When there were still belt whips
02/24/2019
Classic car drivers are of course used to these things, but modern (and young) drivers have often never come into contact with them, as the seat belt whips have been gone for decades. In the 1970s, the Mercedes W123 series was one of the first to mount the seatbelt buckle directly on the seat, thus ensuring that the seatbelt was always in the same position, regardless of whether the seat was pushed forward or backward.
However, the more or less long belt whips were still in use until the 1980s in many cars whose seat frames were not designed for mounting the belt directly on the seat.
Buckling up with one hand was not always easy due to the sometimes unruly nature of the belt whips and sometimes the things were hidden between the cardan tunnel and the seat. However, the loose belt ends that were common before the development of automatic belts were even more impractical.
Incidentally, these belt whips were not standardized; depending on the manufacturer, for example, the button for opening was attached in different places and for a while there were also locks that worked according to the "Liv-Flap" principle, i.e. did not require a tab on the belt (see earlier short article).
By the way, could you guess which cars the two sample illustrations (with seat) are from? They are a Fiat X1/9 from 1979 (top) and a Ford Capri from 1977 (bottom).
