[DeTomaso] Seatbelts

[Mike Drew]

Julian,

Right you are. I would never get into a Pantera with a cage unless it was padded. AND I would have to be wearing a helmet. Nothing more dangerous than a cage in a Pantera with no helmet. I rode in one once and my head kept knocking the tube on each bump. If we were in an accident the cage would have split my head open like a ripe melon. 

Last year a guy driving a Lotus 7 (Caterham) in England was in a very low-speed incident that didn’t even scratch the paint, and his ‘safety cage’ killed him on the spot. 

It’s like getting whacked in the head with a baseball bat. 

They certainly have their role in race cars, but the helmet’s main job is to protect you from the cage that’s protecting you. 

Mike

Sent from my iPad

> On Feb 28, 2020, at 10:12, Julian Kift <julian_kift at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>    A cage in a confined cockpit car like a Pantera is perilously close to
>   one's head and with no helmet the cage is just as likely to do more
>   harm than good in an accident. There is tragic story of GT40 owner who
>   died from head injuries sustained against a cage in a relatively minor
>   shunt, that should have been survivable without a cage.
> 
>   Julian
>     __________________________________________________________________
> 
>   From: DeTomaso <detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com> on behalf of
>   Garth Rodericks via DeTomaso <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
>   Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2020 4:56 PM
>   To: DeTomaso Mail List <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>; Jack DeRyke
>   <jderyke at aol.com>
>   Subject: [DeTomaso] Seatbelts
> 
>   Attached are few couple pics of "hearsay 1" - a couple from the day
>   before at Concorso I believe, then the day after...  You'd never know
>   it's the same car.
>   Although I heard it reported that the section of highway had some
>   rolling dips so to speak, which would unload the suspension; there was
>   also a cross-wind, so the car got blown right off the road when the
>   suspension unloaded at the super-illegal speeds.
>   The owner was quite fortunate.  Injuries were more than a broken wrist
>   and concussion, but not what you would expect after seeing the car.
>   Arguably, he would not have survived if he had a 4- or 5-point race
>   harness since the car had no roll-bar or cage.  The stock 3-point
>   harness allowed his body to get pushed over to the right as the roof
>   was collapsed onto the seatback.
>   Something to think about before putting racing harnesses in car that's
>   not equipped with a cage.
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