But I have an airbag in my stock one. I know it is illegal to remove an airbag, but are there any stipulations surrounding this law, such as the year of the car maybe?

 

The only stipulation would be that during the production, airbags were not installed in the car. Otherwise it's illegal as hell.

 

Yes, illegal, but seriously who would think twice about it?

 

Fuck. So I guess I would have to get the hook-up on an inspection eh?

 

Or just put your old wheel back on once a year.

 

An airbag in conjunction with a seatbelt WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE.

Is this a track car?

 

I really really really (am I making my point) want a sparco racing wheel in my car. But, the car is not a full out track car and if I were to get in a bad wreck the airbag would be nice on the street. The other option is to put the Sparco wheel in and drive around w/ my harnesses and neck roll on all the time

Wait my '87 Toyota beater truck doesn't have any airbags or ABS and I drive that all the time. Shit where's my credit card

 

I believe there are circumstances that allow you to disable the airbag but not remove it, albeit that isn't terribly helpful in this case. The only way to stick to the letter of the law is to get an aftermarket steering wheel with an airbag, which generally aren't all that much better than stock ones.

However, from my brief searching into the matter most of the (Federal) law seems to be aimed at businesses removing airbags. I'm not entirely sure what the law is for someone removing their own airbag. In some states it's illegal for anyone to remove an airbag, and knowing VA's great laws regarding aftermarket auto parts I'd have to imagine it was the same.

 

That's a generalization. In some (maybe most?) situations it won't hurt anything, but there are certainly cases of people getting killed because of an airbag.

I'm of the belief that wearing a seatbelt alone is more than adaquate and the benefits of having an airbag don't outweigh the risks as long as you always buckle up. I'd love to see some data (where seatbelt + airbag did better than a seatbelt only) to the contrary though. That's not even taking into consideration a more advanced restraint system.

 

^ I'm installing the foam-set safety system from Demolition Man