Norm Peterson

A 4-point actually gets a bit iffy from an overall safety standpoint unless you have a roll bar (which in turn tends to make wearing a helmet a good idea).

The thinking is that a 3-point will allow you to slide sort of sideways during a rollover incident while a 4-point will not. Later cars with sturdier passenger cell structure are somewhat better at resisting roof deflection than anything produced in the 1960's.

I wear a chest strap while autocrossing in my (uncaged, no roll bar) 1995 Mazda 626. I will not wear it while driving on the highway.


Norm

1slow67

I was going to use my coupe for autocross, but mom won't let me . She won't sign the form that will allow me to.

Canary94GT

I just have a feeling that if you get in such a severe car crash in one of these cars that the steering column detaches and spears you, you will most likely have died from something else anyways, like hitting your head on the steering wheel.

In his '66 289, about 30 years ago and before I was born, my Dad was going around a corner and lost traction at about 40mph, and crashed head on with a truck. The Mustang went right under the truck and was totalled, but he, my mom, and others in the car were barely scathed. He was able to open both doors.

I'd really like to see some old crash tests done with one of these cars. I think besides having no air bags, they'd fare pretty well.

THUMPIN455

What causes most accidents? Drivers. Volvos are safe cars, and from what I have seen is people drive like idiots in them far too often because they know they are safe, but what about the guy they hit? Regardless of what they drive, people here in the states are talking on the cell phone, putting on makeup, typing on the laptop (saw a guy on a laptop on a motorcycle in Milwaukee in 5 pm traffic) and generally not paying attention. They dont look, they arent aware, they have no clue what is going on around them.

Having a safe car gives you complacency, you lose the awareness you need, you arent thinking about the task at hand, driving. When you drive an old car you rebuilt from a pile of rust, and you know it doesnt have airbags, onstar, or a shoulder belt, heck before 67 seatbelts were not required equipment, and you can easily die in that old car you pay attention. Not only because you can get killed, but because you have spent so much time working on it and getting it where you want it that you dont want some moron on a cell phone eating a big mac to run into you.

I have driven in Germany, Belgium, France, Britain, Italy, Denmark, Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and in the USA. The least attentive drivers are here in the USA. The best are in Germany and Belgium. I drove through a 3 lane roundabout in Kuwait City in a suburban four wide with Kuwaiti drivers and it wasnt nearly as nerve racking as driving in any city in the US, because they were all watching what was going on. Lines on the road, and traffic signs are suggestions in Kuwait, even the direction on either side of the road you travel is open to interpretation.

Watch out for the others when you are driving, pay attention to what is going on around you, make it a habit to watch everyone and know where all the other cars are. You will be able to tell when that moron ahead of you is going to try to merge right as you get to the intersection. Consider everyone around you as a moron trying to kill you, because for the most part that is what it actually is. They are concerned only with themselves so you need to be watchful of what goes on around you. You will live much longer and get to enjoy your cars rather than have some barely conscious tool bag destroy one for you.

I've been driving on public roads since I was 10 moving farm vehicles until 15 when I could drive to school. I am now 40 and have never wrecked a vehicle even though I have had well over two hundred near misses because I wasnt seen in my obnoxiously loud and very obvious vehicles. Expecting the idiots around me to do the stupid thing they are about to do has kept me from getting into accidents. Every time I was in a car that got wrecked I was the passenger, and usually the only one who got hurt. I dont trust anyone on the road, you shouldnt either.

remicks

I agree with that Thumpin. Germany has definitely been the best place I have seen for driving. When first driving in Qatar though it seemed like a zoo at first, like you said 4 wide in a 3 lane roundabout. When I got used to it it wasn't so bad because everybody knew what was going on around them, no one on cell phones or junk like that.

4reboy

I believe mustangs mid-1968 and up all had shoulder restraints... at least the coupes/fastbacks did. Even though they use two separate buckles to do it I feel very safe in it.

I still want to upgrade to retractable 3 points though, just more convenient and I don't have to give a 2-minute lesson on how to put on the seat belts for every new person that comes in my car.

tx65coupe

Those are the 3 point belts that I was talking about. They are too restrictive to movement. You can't move when your using them. They came out in 68, I thought it was 69?

HGC

And now...story number two. In 1980 I headed down an expressway ramp at around 60 MPH. Came around a slight curve on which the view was obstructed and met a fully loaded gravel dump truck which was (incredibly) backing up the ramp. Hit the left side rear duals so hard the back bumper on my car actually came foward and dented the quarters. Not only stopped the truck but pushed him 10 feet foward. My 78 Cutlass was equipped with a lap belt and shoulder belt combo which I was wearing snugly (did not have to wear them at the time). I spent one night in the hospital as a precaution and walked out the next day. Someplace I have a photo the hospital took the next morning which showed the very clear imprint of the lap belt across my hips and a diagonal bruise running from my left shoulder down to my right hip where the shoulder harness held me in place. The doctors would normally have expected a broken collarbone from the shoulder harness but said (this really pissed them off) that a full pack of cigarettes in my shirt pocket gave just enough extra padding to prevent that.
So, use a shoulder harness and take up smoking and you can pretty much walk away from anything.

racin66coupe

wow HGC

so, ironically, ciggaretts possibly saved your life? lol

Norm Peterson

That's more or less the point of having them at all.

Any slack in the belt will allow your upper body to accelerate forward until the slack has been taken up. That means that when you do contact the shoulder belt, it's with some momentum, and the contact itself happens with some impact. IOW, you hit the belt harder (and stretch it further). Simple physics. On my 1979 Malibu, the mechanism that allowed slack in the driver side 3-point belt broke in a manner that left it incapable of giving slack. I left it broken (and figured out how to "break" the passenger side mechanism the same way).

I realize that being strapped in more rigidly or with a belt that does not give up slack easily can make it difficult (or in some cases impossible) to reach everything that there's a legitimate need to reach while driving. But a lot of that is poor interior design as far as function is concerned.

As far as I'm concerned, belts that allow little or no slack is still only a minor irritation. FWIW, you really do have much better control over the car when you aren't using the steering wheel as something to hold yourself in the seat with. Especially if your seats are either vinyl or leather.


Norm