Retro Car Museum

Safety
Drivers of classic cars must be especially careful. Classic cars often lack what are now regarded as basic safety features, such as seat belts, crumple zones or rollover protection. Vehicle handling characteristics (particularly steering and suspension) and brake performance are likely to be poorer than current standards, hence requiring greater road-awareness on the part of the driver. In certain parts of the US, using a classic car as a daily vehicle is strongly discouraged and in some places even prohibited.
It is recommended to retrofit classic cars with seat belts. Retro-styled (color-coded with chromed buckles) 2-point and 3-point seat belts are manufactured according to current safety standards. However, most classic car bodies were not designed to be fitted with safety belts and do not possess readily available reinforced mounting points, on the vehicle body, therefore it is very problematic to install such equipment properly: specific studies and calculations should be performed prior to any attempts. In many cases improper installation of seat belts would only make the car's safety worse as in case of an accident weak mounting points of the belts may break, or improperly selected position of 3-point belts may cause suffocation. Professionally fitted belts that mount to the vehicle's chassis are the safest option. Fitting modern tires is also a suggestion to improve the handling. However, most modern tires may be much wider and have a lower profile than those used on classic cars when new, therefore they may interfere with suspension elements and the tire walls may become damaged. The suspension of classic cars may not be suitable for radial ply tyres, having been designed for bias ply tyres. Narrow classic car wheels may have been designed for narrow high profile tubed tyres and not be suitable for modern tubless radial tires. Another problem with modern tyres on classic cars is that increased grip requires increased steering effort; many classic cars don't have power steering. Many major tyre companies have dedicated classic car tyre marketing departments and will be able to give expert technical advice to address all these issues.