Seating comfort and legroom for tall drivers

Especially for tall/large drivers, who cannot sit comfortably in their classic car, EZ Power Steering has the following solutions.

We can offer you eccentric hubs for many car models.

These solutions offer drivers, who cannot drive with a large, original steering wheel, the possibility of finding a comfortable seating position while driving. These enthusiasts will also appreciate the excellent view of their dashboard and easier entry and exit in their cars.

You can achieve all this without having to install an extremely small and modern steering wheel that does not fit your car at all. A sport handlebar, which would not be to the liking of race judges either.

Eccentric hubs

An eccentric hub lifts the steering wheel relative to the center of the steering shaft. This gives you two advantages:

• more leg room and seating comfort and
• a better view of the counters.

If you combine an eccentric hub with a smaller steering wheel, you get even more legroom while your view of the dashboard remains unchanged. What many don’t know is that cars such as the Porsche 911 Carrera and the Ferrari 328 were already delivered from the factory with a steering wheel with an eccentric hub.

EZ Power Steering often sees these cars being retrofitted with a smaller steering wheel without an eccentric hub. This does not provide any extra legroom compared to the larger original steering wheel, while the upper edge of the steering wheel limits the view of the counters. This is because it is mounted without an eccentric hub.

To clarify:

An original Porsche steering wheel with eccentric hub has a diameter of 38 cm.

If this is replaced by a 36 cm diameter steering wheel without an eccentric hub, the legroom remains unchanged (2 cm less diameter typically means 1 cm more legroom at the bottom, but precisely because there is no eccentric hub, the steering wheel is not lifted by 1 cm like the original steering wheel, which is mounted with an eccentric hub. The distance to your legs remains unchanged). In addition, the upper edge of the steering wheel will be lower (1 cm less diameter and 1 cm lower position due to the absence of the eccentric hub means a full 2 cm less view of the counters…).

Steering wheels with eccentric mounting

In some cases it is simply technically or aesthetically impossible, to achieve a satisfactory end result with a separate eccentric hub. As an alternative, EZ Power Steering produces steering wheels with an eccentric mount, which has the same effect. The layout of these steering wheels is minimally modified to camouflage the effect of the eccentric mounting. In the case of the Corvette C1 of the sketch below, the lower, vertical spoke is minutely shorter than the two horizontal spokes.

Again, this is not noticeable because the holes in this spoke are a slightly smaller diameter than those in the horizontal spokes.

Steering wheels with a flattened bottom

For extremely tall/large drivers, who have lost their hearts to a classic car with very limited space (e.g. Jaguar XL 120), EZ Power Steering developed classic steering wheels with a flattened underside.

These steering wheels, which are often found in modern cars such as Audi, were actually already an innovation in the 1950s. In the Le Mans race cars of the time, drivers needed a large steering wheel for leverage on its heavy and direct steering.

Drivers also had to be able, after the then “running start,” to quickly jump into the car. This type of steering wheel greatly simplified getting in and out of a car. Of course, the rounded top of the steering wheel reaches the driver’s legs during the complete spin, but usually, the steering wheel is in the straight-ahead position where it provides maximum space in a cramped cockpit.

We have some long-time customers who, thanks to this special steering wheel, were able to buy a classic car that they would never have been able to drive otherwise!