Around that time, a friend had a Triumph TR-4A. It was the first car I ever drove where you sat with your legs extended instead of your feet being on the floorboard. As for sound, the Jaguar XKE always sounded like a lawn mower.
> you sat with your legs extended
I had a Fiat 850 Spyder & sat exactly the same way.
As a big guy, I didn’t get in the car, I wore it.
Low to the ground ? A foot off it if not less.
Had it over 90 and passed a semi - could have driven under it with headroom to spare. All this on an 850 cc engine. Mind you, there are motorcycles with engines 3 or 4 times larger.
Put a car cassette player and amp in a custom built wood box and plugged it in when I was out driving. Had two small 4” mini speakers on the floor in front and a pair of Jenson 20 home stereo speakers on the ledge behind the rear seats where the rag-top was stored when it was down. Controls ? On and off, and volume. Sounded great.