The trains have insufficient padding to begin with and have their grab bars too low to be useful (you can only reach them by reaching OVER the lap bar). Then for this season they raised the floor in the car in an effort to make sure that all riders are forced into a knees-bent position under the lap bar. Trouble is, it's a terribly uncomfortable position which causes your knees to bang into the grab bar (which, as already noted, is poorly positioned) and which tends to drag the rider right off the seat and tip him backwards, meaning you're sitting on the base of your spine rather than on the back of your thighs. Quite frankly, the design is a royal mess.
By comparison, the Flight of Fear train uses a similar concept, but first the seat cushion is angled rearward and downward, so you can actually sit on the (upholstered) seat rather than on the (molded and utterly useless) crotch bump). Then, instead of raising the floor, they installed the ankle bars on the lap bars to force you into a sitting position, a design which is far more tolerable even though it means more direct contact with the lap bar.
If Sonny's seats were more like the Flight of Fear seats, it would be a far more comfortable ride!
--Dave Althoff, Jr.