First and foremost, newbie here and sorry to post on a topic (NC legroom) which I know has had a lot of previous discussion, but I couldn’t quite find an answer to my specific query.
I am currently in the market for an NC model for some weekend fun and potentially the odd track day. It will be a third car, hence going for an earlier car to save a few £££ would be beneficial.
However, I am 6’3” and unsure of whether I should be narrowing my search to a specific year (3 or 3.5), seat type or roof type in order to maximise legroom / comfort?
A local trader was kind enough to let me sit in a pre-facelift model with leather and soft top and a facelift roadster with non-leather. The findings were as follows:
The earlier car felt a bit tight leg room wise but head room was great, even with roof up. The later car felt much better in terms of leg room, but my head was rubbing the roof lining.
Would this make sense? I.e: did the later cars have a re-designed cabin for legroom or is it all down to a change in just the seat subframe? Or perhaps the seat type?
I am just wondering if another connotation such an earlier car with non leather would suit me better? Or if not, could I fit facelift seats to an earlier model to get the additional leg room? Or use a seat lowering bracket?
I’m not an expert, actually a fairly new owner so lots of people on here have much more knowledge than me about these cars, however I did a bit of research before buying.
Earlier cars had door cards that projected further into the cabin especially the cup holder against your knees. Later ones got rid of this. Also apparently the soft top is slightly lower for headroom than the prht hard top due to the design, roof support bars and potential bit of sagging in the material.
In my research the seats and cabin itself didn’t seem to be any different apart from the leather pattern/stitch design and orientation, steering wheel is up/down adjustable but not in and out. Seat is height adjustable on a lever. Lowering brackets are available from jass performance which drop the seats approx 2" but require a little modification to the back runners and removal of a little sound deadening and carpet trimming.
Hope this helps but please wait for more knowledgeable people to correct me or give more accurate advice
Just to give you an indication; i’m 185 cm tall and legroom (NC 3.5 PRHT) is “acceptable” i think the NC 1 has no height adjustement and that would make some difference too and as Dean wrote ;Jass Performance has lowering sets for all NC’s and that seems to make a world of difference.
NC1 has a lower seat height than the adjustable seat height on their lowest setting. There are 2" lowering brackets for the NC1 seats and (I think) inch and a bit for the later adjusable seats
I’m a tad under 6’ ( Adrian Mole 5’ 11" & 3/4 ) and don’t need the seat right back for leg room, to be comfortable and to have the best field of view for a “helmet required” event, I really should install the lowering brackets that arrived a few days ago.
I had the same conundrum before I bought mine. I’m 6’4” and all I can tell you is that I couldn’t fit in a NA, NB or ND. The NC - I sat in a few and in practical terms were all about the same. I just about fit in ok, my knees are up round the wheel a bit, tbh the handbrake rubbing on my knee is the only real issue but not the end of the world.
A seat lowering kit would sort it.
If it was a 2005-2007 model NC then it did not have height adjustable seats. This was introduced late 2007. Being 6’3 I feel you pain but i had several NC2 and they were all fine. Try a cloth seated one if you want even more room
the nc1 is better if you change the door cards to stop your knee fouling the cup holders and apparently its hard to put a roll bar in the PRHT
the nc2 seats are a inch higher even tho you can adjust the height in the drivers seat
both seats you can fit jass lowering brackets
if you get a nc2 and want to fit nc1 seats i have some heated leather ones i could sell you
but you should be better with any of the soft tops as long as you have later door cards
pass height brackets are not that expensive £87 for height adjustable seats and £58 for non adjustable height
the nc1 seats will drop 2.5 inches
the nc2 1.5inches
) and don’t need the seat right back for leg room, to be comfortable and to have the best field of view for a “helmet required” event, I really should install the lowering brackets that arrived a few days ago. 