Not Ranked
Ernie,
I guess I'm lost on what exactly it is you're trying to establish. It's one thing to say that you choose to drive your car on the track and accept the risk (by the way, as a lawyer, I've always been impressed by how many people, and their estates, were supposedly willing to "accept the risk" until they got hurt or worse, then all of a sudden everyone got sued and tried to settle), but quite another to note there are modern convertibles without rollbars, as if that somehow puts the safety of a Cobra with a single hoop in a similar ballpark with them. It doesn't. Look at the rake of most modern convertibles' windshield frames and the thickness of those pillars--it's beyond dispute that the product liability experts decided some time ago that the windshield frames/A pillars had to be designed to provide some rollover protection for the driver and passenger. Adding "rollbars," such as those on the Boxter or BMW Z3-4, doesn't mean that the windshield frames somehow got weaker, it means that they went even further to protect the occupants. Far better protection (by virtue of all of the modern design features referred to in the waiver I quoted above) than a Cobra with a hoop bar.
I do agree with you that each of us has to make up his own mind as to what level of risk he is willing to accept. Make no mistake about it, however, if these incidents continue we'll all suffer.
TT
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