No one has ever come up with a reason for it that I'm aware of, but Murenas built for the Belgian market had the gearlever and choke positions swapped over bringing the the gearlver closer to the driver, or in my case bringing the gearlever under my right knee.
I'm sure it has something to do with those great Belgian beers or moules frites.
Any Belgians out there who know the real reason
I know this is an old posting but not one I've noticed before, but I have just been directed to it, by another tall person who was trying to find out if he would fit in a Murena.
First, the answer to why the Belgian cars had the gear lever closer to the driver and on the left with the choke on the right, which is the opposite to most of the cars produced, is owing to a certain regulation in Belgian law which gives a set max. dimension for the position of the gear lever from the left side - the inside of the left hand door I believe, although I haven't read this rule myself so I have not seen the actual wording. Therefore the real answer is that it was done to comply with Belgian law. There are other differences on various Murena too, to comply with German laws for instance, so there are different alloy wheels, different front lenses over the lower lights, extra protection for the fuel tank, and different wiring with additional fuses for rear lights, to meet the laws of the country a car was destined for. You need to be aware of these when buying a car in one country but then taking it to a different country as it may not comply.
As for the problem of whether a very tall driver can fit comfortably and safely drive a Murena, this will also depend on the actual person and whether they have long legs and a short torso, or short legs and a long torso, or a more equal balance of dimensions. For someone with shorter leg length the seat can be a little closer to the pedals and that allows you to recline the seat a little as it is not up against the rear bulkhead between the cabin and engine. That slight recline allows you to have a little more room to the roof to hopefully accommodate the longer torso.
If you have long legs necessitating the seat to be further back then the seat may be at the back of the fore and aft adjustment, and almost against the bulkhead, which means you cannot recline the seat back and you have to sit more upright. This might then cause the torso to be too high and the head clashes with the roof or you have to tilt your head down, and that then causes problems especially on a longer drive, as the neck will suffer and you are having to look upwards, relatively, to see forward, as you are all the time having to compensate for the head being angled down.
So with two tall people of the same height, one may find they can fit and the other cannot.
Also with regard to the seat mountings, since the front of the seat has little clearance over the cross member just below it, you cannot lower the front of the seat. The rear of the seat might be able to be lowered by modifying the rear of the seat frame/mounting but all that will do is angle the seat squab back which might give a little more space, depending on the particular tall person and just where his or her extra length is, legs or torso.
I have both an '82 (Belgian) car, which I've had from new, and an '83 (normal or French) car and have not noticed any difference in the seats between the two but next opportunity I get, I will take a look to see if there are any differences.*
Please note that when the positions of the gear lever and choke are reversed, the floor carpets also need to be slightly different to fit correctly. In a Belgian car, the drivers over-mat has to be slightly narrower and the double size passenger over mat can be wider to fit the spaces between the outer sill edge and the central oddments box sides. I found this right at the start with my new (Belgian) car as the first set of mats supplied were for a normal or French spec. Murena and they did not fit my car, in particular the drivers mat was too wide to fit. Once I bought the ones designed to fit a Belgian spec car, they were fine.
One final point, I notice that 'Krede' says he was a tight fit when he collected his car from the U.K. but that photo also shows the car had a non-standard smaller steering wheel, and that could have made a difference too, as I would suggest that with a standard wheel his bent legs may not have been able to fit as they do with that smaller wheel, which they are still touching. (my legs are almost straight and fit comfortably under the standard steering wheel which also has a flat at the bottom to ease getting in or out) He also suggests that the last cars have a lower mounting, but I don't see how as the limiting factor is the cross-member which the front of the seat only just clears.
* Update: I have now checked my two cars and the drivers seat is the same height above the cross member in both and in the position I have my seat, you cannot get your hand between the cross member and the seat, it is that close. So unless they actually lowered that cross member, there was no alteration between '82 and '83 cars.
Roy
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