List--The item on air bags and full face helmets got me to thinking. During
Speedweek this year I was east of the pits taking photos when a roadster came
off the long course with the driver standing up while the car was still
rolling. Seemed strange and when the safety crews showed up it was obvious he
had been hurt. I later read that he had hit a mile marker and some of the
debris got to his helmet causing some nasty lacerations from the helmet being
(I assume) forced up and back against his head. Another example of our
present helmet technology being weak in the area of frontal impacts.
I'm currently working on the roll cage for my street roadster and thought it
might be a good idea to build in a hoop out of roll bar tube that would act
like a rear support for the back part of a windshield frame and grab bar for
getting in and out. I'd make a separate surrounding frame for the windshield
bolted through the body skin so as to be removable to allow the body to be
taken off. With a formed polycarbonate windshield in front of it it might
even add some streamlining. Would make the car look different from the
current style of street roadster and may even be somewhat controversial. We
have some good reasons to believe that this style of windshield added some
streamlining to Doug King's modified roadster.
Dan Warner, JD Tone and others--What do you think of this?
Ed Weldon
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