I will have a pair in there for racing but what is your thoughts in general about seat belts in Roadsters safe or not
the way i see it, if you have a seat belt and no rollbar, and it flips over, your in some trouble(to be honest, your probably in trouble either way, seat belt or not). but if you have a rollbar, its silly not to have them.
Roll over, no help..but if you got smacked from the side or from the back they might come in handy. I also found on mine, you go over a pretty good size bump and a pretty good speed, they'll keep you in the seat. Learned that one the hard way. Many years ago I had another roadster and if I'd had belts in it, I wouldn't walk a little lop sided now. I got thrown out when the road curved and I didn't. and got broken up inside pretty good. The roadster stayed up right. It's not going to hurt a thing to have them in. And use them!!!!
My oppinion is MOST rollbars that actually are STRUCTURALLY FUNCTIONAL usually look like **** in early cars. Many give a false sense of security. The seatbelts still help in a collision that doesn't involve a rollover, but me personally if god wants to take me out that way, his choice, but damn, so much easier to kill me with other stupid things I do. Like that lunatic that chased me down the streets of Austin after I had "borrowed" his cardboard and called me "****er".
How many cars have you EVER seen flipped over? Think of every accident you've seen, and now think about how many of them rolled or landed on their roof. Chances are, we've all seen cars being cleaned up from accidents...maybe even hundreds of them; everything from fender benders to bad collisions. Cars that flipped or rolled over? Not nearly that many. So, with that in mind, I'll biefly tell you about the girl I saw fly out the T-top of a '79 Camaro when it broadsided another car: She flew out the T-top of a '79 Camaro when it broadsided another car. Not much else to tell. It's odd to see a human body fly through the air when the vehicle it was traveling in comes to a sudden and abrupt halt. Seat belts kept the other three people in the car. She live, but easily wouldn't have had she hit a tree, telephone pole, or landed on her neck or a fence post. Like the kid my dad went to highschool with who was riding on the center hump of an early Corvette when his buddy hit something. That's gotta hurt...for a second. And then there was the volkswagon Beetle that my dad pulled out in front of in his brand spankin' new '66 Charger. The guy riding in the back seat of the Beetle was bigger than my dad (6'0" and wrestled Heavyweight in highschool that year). The back seat p***enger squirted between the two front seats, thru the windshield and cleared the hood of the VW and the front end of the Charger they just hit, and landed about 10 feet down the road on the other side of the Charger. How does a big guy like that fit through the windshield of a Beetle? Easy--the Beetle came to a very sudden and abrupt halt, and he kept moving. Just like you will when some ditz talking on her cell phone and putting her make-up on pulls out in front of you. Every car should have seat belts. It keeps you in the car in the event of a collision. Chances are VERY unlikely that you'll ever be involved in an accident that flips your car. But they're very good that you'll be involved in a minor accident of some sort. Brad
Doesn't matter WHAT type of car, I always wear a seatbelt and won't ride in a car without one. Roadstar put one in his roadster the minute we started dating and I let my feelings be known regarding them . His new one will also have seatbelts....I want my **** planted firmly in the seat at all times.
Listen to the cl*** genius (Denise). I have been known to ride in other people's cars that don't have safety belts, but all mine have them.
if you got a roadster and you don't want seatbelts you should prolly wear a helmet and some leathers. nice gloves and some heavy boots too.
Seatbelts are for sissys.....be a man and show some cl*** while flying through the air in the direction of a tree.
Did say it can't happen. But how many accidents to you see with the car going over? 1 in 4? 1 in 5? 10? 20? Hell, going to Maxton earlier this month, Boy Wonder and I saw 5 bad accidents on Thursday, and not one had a car on the side or roof. You're much, much more likely to have a fender bender or accident where the car DOESN'T flip, and that's the one you should plan for; not the 1-in-whatever chance the car is going to flip. -Brad
Seatbelts and rollbars. There are three sets of seatbelts in my 32. The center one tucks back under the seat when not in use. Very handy when that second kid wants to go along. I've seen a few cars on their tops and put one on it's side my own self . . . course, I was only 14 and driving without a license so it doesn't count. Worse rollover I ever saw was a brand new 54 Buick Century convertible. It had the top and windshield wiped off down to the ****pit rails. Two dead in that one. We used to have a bad curve on the two-laner outside the power station where I worked. Saw two deputy sheriffs - who shoulda known better - not wearing seat belts get in single car wrecks and die a couple of hours later. Saw several other wrecks out there that looked very survivable except the occupants were lying dead in the street. One, a slightly angled head on had the two occupants sail out through the closed windows of a 62 Ford two door. Driver went through the p***enger window and the p***enger went out the back window. Folks in the other car - wearing seatbelts - survived with the worst injury being a broken leg. Granted, not a helluva lot of protection in a roadster, but you can improve things. Along with the seatbelts install a roll bar. It's just another engineering exercise and you can make them look good. A roll bar could help keep the offending car in a side impact or even a really hard rear impact crash out of a roadsters ****pit area. Yeah . . . I know some of you are thinking, "in a crash like that you're gonna die anyway." Not true, a lot of people have walked away from what looked to be a totally unsurvivable wreck. The 32's roll bar shown in the pic is 2 1/2" x 120 wall tubing. A four pointer, it's bolted to reinforcing pads inside the frame rails. It's a little tall for good looks, but I'm looking for a place to hide in case the car goes over rather than a trick looking accessory that won't do anything for you. Height doesn't really impinge on the looks with the top up - which it is most times so that's a bit of a moot point. The 32's roll bar, with it's larger diameter tubing should fare reasonably well. In the good ol daze the smaller diameter tubing roll bars did pretty good in drag racing and even the lakes when the cars went over. The roadsters we build are based on race cars and a roll bar fits into the scheme of things very nicely.
This was in responce to a post last week about an accident in Ga. It was a gentleman in a t bucket on Browns Bridge Road just before it crosses over lake lanier. It appears that he dropped a wheel off the road and over corrected. The car flipped several times and he was thrown from the vehicle. He was air lifted to the hospital but did not survive. It can happen,,, When I was an my mid teens I rolled a 54 ford in the middle of main street when an elderly lady pulled out in front of me taking both lanes from a side street. I tried to dodge her and I drove up a telephone pole guide wire,,,,did my Joey Chittwood thrill show roll over,,,no seat belt but lucky to escape with a few well place cuts and s****es,,,not to mention a black eye,, The point i'm trying to make,,,it's up to the guy that owns the car,,,, I have them in my roadster,,,,HRP
I will always have seat belts in any car I own. I was in a roll over accident once and we rolled three times, each time landing on the drivers side. We would pop into the air,flip,land on drivers side,pop,flip,land on drivers side,etc. I saw an accident where a ten year old kid was in a vette and wasn't wearing a seat belt. The vette hit a Toyota pickup head on and the kid shot through the roof and landed 30 feet from the car. He hit the ground soo hard that it popped his brain from out of his skull.
Very very good post Brad. Excellent points. You rarely see cars flipped over, but I've seen people fly-the-hell out of a car. It's simple physics. Seat belts are better than nothing 99 percent of the time. And either way you look at it, a roadster is safer than a motorcycle. Another thing to think about, most of these 60 or 70 year old cars, particularly the early models that have been upgraded with a v8 drivetrain etc, aren't going to have their roof hold up too well in a rollover anyway. 60 year old sheetmetal and a bottom half that's a lot heavier, plus a car that wasn't designed with the technology of today...
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