Every time I wander out to the garage to try to make a little time to work on my Chenowth project, I find myself looking sideways at the steering column that the sand rail came with. Frankly, "steering column" is a glorified term for what's just a long rusty bar of steel between the steering box and the steering wheel. No sections designed to collapse in a crash, just one support keeping it place, not even a universal joint in the system. As with pretty much any car built before 1968, there's a high likelihood of that column spearing right through my chest if I'm ever in a front-end collision once I get the car on the road. So you betcha I'm thinking about ways to adapt a collapsible column to the car once I get to that end of it.

On a car like this -- one for which there is no such thing as "factory correct" -- it's just another modification to add to the list. But for restorers of cars built prior to the implementation of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and prior to the widespread adoption of collapsible columns, such a modification proves a dilemma: Make your car significantly safer to drive or preserve its original and unsafe components?

Not a month goes by without us hearing about another member of the collector car community dying or sustaining significant injuries in a crash in one of their old cars. Crashes happen, no matter how prepared we think we are, and no matter how accomplished a driver we believe ourselves to be. The only way to avoid all chance of a crash in an old car is to trailer it everywhere and never put gasoline in the tank. We accept some measure of risk every time we drive our old cars, just as we do every time we drive our new cars, so it should only be natural to mitigate that risk as much as possible, right? If not for yourself than for the friends and family members who ride along with you.

I'm not arguing that every old car should be re-engineered to incorporate safety cells and crumple zones and airbags. But I am arguing that judges -- whether those with boater hats and clipboards or those self-appointed arbiters of authenticity -- should keep their red pens and social media commentary to themselves anytime they see that a car owner has installed seat belts, improved lighting, fuel tank rollover valves, non-rigid steering columns, dual-circuit brakes or any other easily implemented safety device in their otherwise stock older vehicle. Some club-level judging standards already allow for certain safety items. Some even require fire extinguishers beside vehicles when displaying them. The more that allow and even encourage non-stock safety equipment, the less hesitation the average enthusiast who enjoys a trip around the block every now and then will have about installing such equipment.

What say you? Does your club permit non-stock safety items without points penalties? What safety equipment have you installed on your otherwise stock vehicle? Should there be no exceptions for anything not to original specifications? Or did you just bypass this dilemma altogether by purchasing a Volvo? Let us know in the comments below.