A safety sidebar (NAC) (was: rollovers)

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Bearing in mind the recent discussions of roll-bars and seat belts, (and,
earlier, crush-zones, etc)it was interesting to read in the current (November)
Road & Track about Dan Gurney and his Eagle Westlake, the second (after Jimmy
Murphy and his Duesenberg in 1921) American driver in an American car to win a
GP race, at Spa in 1967. The safety-discussions connection is that the car did
not have a seatbelt; Gurney, like some other drivers of the era, preferred to
take his chances of being thrown clear in the event of an accident, prodded
further in this case by the flammability of the magnesium monococque. "It
wouldn't help your legs," he is quoted, "but at least you wouldn't be singed
quite as much." Next paragraph: "More than ever,crashing became 'one of those
things you just don't do.'"

Not that today's commuters have as much choice, or as much reason to have
faith in their peers on the freeway. I'll stick with belts, thank you, AND at
very least a tin-topped and crushable-ended 105 box. Spiderpeople are welcome
to their chances.

It sure was a pretty car, though; a tiny, slender, lovingly detailed siluro
without a shred of ground-effects aerodynamics. A very different age, long
gone, still remembered.

John H.
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