C177: More leg room, less headroom.
The slot in the tailplane is there for a reason. The original type was stalling during high tailplane AoA manouvres so slot were added to address a tailplane stall issue. Wouldn't want the tailplane to stall while holding off 2' above the runway. That would cause a nasty chin slap onto terra firma...
B models had a different mainplane thickness too. I've flown both but it was too long ago & too littletime on either to remember a difference.