Unless your 100% confident with your machine you should NEVER underestimate them. I stupidly floored my 74 Gremlin drag car and literally was going sideways and nearly took it through a house as I was swaying trying to wrench control of it and thanfully it had a kill switch.Now I cruise the car when its on the streets and save the burnouts for the track.
In my '28 Dodge Sedan that I'm building, I'm putting 4 point seat belts and a 6 point cage (since it's a 4 door). Hotrods were built for speed right? So why not at least a rollbar. Nothing not period correct about that. Also, racecar's seatbelts with the lever buckle can look alot like old military belts if you get green or grey ones, so they can even look period correct too, while adding a ton of safety. Anyways, I don't care if I catch flack for my safety add-ons. With a 410 HP 383 MoPar in this thing, I'm not taking any chances.
Three years ago I began building my SBC tri-powered 26 T Roadster. On one of it's first "maiden flights", the throttle linkage "bound up" and stuck while in traffic. With the throttle wide open, I was flying like a bat-out-of-hell towards a half ton pickup waiting at a traffic light. My first instinct was to turn the key off. It worked! I'm now building another tri-powered SBC with a different throttle linkage arrangement;...it's going to have BIG HEAVY SPRINGS on both ends of the linkage! I'll never have throttle return springs that are too heavy! Better safe than sorry! I offer my condolences to those involved in the accidents described in this post.
We had a 54 Chevy in the shop with a Lokar throttle cable. There was no good ground on the engine to frame, and the throttle cable started smoking and got glowing red hot by the time I shut it down. Wil www.sakowskimotors.com My sincere condolences to all involved.
My thoughts, too. Your throttle has to be PERFECT. At idle. Driving. Or WOT. Nothing can stick, everything must work smooth as silk, and at full depression you get 100 percent WOT to ensure you get every last HP you have. Dual return springs and any other safety item you can think / is required by most sanctioning bodies can't be bad, either. Forgot to add... I have a friend who had the same problem in a T-bucket. Hit a dumpster and telephone pole while at a local car show. The car was just finished after years of working on it. In his excitement to get it going... overlooked some double-czechs. It all happened so fast he couldn't reach the ignition key before the impact. He guesses the motor torqing over caused a bind. Luckily, he wasn't injured. Another friend was partner in a 39 Ford coupe out west. It was rear-ended up to the rear window. The car was been rebuilt, but with 3-point seat belts. Since when is safe thinking not traditional? I think man has been doing it for a zillion years, eh? Back to the subject, I sure hope the survivor and their family is going to recover. It was an accident of course, but perhaps if the car had been a little better built / better tuned..... Gary Gary
I tried to build my 32 Ford with safety in mind, inertia fuel pump cutoff switch out of a Ford, double throttle return springs( 2 carbs 4 springs) 3 point NEW safety harness, working emergency brake, roll bar bolted to chasis and braced in the trunk. ( gl*** body no good pickup for shoulder harness, that's why I put in the roll bar. There was a bad crash at Columbus GG last summer 32 roadster. no one hurt but could of been bad. Guy was doing burnout for crowd. you have to think ahead . Hope the guy in CA. recovers OK. ago
Anyone have an update on how Kevin is doing? Can you guys even imagine what he has gone through? I sure hope he fully recovers and wish him the best. This is the first time I have seen this thread and I feel compelled to post a reply. I struggled with whether seat belts would "look correct" when building my '31 Sedan and '27 RPU. I put them in anway. This thread is a wake up call. We all need to engineer seat belts into our cars, regardless of if they "look" period correct or not. Lap belts at a minimum, securely fastened to the floor of the vehicle, with adequate reinforcement around the attachment points. Seat belts are especially critical on roadsters, especially pre 30's roadsters and even more so on T buckets. Because of the design of these cars your body center of gravity is high and because of their design if you hit something your p***enger will be ejected. Consider all the effort you put into your ride, putting in seat belts is really a piece of cake compared to most other alterations. It ain't rocket science.... put in seat belts! My 2 cents, maybe more like 10 cents. OK, I am done.
Punched the throttle to open all three carbs and when my center carb linkage pulled the other two open the center carb linkage slipped and rotated on the throttle shaft. When I let off on the gas my center carb would only return to about 3/4 throttle. First hit the brakes, then neutral, then killed the ignition with a flame burst out the center carb. Double return springs don't help ya there! Needless to say I ground a flat onto that throttle shaft so that wouldn't happen again. Scary ****.
My thoughts go out to both families. We take our rods for granted sometimes, but we have to admit that our cars are NOT as safe as a late model Taurus. We are dealing with materials and engineering that are decades old sometimes. It is our RESPONSIBILITY to double check our safety measures and update them as needed. I'm going to be installing three point seat belts in my pickup as soon as I can get the floor pans to make repairs. In the mean time, I drive like a grandma when I'm in this horrific Austin traffic. Simply tightening everything under your ride once a month or so can make all the difference. Just the other day, I was under my 62 C10 to chase down a noise and saw that the cross member where my torsion bars attach was loose. The nut and bolt holding it onto the frame had loosened by about 1/2" on the p***enger side. Had I not heard some other random noise, that may have popped off while doing 60MPH without my knowing anything was even wrong. Could have been pretty hairy. Let's all take a day or three to check out our rides. Accidents like this are horrible enough for the human factor, but we have to keep in mind also that there are scores of people out there trying to get our hobby outlawed. Things like this just give them ammunition. We owe it to ourselves, to our loved ones and even to the future of our hobby to be as safe as possible. Here's to a speedy and complete recovery.
The tremendous difference in tread width between the front and rear tires that buckets so often run, would have to create handling and braking issues. 3" wide Motorcycle tires on wires up front and 1 1/2 foot wide donuts on the back would seem to be way too much difference. At a cruise-in about 10 years ago a T-bucket running the narrow and wide tire combo was manuvering to park. The driver's foot slipped off the brake and got tangled up with the throttle. Tho the front wheels were cranked to the right all the way to the lock, the rears pushed the thing straight ahead into a parked car trailer with a racecar on it damaging the trailer slightly but, it nuked the bucket. Fortunatly no one was injured. I like big and littles but, the saw blade thin fronts and steamroller rears is a bad idea. And don't get me started on rods with no front brakes.
edwardlloyd suggested an automatic ignition shutdown when the brakes are applied. Maybe with fuel infection but not with carbs. I've set off a good few diner-ratling bangs as a teenager by shutting down the ignition on a running car and then cutting the key back on. I have never had it happen but I've heard these dumb-*** tricks can blow holes in your muffler and/or skyrocket the air cleaner. Besides which, under normal driving, you can easily get into a situation where you got to hotfoot right into the tank off the brake to get the hell out of the way of some *****. You don't need your ignition playing catch up. And besides all that, under no normal condition do I want my engine shut off while I'm rolling. I need the vacuum for my wolf whistle. And what the hell, does that mean he rolls to a stop with the engine shut down at every light? I must have misunderstood. Prayers with the injured and family of the deceased.
Our heartfelt condolences to both families. We are hoping the driver will survive and spend some of his time thereafter in preaching safety, safety, safety, to all the rodder and young people he meets. Seat belts are such a small expense. Every older car, rod or restored, stock or custom, should be equipped with them. Even if you believe they won't save you in a crash, they will darn sure keep you behind the wheel and in control so you have a chance to drive out of the problem and maybe save your life or someone else's. Better some chance than no chance.
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