It's just so...dangerous out there!
Posted on 12/06/2017 7:49:25 PM PST by sparklite2
Unpadded metal surfaces, blunt knobs and rods, steering columns that impale—and seatbelts weren’t even on the options list. We may think highly of the 1955 Chevrolet, but like all cars of the era, it didn’t think much of its passengers; here we use it as a lens through which to view the state of automobile safety of the time. Yes, 62 years later, things have become much safer.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.caranddriver.com ...
That’s right.
A lawn mower? In February of 1968 I came home on two weeks’ leave after finishing boot camp and a friend of my father’s let me use his 1961 XKE. We picked it up at his sister’s restaurant and I still remember getting in, adjusting the seat, turning on the key to activate the electric fuel pump for five or six clicks and then punching the starter button on the dash. I’ve driven loads of Porsches, a few Ferraris, Triumphs, MG’s, Fiats, Alfas and ridden Harleys, Triumphs, BSA’s, Enfields, Bultacos but never experience such a sweet set of sounds and vibrations as I got from that Jag inline six. I don’t think I even bothered with the radio for the two weeks.
My dad made a car seat for the second baby who got to sit in the front seat. It was like the top half of a high chair and would not pass any federal safety standards. But that way it would free up mom’s arms so she could still hold a baby and the next bigger kid sat in dad’s homemade carseat. If the car stopped suddenly both mom and dad did a “stop short” on the kid in the car seat. Meanwhile, four to five kids could sit in the back. Without seat belts or car seats or booster seats. Whew.
British Leyland. HA! I had an MG midget. Never wore the seatbelt. I wanted to be thrown clear. :-)
It's just so...dangerous out there!
Thanks for posting that. It was the first thing I thought of when the OP made that ridiculous comment.
this magazine is a shill. It is just pushing the “government is good” meme.
As the youngest of 8 children, I was not entitled to sit in the front or backseat. My designated location was laying above the backseat!
Lol. I can relate to that.
Volvo actually was the innovator of safety glass in cars back in the 20’s. Even though they were low speed collisions, the broken glass was the main cause of serious injury.
LOLOL!
Well, dickwad, I couldn’t make the comment otherwise, could I?
No, they did not look alike. In 1955, there were still plenty of jalopies around and 1955 was a break in styling. A Ford didn’t look like a Buick. Today’s American cars have to meet such stringent requirements, anything other than cookie-cutter probably fails at something. When the new models came out yearly, it was an eventful time. Now, nothing.
That thing is so ugly it must be Kia’s grandpa.
Part of the problem back then was those of us too young to afford much else, would get balding tires recapped rather than buy new. Recaps ‘unwound’ with some regularity. If we had blackwalls and wanted whitewalls, you bought white plastic ‘donuts’ that fit around the rim.
Being someone who has had two flats in the last three years, I take issue with those saying you don’t see people with flats anymore. You can see from the drivers running on three good tires and what passes for a spare tire nowadays that there are plenty of flats to be had.
The first time so drove to school was in my dad’s 70 Eldorado. I was 13 and in 7th grade. Dad owned a mechanics shop about a block away and he would let me drive to school and then he would drive from there to the shop.
But it will still make you pucker your butt cheeks when it’s icy and foggy! Same with Rattlesnake grade except the fear factor goes by 10!
You were driving at 13? Yikes.
The car might survive but you would be jelly.
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