Ebenezer
Member
I've long fancied owning an A2 and yesterday I went to view one. Obviously I'd done a lot of homework on the subject in advance, but as a man of 6'5" with very long legs who wears size 12-13 shoes, everything hinged on whether or not I actually fitted in the car, heightwise, widthwise and footwise.
I discovered that the driving position was fine both widthwise and heightwise and that the pedals were well-spaced enough for my long feet, but there was nevertheless a problem. If I took my left foot off the clutch pedal and let it rest in the gap to the left, the upper part of my foot found itself resting on the strut which carries the clutch pedal. Folks for whom this isn't an issue may not even be aware of of it - but instead of the strut sticking straight downwards out of the bulkhead to connect with the pedal itself, it comes in diagonally from the left. That's to say, it comes out of the bulkhead from a point to the northwest of the clutch pedal itself and extends diagonally to the southeast to the pedal.
Confronted with such an unanticipated quirk, I was unable to make a decision about buying the car, so I went away scratching my head.
Two questions, then:
(1) Does every single A2 ever made have precisely this pedal set-up?
(2) Are there any other long-footed drivers on this forum who somehow manage to live with the problem, without it impairing their enjoyment of the car? I mean, at first glance it appears an insurmountable problem: you wouldn't drive around with your left foot actually resting on the clutch pedal perpetually, so how could you drive around with your toes resting on the clutch pedal strut? And even if you tried to let your left foot simply rest against the side of the footwell when not in use, it'd eventually just lower itself down onto the clutch pedal strut, wouldn't it?
If I hadn't eaten my greens when I was a kid, I wouldn't be this tall, I wouldn't have such long feet and this wouldn't be a problem.
(NB: Please don't advise me to buy an automatic instead. I hate automatics. They're no fun and they go wrong.)
I discovered that the driving position was fine both widthwise and heightwise and that the pedals were well-spaced enough for my long feet, but there was nevertheless a problem. If I took my left foot off the clutch pedal and let it rest in the gap to the left, the upper part of my foot found itself resting on the strut which carries the clutch pedal. Folks for whom this isn't an issue may not even be aware of of it - but instead of the strut sticking straight downwards out of the bulkhead to connect with the pedal itself, it comes in diagonally from the left. That's to say, it comes out of the bulkhead from a point to the northwest of the clutch pedal itself and extends diagonally to the southeast to the pedal.
Confronted with such an unanticipated quirk, I was unable to make a decision about buying the car, so I went away scratching my head.
Two questions, then:
(1) Does every single A2 ever made have precisely this pedal set-up?
(2) Are there any other long-footed drivers on this forum who somehow manage to live with the problem, without it impairing their enjoyment of the car? I mean, at first glance it appears an insurmountable problem: you wouldn't drive around with your left foot actually resting on the clutch pedal perpetually, so how could you drive around with your toes resting on the clutch pedal strut? And even if you tried to let your left foot simply rest against the side of the footwell when not in use, it'd eventually just lower itself down onto the clutch pedal strut, wouldn't it?
If I hadn't eaten my greens when I was a kid, I wouldn't be this tall, I wouldn't have such long feet and this wouldn't be a problem.
(NB: Please don't advise me to buy an automatic instead. I hate automatics. They're no fun and they go wrong.)
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