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Any of you guys actually ever been in a rollover? I mean there are a lot of things you can guess about that might happen, plenty of testing with dummies, and even some video but do you really know what happens? Mainly you bounce a lot and stuff goes flying everywhere in impossible directions. That jellybean you dropped under the seat might wind up in your nose for instance. If you are at all conscious when all of this is going on, (and geez, let's hope so) unless you simply panicked at the thought of going one-on-one with the pavement and lost all body function you are NOT going to behave like a crash test dummy. More likely you will have the wheel and maybe the shifter in a death grip. You will see what is happening at least the first time around and fight like hell to get away from it. The second or third time around it's more like a repeating pattern, and in those circumstances you surely hope you can be a quick study. Does that mean you'll avoid hitting your head? Maybe if it doesn't knock you out the first time, or the roof doesn't come in on you. Which can happen. Let's not forget that the motto: "Safety Fast" means taking every possible conceivable action to avoid the accident and that applies inside the car as well as outside. Once control is irrecoverably lost your focus has to shift. It's all about survival, and that improves your odds more than all the padding you can stuff into the car.

But there is this. The windshield on a LBC and especially an MG is worth almost exactly nothing in a rollover. Almost because it may slightly delay the car landing on your head. What you choose to do about that is up to you. I prefer not to drive on that part of the car, but I can see where it could happen. Still, I would much prefer my rollovers to be in something large and protective like an International Travelall. So if I thought a rollover was likely to be a significant part of my future, I guess I'd have to either put a cage in the B or only drive it in parades. And while I do agree that cages and helmets go together remarkably well, It seems pretty unlikely to me that street driving is going to result in my car hitting something so hard that my head goes towards the roll bar at the equivalent of light speed. Then again I never thought a coal truck would run me off the road at 70mph either.

I guess the point is that you have to decide for yourself. Unless you take it on the track and then we have sanctioning bodies taking over some of the choices. I don't like bumping my head though so if a bar is there, I'd think a pool noodle would be the bare minimum. Shirley, there has to be something better. Shirley? Hello?

Jim

Never been in a rollover, thanks, and would prefer not to be. I saw this video earlier and it really illustrates how much you'll move around in a rollover. Note how far back the driver's head extends, not to mention his arms flailing around without arm restraints and how nasty the passenger belts can be as well:



Bottom line, the single hoop must have helped or he just got lucky as he walked away.

[www.youtube.com]

If the rollbar never touches the ground, did it do anything to help?

I agree. I didn't see the roll bar come in contact with the ground in either of the videos, maybe it was hidden by the dust in the Cobra video. The GT did roll off the top corner of the B pillar a couple times though.

My post was not meant as a comment on roll bars one way or the other - I just thought it was interesting since we were talking about roll overs.

Not to get too Zapruder-filmy, but it looks like the side of the bar is touching the ground at 1:07-1:08 and keeps the car sliding on its side rather than rolling over. My point was how much the body flails around in a rollover. I guess the real question here is whether this driver walked away because of his safety equipment or because he got really lucky. He was doing 135 which is going to put a lot more energy into a crash than a street crash should do. I remember reading some of the '50s era racers used to mount a grab handle on the passenger floor and dive for it in the event of a crash. Wonder how you perform the drills for that move to make it part of muscle memory?

I was going to bring up the grab handle thing. It would be plausable with 3 point seat belts and would address the flailing arms but imagine what stress that would put on the spine.

Does a real driver aim the camera at himself vs at the gauges & track ahead?

Carl and clan, "GoPro-Go Forward". That is the plan with the Huffaker TR8, in april. As for the real driver part, we'll have to wait and see. Cheers, roverman.

Another one upside-down!

[www.youtube.com]

Roll bar didn't help Steve Prefontaine.

[www.flickr.com]

There was a stunt driver who used bungee cords to pull him into the passenger's side floorboard.

Jim

Prefontaine's "rollbar". Really? According to news reports he was drunk and wasn't wearing his seat belt.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2012 10:10PM by HealeyRick.

Not much of a roll bar. Read my link, though.