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.