> What can be done to make the safety level of driving a
> Midget at least bearable?
>
When she heard I had bought an "MG MIDGET," my mother-in-law asked
whether it had an airbag. "Not unless one is in the habit of driving
around with an inflatable beachball in one's lap," I replied.
> The main point that frightens me is the solid steel
> steering wheel a few inches from the driver's face. I was
> thinking of fitting some sort of crashpad on it much like
> a typical golf cart.
>
> As well, is there any chance of strengthening the doors
> for side-impact protection?
>
If safety were our prime directive, none of us would own LBC's. As for
the midget, there really isn't much room in the door to put
reinforcement. You can take out the roll-up windows and fill the
resultant space with an I-beam. Then you can run beams under the bottom
of the counsole connecting each side-wall to the transmission hump. Then
do the same thing behind the seats. Of course, you'll want to add a
competition roll-bar, and only drive the car with the hard-top in place.
The steering wheel will have to be replaced with something plastic and
collapsable. Then you can replace the shoulder (or lap --gasp) harness
with a five point restraint.
Finally, after all that work and financial investment, you'll be just
about as well off as you would have been had you put a beachball on your
lap (and just about as silly looking). But seriously, the only way to
significantly raise your level of safety is to drive cautiously. Of
course, if that were my goal, I could have bought a Volvo (yawn).
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* ____ *
* Konstantinos Hennighausen, J.D., B.S.A.E. |____| *
* Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics O \ / O *
* University of Minnesota //====|| *
* ('79 Midget) *
* *
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