After a week away, driving an MGB in California, I returned to find I still wasn't entirely happy with where the pedals were going to sit. Checking over the technical drawings for the Tilton reverse pedals, I realized I could get them to potentially fit the car better than the set I have. Before dropping $800 though, I printed out a full-size birds-eye-view for testing...
I contemplated cutting the areas marked in yellow...to see how much better the current pedal set I have would fit.
After playing around with it for a while, I realized that I would need to do major surgery to the heater channel in order to make the Tilton master-under-foot pedal set worth the upgrade. My next beetle will use them for sure, as I can cut the body and pan up as part of the pre-paint work. In order to cut up the Rally Bug however, I'd have to deal with the seal in between the body and pan. It's major surgery that will probably require removing body from pan. So...lets make the current pedals fit as best we can.
I cut out the metal marked in yellow...and then continued cutting, and cutting, and cutting just a little more.
Pedals are as far forward as I'll be able to get them on this car. The green tape shows where the $800 600-series pedals would be, so I'd only gain 1" on this build. On my next beetle, however, I'll be able to get the 600-series set another 4-6" further forward.
As the pedal set currently sits, the base of the gas pedal is about 1/2" forward from where the base of the factory pedal is. BUT the race pedal is vertical, which will change once the brakes are setup and bled. I'll set the throttle pedal angle to match the brake pedal under braking, so that it's easy to heel-toe. It's comfortable as it is, and should improve somewhat.
As an added bonus, I will definitely have enough space for a dead-pedal. That's a nice score.
-Dave