We must be of similar 'tubby' dimensions! I am also VERY long in the body and similarly short in the leg and that compounds the proiblem.
You CAN get lower:-
1) Get a laydown-seat 2) Rotate the seat FURTHER and move it forward, then add steering wheel extensions. In my day, these were black disks about 1 inch thick (like an ice-hockey-puck) with 3 holes which mount between the steering wheel and the column. I used as many as THREE of these with a dished-wheel. That got the weight nice and low. By GOD, it used to hurt the neck on a long race and could nake breathing really hard! BUT.... it cured the hoppping without loss of grip..... it also improved the aero-dynamic drag (I suspect).
I am NOT having a go at 'fatties' as **I** am one but it holds the key to this problem. If you can't expand the wheelbase (extended hubs? more offset wheels?) because you are at max-legal width, then you MUST reduce the CofG ...... or lose WEIGHT!.
On the wider subject, I think you have identified the probelm yourself: if you were 'smaller' you COULD get the CofG lower and, if that WILL cure it..... it's not too much grip but too high CofG.... isn't it? Yes...... reducing the rear grip WILL prevent hopping in exactly the same way they you don't get hopping on slick on a wet day...... BUT..... do you WANT to race with wet-grip levels on a dry day???? How much ground clearance do you have. We used to run at 1cm (loaded with me in the seat) but we DID steel-plate the underside of the seat. Simply pop-rivet a 'plank' of curved steel FIRMLY to the underside of the seat making CERTAIN that it wraps all the way UP to the front lip of the seat. This makes CERTAIN it's a 'ski-ramp' and it can't get caught on a kerb and 'tear-back'. Raise it well up the rear of the seat too. Ideally wrap it up the sides as far as you can, too: you do NOT want it to 'catch' on a kerb no matter WHAT direction you leave the track....
Ian
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