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The Jensen 541S was quite a star of the 1960  London Motor Show. As compared with its 541R predecessor, it was four inches wider, lacked the familiar adjustable front air flap and featured a limited-slip differential and Dunlop disc brakes fore and aft. Furthermore, its specification was positively lavish, including a radio – and, for the first time on a British car, seat belts.  

Two years earlier Saab fitted their 750GT with seat belts as standard equipment and Volvo patented the 3-point design. In the UK, a motorist could already fit after-market belts – as early as 1957 Kenning would sell you their Type D “Swaystop” (in tartan) for just 30 shillings. The 541S emphasised a theme of “safety”, as its standard equipment also included a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit.  

Such a Grand Tourer was hardly within reach of the average motorist but by 1961 many popular family saloons began to feature bolt-points for belts. In 1962 all cars and light vans used by H M Government were so-equipped, but on the 24^th May of that year The Guardian noted ‘Whereas in Sweden about 60 per cent of all cars are fitted with safety belts, in Britain the proportion must be less than one in ten’.

And the first legal requirement relating to seat belts in the UK came into force with the passing of the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1966, which required anchorage points in all new vehicles. Subsequent amendments included the fitting of three-point belts in 1967 and, by the following year, their retro-fitting to post-1965 cars.

However, the wearing of front belts would not be obligatory until 1^st January 1983, and before then, the government relied on official safety campaigns. As early as 1959 Gordon Wilkins wrote in The Tatler ‘the facts are known; we need a propaganda effort to make vehicle-users act on them, similar to that which persuaded motor cyclists to use crash helmets’.

One challenge facing the Ministry of Transport and the Central Office of Information was those drivers who regarded themselves as the Stirling Moss of Acacia Avenue, To such types, wearing a belt was “unmanly”, and the February 1964 edition of Motor Sport featured this gem from the Editor:

 

 

I do not deny that lives and limbs have been preserved by safety-belts. But I do not use them in my car for the same reason that I do not take a parachute when I fly in a private or commercial aeroplane. Nor do I strap myself in bed, stand up with my arms outstretched in a railway carriage or sit with a Pyrene in my lap in front of the fire.

This gentlemen also added, in Alan Clark-like tones, ‘N.B. – I do believe in seat belts for sleepy passengers and all girl-friends’.

From the late 1960s through to the early 1980s the propaganda films strove to make belt wearing a standard part of everyday motoring  -

They also emphasised the consequences of not doing so -

By the late 1970s the campaigns were increasingly graphic, notably the infamous “Beware of The Blunders” series -

And the Jensen stand at Earls Court six decades ago was a harbinger of a new form of motoring. Even if it annoyed drivers who complained in this genuine 1973-vintage letter that  ‘My job necessitates getting in and out of a car anything up to thirty times a day . . . How long would it take me to wear a buckle out—not to mention my temper and fingernails’.

Why choose Lancaster Insurance?

Here at Lancaster, we love classic cars as much as you do and we understand what it takes to protect them for future generations.

We have links with some of the top classic car clubs around the country and some of our policies even offer discounts of up to 25% for club members.

Other benefits of classic car insurance through Lancaster can include:

• Historic rally cover
• Static show cover
• Limit mileage discounts
• Choice of repairer
• 24-hour claims helpline

Give your classic the protection it deserves and get a quote for your classic today.