Which steering wheel is safer

L

Lewis Stephens

Member
Hi all, here's one out of left field. We all know that the P6 was one of, if not the first, cars in which safety was designed into the car. ( Try telling Volvo owners that over here !!! ). For example the P6 had, in effect, a collapsible steering wheel column in 1963. In Australia these were not compulsory for new cars until 1970. Locally, GM had them in '68, Ford in '69 and Chrysler in '70. Collapsible column's, but what about the actual steering wheel ?

My question is, might the original bakelite ( plastic ) steering wheel be safer in an accident than the alternative 17" wood affect wheel or the 16" PAS steering wheel that has two metal ( alloy ? ) spokes. I'm thinking of the ability of the wheel to collapse without metal getting in the way.

I don't know the answer, interested in opinions.?

Lewis
 
The 16" leather covered PAS steering wheel is by far the easier to bend, so potentially it should be the safest of the 3.
 
From personal experience, the only way you’d be bending the wheel in a P6 crash would be if you don't have your seatbelt on and get flung against the dash. So there’s that. But I second Demetris, the fancy wheels are easier to bend.

Yours
Vern
 
I wonder if the seatbelt would prevent a driver from contacting the steering wheel in an minor accident anyway ?
If the accident was severe enough for the driver to contact the steering wheel or centre of the column I would think that the issue of the wheel collapsing would be far outweighed by the issue of deformation of the frontal structure of the car and it's intrusion into the passenger compartment.
If you were too worried about accident survivability then you would never drive an old car.
 
I don't think it's the body hitting the wheel that will bend it, it will be the tensed arms doing it.
 
I am always surprised how far belts will stretch and of course most people don't have belts tight enough especially static ones. That's why most new cars now have belt pre-tensioners that go off with/just before, the airbags , to pull you tightly into the seat
 
cobraboy said:
I wonder if the seatbelt would prevent a driver from contacting the steering wheel in an minor accident anyway ?
If the accident was severe enough for the driver to contact the steering wheel or centre of the column I would think that the issue of the wheel collapsing would be far outweighed by the issue of deformation of the frontal structure of the car and it's intrusion into the passenger compartment.
If you were too worried about accident survivability then you would never drive an old car.
Click to expand...
It does. Again from personal experience.

The no seatbelt one was me (drunk — not proud of it, but it was a long time ago now) T boning a parked van when I ran the car straight on. It was a 68 TC. About a 45 mph collision, the nose was pushed back to behind where the front wheels should be. The steering wheel was bent, and I must have hit the wheel whit my chest as there was a pretty big bulge in the windscreen from my head.

And the with seatbelt crash was a friend in the next TC, who had a half lap headon with a driver who crossed the centreline, nothing Mike could do. That one was at highway speeds and pretty much cleaned the LF corner of the car away, the LF suspension was completely gone. But tyhe drivers door still opened and closed, and the cockpit was completely intact.

Yours
Vern
 
Good to know that there were no injuries.
My 289 Cobra replica has a solid column, GRP shell, no side impact protection, no protection from a front wheel entering footwell, no roll over protection, etc etc.
The thought of dying in it does not figure in the ownership, I have had 30 years of pure enjoyment with the car, whatever will be, will be.

Thinking about it, there are lots of MG/Rover bits in it, so it should be as safe as hell :)
 
The collapible collumns are supposed to stop the pointy bit at the end going through your chest as most steering wheel bosses were of aluminium or similar soft material. The forward mounted steering boxes would shove the column rearward on impact...The P6 steering ends just in front of the firewall so there is lots more stuff to get moved before the steering box does anything naughty.
 
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