Found this, which comports with my recollection:
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 gave
regulators
until January 31, 1967 to develop federal motor vehicle
safety standards that
were practical, stated in objective terms, and met
the need for motor vehicle
safety. In addition, the initial federal
standards were required to be based
on existing safety standards, such
as those developed by the Society of
Automotive Engineers. New and
revised federal standards (that did not need to
be based on existing
standards) were required by January 31, 1968. Violators
of the standards
were subject to a $1,000 civil penalty for each offense, up
to a
maximum of $400,000 for a related series of violations (the maximum
penalty was increased to $800,000 in 1974).
Regulators issued twenty standards
for passenger cars by the initial
deadline, including rules requiring
installation of seat belts for all
occupants, impact-absorbing steering
columns, padded dashboards, safety
glass, and dual braking systems.
It was the NTMVSA that sounded the death knell for the big Healey. Attempts
were made to bring the car into compliance (e.g. removal of the knock-off ears
so that innocent pedestrians wouldn't be sliced to ribbons) but it just wasn't
cost effective to do bumper and steering column mods. Of course, that may
have been a BL smoke screen as the Healey at that point was already past being
long in the tooth and BL probably wanted to concentrate on federalizing the
MGB and the "Healey replacement" MGC.
Rick
Follow My Nasty Boy Build: http://tinyurl.com/yj52fwo
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