Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Modern Hire car versus Morgan? No contest!

ABS and an airbag should probably be standard fit; even on a Morgan. The need for ABS could be mitigated though by a thorough understanding of what ABS does and doesn't do and instruction on how to drive without it. It certainly changes my driving, not having it, and my appreciation of the road surface I'm driving on. An airbag on the other hand is almost a necessity. No matter how good your appreciation of the road and your driving, someone can always drive into you.

I would have ABS over an Air Bag any day, if you need the Air Bag...its too late!

I was referring to those situations where you don't have time to even brake let alone for ABS to kick in!

I have made use of an airbag, when an old couple decided not to stop at the crossroads give way and drove across straight in front of me, I braked with ABS but it was to late.

If I had been in the Mog (like I was just days before) rather than my Audi, I would be dead.

Don't knock it until you've tried it!

When I first started working in the Fire and Rescue Service, we would routinely be cutting dead bodies out of cars that really didn’t look like they had undergone much impact at all but had no airbag fitted. 30 years later when I left you simply wouldn’t believe the wrecks people were being cut out of alive due to the safety features in modern cars. The biggest leap forward was when airbags became routinely fitted. They work.

That is a sobering thought and really reassuring to hear the effectiveness of them. I have to admit I would have chosen ABS as my No1 safety feature but not now.

That's interesting to read, Rich. What is your No1..?

I'm a big believer in air bags, most modern roadsters have 7: 2 front, 2 in each seat and one to protect the drivers lower legs. Which is why any impact that fires the bags means the car is scrap, the cost of replacing all the interior trim, seat covering and dash is so great.

One of the many reasons we changed from the Roadster to the Plus 8 was that it has airbags: ok, only 2, but 2 are better than none.
Morgan has offered airbags on the trads in some markets, but the steering wheel is so very ugly. They really need a good looking "period" airbag equipped wheel.
Side bags in the seats would also help.

I'd go for the airbags now Steve realising that it is a combination of safety factors contributing to the survivability though.

with concentration and awareness you can mitigate against the lack of abs, not totally of course. interestingly, with practice, you can actually outbrake older abs systems, though that's repeated attempts on an airfield and not in an actual emergency.

threads like this reassert the vulnerability we all face when driving these cars and the need to adapt one's driving. It's tiring though, especially when on A roads and highway. I do try to be extra vigilant and not relax on straight roads. we all know most other drivers have very little awareness once inside their cocoons so we have so drive extra defensively in our invisible low cars. accidents can happen very quickly and we need to be ahead of the situation as we don't have large crumple zones or multiple airbags.