Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site rabbit.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!alice!rabbit!ark From: ark@rabbit.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: American v. Foreign Cars Message-ID: <3235@rabbit.UUCP> Date: Sat, 13-Oct-84 11:47:07 EDT Article-I.D.: rabbit.3235 Posted: Sat Oct 13 11:47:07 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 14-Oct-84 07:07:07 EDT References: <542@sjuvax.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 24 Anthony Rowley discusses wiping out a Datsun in his Firebird. Well, it is well known that the lighter a car is, the more likely its occupants are to be injured in a crash, even if it involves a car of similar weight. With a heavy Firebird running into a light Datsun, there's no contest. Incidentally, the amount of damage to a CAR during a crash may be a good indicator of the amount of damage to the occupants in a more severe crash -- but in the opposite direction! If a car is a perfectly rigid structure, like Rowley's Firebird, then it is going to transmit all that energy to its occupants. If it crumples, it is absorbing the energy. Of course, the passenger compartment had better not crumple. The ideal is a car with an extremely rigid cage around the occupants and an engine compartment and trunk that are carefully designed to crumple in a crash to absorb all that energy. Two cars come to mind whose makers claim they are built this way: Volvo and Mercedes. I'm sure there are many others.