession was the DB5 that Connery drove in Goldfinger, but that was quickly supplanted when Bond drove an S1 Esprit in The Spy Who Loved me (1977!) and hammered home by the white Esprit Turbo in For Your Eyes Only (1981), even if I nearly cried when the anti-theft device obliterated the car and took out half the local scenery !
So, after much hard work and good fortune in the 80's I eventually got my first test drive of an Esprit Turbo in brilliant red, with gold decals and black rear slats, and it looked the mutts nutts basically …. (pic below)
However, that all nearly ended in disaster. I could only just get my feet around the pedals after shoehorning myself into the driving seat. My feet are wide and a tad large at sz 14… and during the test drive there was a panic moment when the brakes were needed pretty sharpish, and I couldn’t swap my foot onto the pedal quick enough because my kneed was jammed up against the underside of the dash, and when I did manage it with a side ways foot … I pressed pretty hard only to find we had full on brake failure, and the next few seconds were all about shooting across a T junction, and doing a left / right turn into a field through an open gate ending up amongst the cowpats. I didn’t buy it… and have had to avoid them ever since
Some time later, during the late 80s classic car boom, I too tried a Miura, and I just could NOT get in it properly at all ! It was designed for the proverbial Italian gorilla shape of very short legs, long lanky arms and a truncated torso. I don’t consider myself oddly shaped, well not much, but at 6'2 and 15 stone, I'm not exactly a freak either !
I once tracked down a Toyota 2000GT in the UK - and couldn’t even get in it, its that small
Another bad experience was trying to get my knees under the dash overhang on a De Tomaso Pantera GT5, complete with bleeding great delta wing on the back. I physically could not get my legs under the dash due to pedals being too close to seat, and very low dash underside (see more pics below). The sympathetic owner was a stocky 5'5 and had no problem during the test drive, but he drowned my sorrows with copious Gin and tonics and talked cars for hours and has become a good friend over the years.
Then there was the Ford GT40 that damned near sliced off the top inch of my head because of the weird roof / door arrangement. That drew blood and felt like it cracked my skull in half when slamming the door shut …
Finally, I went back to lusting after a DB5. But the first time I drove one it seemed to have no braking ability, and led to some scary moments until I realised I needed to start braking about half a mile before I might need to stop, or chuck an anchor out the window. The seller tried pointing out that this was entirely normal back in the day. I wasn’t buying in to that, so I had some subtle modern braking adaptations put on it.
Here's a 20 year old Top Gear Lamborghini piece - well worth seeing. More recently Top Gear had a Miura Review and had Hammond driving it - wonder why
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzIQO7HcVyg
Here's the only Lotus Esprit Turbo I've ever tried driving, 30 yr old photo -
Illustration of why GT40's can decapitate you :-
And why only people with very short legs should drive Pantera's :-
And just for the hell of it :-
And finally, this was perfect in every way :-
Carparticus said:
Here's a 20 year old Top Gear Lamborghini piece - well worth seeing. More recently Top Gear had a Miura Review and had Hammond driving it - wonder why
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzIQO7HcVyg
20yrs, is that all? ker-ist, is that how people dressed back then?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzIQO7HcVyg
on topic - clarkson seems to fit ok and he's not exactly slight.
shirt said:
Carparticus said:
Here's a 20 year old Top Gear Lamborghini piece - well worth seeing. More recently Top Gear had a Miura Review and had Hammond driving it - wonder why
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzIQO7HcVyg
20yrs, is that all? ker-ist, is that how people dressed back then?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzIQO7HcVyg
on topic - clarkson seems to fit ok and he's not exactly slight.
I've been looking for another more recent Miura Top Gear clip that shows him having severe problems sitting in a Miura, and massively exaggerating the ergonomic shortcomings. I think the older clip glosses over it politely. But he's a lanky 6'5 or thereabouts, so not sure how they actually slotted him in and made it look straighforward.
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