Allen, Steve, Brian & others...
I can assure you from my own experience, which precipitated my first
"restoration" of my car... roll bars can do damage.
In my case, I was patiently waiting for traffic to clear, stopped in a
left turn lane. A full sized, borrowed pickup travelling at about 35 mph
with eleven mostly DUI adults in it, including a DUI, un-licensed,
un-insured driver with no intention of turning left, caught the right
rear corner of my TR4.
I was securely strapped in with 3-point harness. Still, the seat broke
loose from the mounting tracks (recommend beefing up that hardware,
grade 8 stuff, larger washers), I broke the steering wheel, and
rebounded into the bolt on the rollbar which mounted the shoulder belt
of the harness. Fortunately, I'm am of Scottish heritage & pretty hard
headed. But, my only serious injury was a nasty cut from the rollbar &
bolt.
Pad those rollbars and make sure nothing is protruding anywhere you
"might" hit the bar. If your car has low seats, take a cue from the SCCA
and install a headrest on the bar. "Street" bars are more for show and
likely of limited value in the event of an actual rollover, anyway.
Better than nothing, I suppose. Also, seat braces are becoming the rule
in race cars, these days.
Another thing that scared me in this accident was that the RH bracket
for the gas tank broke loose and punched a neat hole through the side of
the tank. Luck was with me, as the tank was nearly empty, there was no
spark and no fuel spilled. Turned out the mounting bolt sheared off as
the inner fender collapsed inward. I replaced with better quality
hardware, hoping the bracket would crumple if this every happened again.
Hmmmm, good case for a fuel cell, huh?
Despite extensive repairs, the car's frame has never been quite right
and is presently being replaced.
I want to add that more "modern" cars are designed to crumple and
absorb impact, as you have noted. TR's and most pre-80's cars don't do
that! (I had a deja vu experience in a VW Scirroco some years later,
folded like an accordian between two full size vans. Totalled the car,
bruised me.)
The only other thing I can think of which might have helped would have
been brighter tail lights on my car (it was dusk) and possibly a
high-mounted "third" brake light.
Oh, also drive defensively, designate a driver if you are imbibing and
install 12" I-beams for bumpers! ;-)
Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif.
'62 TR4 CT17602L
O'Neil-Hess wrote:
>
> >I'm told you are
> >more likely to be injured by banging your head into the bar during >an
> >accident.
>
> I remember a news story in which it was determined that the person was
> indeed killed by their head smashing into the roll bar - this was a Jeep CJ
> or some kind of Jeep with a factory roll bar.
>
> Allen Hess
--
MZ
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