Subject: LRO: Re: Series driver height.

From: "C. Marin Faure" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 14:00:27 -0700

Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 07:22:17 -1000
From: "Hope Peter" <[email-masked]>
Subject: LRO: Series driver height.

>> a vehicle that also FITS people who are taller than 5'7".

>Hmm, I am 5-11.  Kevin, Steve, Bryan, Mike,  and James are all about my
height.  Peter S. and Robert are about an inch taller.  Dave is 6-2 and Tom
is up there somewhere.  Only met Peter O once and don't remember but bet
he's over the 5-7 limit.

I'm 6-3, and have no difficulty fitting into the front seats of my SIII-88.
My problem is that my upper body is taller than "normal."  While I still
have plenty of headroom in the Series, the top of the windscreen limits my
upper vision.  So I have to duck down (or look at the reflection on the
wing) to see overhead traffic lights if I'm first in line.  Someone my
height but with their height more proportionally distributed would not have
this problem.  When I took my Land Rover to the Yukon back in 1977, a good
friend went with me, and he's a very thin 6-6.  However, much of his height
is in his legs.   But he also fit just fine in the passenger and driver's
seat, and in fact was even able to wear the Stetson hat he likes to wear on
these trips.  He probably would have liked a bit more legroom, but he
didn't complain.  I feel  more cramped in the front seats of another
friend's Jeep Grand Cherokee than I do in my Series.

I do wish the  windscreen was taller by a few inches, though.  I wanted to
fit a sunshade after I bought the vehicle, but I didn't because I didn't
want to restrict my forward vision even more.  I've thought about lowering
the seats a bit, but that looks like too much work.  That's one advantage
of the Defender's one-piece screen.  It's a few inches higher, and gives me
better upward vision.  However, everything I've read and been told by
people with a lot of Defender experience is the Defender's windscreen is
far weaker than the Series, and more often than not collapses in a rollover
accident   I read this in a UK police report a few years back; the
conclusion was that they see more people injured or killed in Defender
accidents where the vehicle rolls over than in similar Series accidents as
a result of the roof crushing down over the front seats.  Of course, speeds
are higher today, which accounts for some of this, and a slow-motion
rollover on a trail probably won't result in a roof collapse in a Defender.
But according to this report (and to a friend of mine who has a commercial
vehicle hire company in the UK), the Defender's roof and windscreen frame
are pretty weak, and offer little protection in the event of a severe
rollover.

But that's another topic.  The point is, I've never found the Series to be
a cramped vehicle despite my 6-3 height and greater-than-it-should-be
weight.

________________________
C. Marin Faure
  (original owner)
  1973 Land Rover Series III-88
  1991 Range Rover Vogue SE
   Seattle, WA