I see the word 'safe' thrown around a lot in here, especially within the rat rod threads. What I want to know is what does safe really mean? Very few street rods are safe.

Mostly what I see is that a safe car has good brakes, suspension, and a floor board. Less often but also required I would think is a sound chassis.

My car will posses all these features but it is not safe. It has way too much engine in a way too light chassis and glass body. The steel reinforcement inside the body will not protect the passengers very much, if at all. It does not have a roll cage and basically if I was ever T-boned in it or flipped it I would likely not survive. Fortunately I know this so I am planning to be very defensive and conservative with the throttle in general.

I would therfore submit that any old school hot rod/street rod/rat rod out there without a full crash roll cage is not 'safe'.

Basically these are not safe cars by modern standards, period. Any opinions?