> 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.

I had a Fiat 850 spider too. It was my first car. I used to love it. Remember the windshield wiper pump button on the floorboard? So many people that rode in it with me believed the Italians were making rain detecting wipers back then. Oh my, so much fun.