[TR] Steering idea

[Randall]

> Could somebody like Joe Alexander possibly make some sort of
> 'collapsable-on-impact' steering union for TR3's?

Warning : this is kind of explicit.  If you are squeamish or think you are
going to live forever, perhaps you'd best not read it.

Honestly, Paul, I don't believe it would do anything to improve the driver's
safety in a crash.  The front end of the column is quite effectively
protected by the frame, which is by far the most solid component of the
whole car.  A crash severe enough to push the column back into your
chest/stomach is also going to fold the car in half right through the
passenger compartment.  Plus, the frame/column are down so low to the ground
that they are unlikely to be what stops the car, unless you manage to go
head-first into a retaining wall or something.

You'd get far more benefit, IMO, from a 6 or 8-point roll cage with braces
through the doors.  A really clever person might even be able to keep the
doors functional; but it would still be quite a stretch to call the result a
"TR3".

I've parted out several TR3 wrecks over the years, plus been in a few
myself.  (Most recently, I was the Oreo filling in a 4-car chain collision
that shortened my TR3A by almost 2 feet.)  When the floor comes up and hits
the dash, it doesn't much matter what the steering wheel does.  And even in
the really bad wrecks, I've never seen the control head mashed against the
driver's chest.

Randall