RE: procon ten

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> Does it really do all of that, or merely pre-tension the seatbelts using
> the mass of the engine to pull on cables?
> 
The original Procon-ten system was based on using cables attached to the
drivetrain for safety purposes, but it did more than tension the seatbelts.
It was all done using cables and worked pretty much the way Dan described
... there was a cable to pull the steering wheel and dashboard away from the
driver in addition to the seatbelt tensioning.  I guess that once the
airbags were mandated they figured it would take care of protecting the
driver from the wheel & dash ...

I was pleasantly surprised to see that at least the seatbelt tensioning
mechanism survived and that the V8q has it ...