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| 11-Aug-03 |
Pedal Positioning |
Pedal Positioning
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We're back from the Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, KY and raring to get back to work on the car! In fact, I've spent about 20 hours in the garage since we got back.
I posted a little article about our trip in the August 2003 Progress Editorial (the area of the site where I feel free to ramble about anything) but don't get too excited. I took very few photos this year. Most of the ones I took at the event were shots of things I thought I might find useful for this project in the future and they're not worthy of sharing, but here's one that is.
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This was taken at the SAR (Steve's Auto Restoration) booth. You'll recall that these are the guys responsible for Project33's cool hood scoop and side openings. This is their new limited edition steel 33. The way these guys can mold metal is totally unreal!
Back to the build!
There's so much to cover, where do I begin? How about the brake and throttle pedals.
I can't tell you how much time I've devoted since the start of this project to the positioning of the brake and throttle pedals - it's something I deem as high importance. I refuse to have a car that requires left foot braking or that has crowded pedals. I realize I just deeply offended a lot of "left foot brakers" but hear me out...
I measured the pedal positioning on production vehicles of all shapes, sizes and brands and will take this opportunity to pass along the data I've collected. The vast majority of cars and trucks on the road have the following pedal spacing:
- The throttle pedal usually sits between 2 and 2-1/2 inches to the right of the brake
pedal (I'm measuring from edge to edge).
- The brake pedal is usually positioned 2 to 2-1/2 inches forward of the throttle pedal.
- In most cases the top of the throttle pedal never falls below the top of the brake pedal
and the bottom of the throttle pedal never falls above the bottom of the brake pedal.
This standardization has to have a positive effect in a panic situation since the pedals are positioned roughly the same places on every vehicle. I suppose you can "get used" to another layout but you shouldn't have to. I don't want to anyway.
Armed with this information I set out to position the pedals a close to "normal" as possible for comfort and safety's sake.
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 I’m going to share this photo I took at the Nationals of a pro-built car as an example. I’m not saying this wasn’t a nice car and I won’t tell you who built it or owns it but as I was admiring it I couldn’t help but notice the pedal placement. I only wear size 8 shoes and it looked to me like I’d have a hard time driving this car without accidentally tapping the wrong pedal. Both pedals were on the same plane (the brake was not above the throttle by very much) and there was roughly an inch clearance on either side of the 1-1/2 inch wide throttle pedal. That means there was only around 3-1/2 inches between the transmission tunnel and the brake pedal. My tennis shoes measure 4-1/4 inches across at the widest part. |
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 The first order of business was to install the transmission tunnel. This was purposely removed before installing the roll cage (because I was afraid it wouldn't come back out) and needs to be trimmed on each outer corner to fit around the cage at the floor. |
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